The results of an external audit examining grading practices in Baltimore City Public Schools show no evidence of grade manipulation in the 2022-2023 school year.
D.C.-based consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal presented their findings in a meeting of Baltimore’s board of school commissioners Tuesday night. In June 2022, Maryland’s Inspector General for Education ordered a review of the district’s grading practices after officials identified more than 12,500 instances of final grades being changed from failing to passing status between 2016 and 2020.
But the new audit found that only 0.02% of final grades entered last year were changed outside of the designated grade-reporting window. And only four of those changed from failing to passing.
“We were excited to see evidence of what we believe to be true, having watched the work of our teachers and our school leaders,” said Rachel Pfeifer, executive director of academics.
The city district is in the midst of reviewing and updating its grading policy.
“One of the key findings in the report was that city schools’ grading policy is among the strongest that the external reviewers had seen in similar districts,” Pfeiffer said. “And so that was encouraging because it means that we don't need to jump into the review of our grading policy with wholesale changes.”
But Pfeiffer said the district will be taking into consideration the recommendations made by Alvarez & Marsal to further improve the grading system.
The report says that many teachers aren’t filling out required forms for changing grades, and that there is confusion about accountability and responsibility within the system — with grading policy oversight split across departments and officials.
“We'll continue to have conversations with teachers, with various school staff members who are actually the ones navigating this to hear more from them about what would be helpful,” Pfeiffer said.
Most of the grade changes identified in the audit were late entries, often tied to students who had transferred or experienced medical issues.
Diamonté Brown, president of the Baltimore Teachers Union, said this highlights the need for teachers to have more designated time at the end of each marking period to properly enter grades.
“And not just grades, but comments that we believe are very helpful to our students, parents and families when trying to figure out how to improve their grades, maintain their grades or just understand why they got the grades to begin with,” she said. “That’s what we really need.”
Brown also agreed with the report’s recommendation for more training on grade entry systems and policies, especially for first-year teachers. And, she said a district-wide standardized grading calendar would also help.
“Sometimes, what administrators at the school-based levels are expecting around grading deadlines are different from the expectations from the central office,” she said. “If those are in line and expressed clearly to instructional staff responsible for reporting grades, that could be one way to make policies more clear.”
