Fairfax schools implemented 'equity grading' to fight 'bias'

EXCLUSIVE — Officials with Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools have taken steps to implement so-called "equitable grading" at Langley High School and other schools across the district in a bid to fight "institutional bias," according to internal FCPS communications.

The district's emails, obtained by local parents through a Freedom of Information Act request and exclusively shared with the Washington Examiner, detail efforts by high school principals across the district, especially officials at Langley High School in recent months, to adopt "equitable grading" practices, including by using federal coronavirus relief funds to purchase a book for a teacher summer reading club titled Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms. The district and Langley administrators also denied the efforts were ongoing when a parent inquired.

The emails also revealed that efforts to implement "equitable grading" at all high schools under FCPS have been in motion for years, going back to 2015, with a notable acceleration in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as schools across the district remained closed well into the spring of 2021.