Fact Check-A race-based grading system was not introduced at an Illinois high school
Sullivan said: “There are no school-wide changes being made to the way grading is done.”
(Reuters) - A local news story from Cook County, Illinois, has been shared widely on social media and picked up by several media outlets after claiming that Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRFHS) in a suburb of Chicago will begin implementing a race-based grading system in the academic year 2022-2023. But the school denied these claims, and the school presentation the article refers to also does not mention race-based grading.
The article shared widely online beings: “Oak Park and River Forest High School administrators will require teachers next school year to adjust their classroom grading scales to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students.”
Reuters contacted West Cook News for comment but did not receive a response at the time of writing.
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The school told Reuters that there is no intention to change the way it grades students, however.
Executive Director of Communications at OPRFHS Karin Sullivan said via email: “There are no school-wide changes being made to the way grading is done.”
Following the claims made online, the school issued a statement that reads: “OPRFHS does not, nor has it ever had a plan to, grade any students differently based on race. The article contains a variety of misleading and inaccurate statements. The article’s mischaracterization of the Board meeting is unfortunate and has caused unnecessary confusion”.
The school added: “At no time were any statements made recommending that OPRF implement a race-based grading approach.”
The false claims stem from a misreading of slides that were presented at a meeting of the OPRFHS Board on May 26, 2022.
A memo from Assistant Superintendent for Student Learning, Laurie Fiorenza, to the school board has also been cited as proof by those claiming the school intends to change how it grades according to race.
Reuters studied the slides and the memo from the May 26 meeting and there is no mention of altering academic outcomes based on ethnicity or skin color.
The collection of slides ends with the summary points: “Traditional grading practices perpetuate inequities and intensify the opportunity gap” and “Many OPRFHS teachers are successfully exploring and implementing more equitable grading practices such as: utilizing aspects of competency-based grading, eliminating zeros from the grade book, and encouraging and rewarding growth over time.”
Both the slides and the memo contain the statement: “Oak Park and River Forest High School administration and faculty will examine grading and reporting practices in academic and elective courses utilizing evidence-backed research and the racial equity analysis tool.”
Sullivan sent Reuters the link to the school’s racial equity analysis tool which can be viewed.
