District and school leaders should hold widespread discussions of grading practices and pair any expansion of boys' advanced-course enrollment with supports for students and teachers¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The report's implications section recommends that CPS renew its professional grading standards guidelines and hold districtwide discussion of grading categories and weights, since "Weighting decisions have subtle but important impacts on final grades and on gender differences." It also recommends examining course placement policy, cautioning that simply assigning students to advanced coursework can backfire without accompanying supports. School-level teams are pointed to data sources such as 5Essentials Survey results and the Chavez Grade Audit Report.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Instructional leadership teams and administrators with access to grade, attendance, and survey data

Constraints¶

• The report notes research showing that simply assigning students to advanced coursework to increase equity can lead to negative long-term outcomes, so enrollment expansion must be accompanied by supports for students and teachers

Target Learners¶

• Ninth-grade math students, particularly young men, in urban public school districts

Target Learning Goals¶

• Equitable math grade outcomes and access to advanced coursework

Related Strategies¶

• Three strategies for closing advanced coursework participation gaps and retaining students
• Adopt automatic (opt-out) enrollment policies placing qualifying students in advanced coursework
• Automatic enrollment into advanced coursework with an opt-out option

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Easton, J.Q. & Diaz, B. (2023). Lasting differences: Math grades and gender. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/lasting-differences