In June of 2023, CRLS Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) teachers learned that they were required to grade their classes objectively, based not on studentship or effort but on content knowledge. In theory, the result was that CRLS educators would be unified in the switch toward Grading for Equity (GFE) policies, which propose radical solutions toward closing the academic achievement gap. In practice, art teachers say that removing participation grades and switching to a more objective rubric has been challenging. “In the arts, we want to make room for the power of subjectivity,” VPA director Andrea Zuniga told the Register Forum. “We have to take into account creativity [and] persistence; it is what allows an artist to be an artist.”
While the GFE book outlines clear directions for academic core classes, there’s no explicit mention of art classes. Regardless, VPA classes have been expected to conform to the general switch. Director Zuniga gave a sense of the general mood in June. “It was initially presented as: ‘get ready’—and we weren’t.”
The problem with not giving participation grades, VPA teachers say, is that students are less motivated to complete daily assignments until they feel the “hammer on the end”: the final project grade. “I now have slower students than I have ever had in my decades of teaching—I’m teaching three or four projects at once because kids have missed so much time,” Jon Baring-Gould, a CRLS ceramics teacher, told the Register Forum.
The alternative to not giving a “participation grade” in VPA classes? Changing the lingo to something else. “I call it citizenship now instead of participation,” photography teacher Deborah Milligan told the Register Forum. Theater teacher Mr. Cramp agreed. “I mean, we have to have that,” he told the Register Forum, “You have to participate to make anything happen.”
Jeanne Alailima ’25 says that the change in her art classes is tangible: “My teachers are saying that they can’t really grade on the quality of the art anymore—it’s just completion.” She added, “My teachers can’t figure out what rubric to use.”
Another challenge VPA teachers have had to navigate is that state-mandated rubrics contain language that directly contradicts GFE standards. For example, the National Arts Standards specifically state that students should be expected to “demonstrate safe handling of materials, tools, and equipment.” Grading for Equity, however, classifies classroom cleanup as a participation grade and therefore bars teachers from requiring it.
CRLS Dean of Mathematics Curriculum Josh Marden acknowledged how teachers have been affected by GFE. “A lot has fallen on the shoulders of staff,” he told the Register Forum, “and [VPA teachers] haven’t been included in the process of implementing GFE since the beginning.”
Art teachers say that in recent months, administrators have been rolling back GFE in VPA classes. Participation grades are now allowed, as long as they’re outlined with a clear rubric. What’s allowed within these rubrics is still in debate, however, and many teachers remain unhappy. “It’s definitely possible to grade art classes equitably,” said Baring-Gould, “but is Grading for Equity the way to do that? I don’t know.”
This article also appears in January 2024 print edition.
