Elevating Equity: Cultivating Learning Pathways for Adult Learners to Create a School-wide Equitable Grading Policy

Yasmeen Muhammad-Leonard • Cahn Fellow 2020

This paper describes my journey toward an equitable grading system. The journey began seeking an answer to the question, How can teams-and the people who compose them- grow together and forward toward more equitable action and understanding? Applying Dr. Eleanor Drago-Severson’s constructive developmental theory and the four pillar practices of adult growth, this narrative will detail the path towards building the internal capacity of educators to create an equitable school-wide grading policy. The focus of this work will acknowledge and make visible the struggles of building the internal capacity of adult learners and the need to create multiple pathways that value their developmental orientations to foster conditions for change. With this in mind, the lessons learned throughout the pandemic allowed me to leverage teaming, leadership roles, and collegial inquiry to address the implicit biases held by educators around grading practices. These biases surfaced through our learning lab, which focused on Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. Furthermore, it allowed me to expand the learning continuum for my team to make meaningful connections to the equitable grading pillars of practice: accuracy, bias resistance, and motivation. Most importantly, it chronicles the ebbs and flows in creating conditions that enhance learning and growth for adults while simultaneously learning as a Cahn Fellow alongside the team. As a result of the knowledge learned throughout the Cahn Fellows Program, I will display the skills and tools taken from our monthly sessions to disrupt inequitable grading practices and produce inclusive learning communities that ensure every student achieves.