Education Law

Do you remember your grade school report card?  How did you rate on “listens to and follows directions” “respects property” “complies with rules” or “accepts responsibility”? 

According to a report provided to the Fairfax County School Boardin Fairfax County, Virginia, how kids rate in these types of subjective “sound moral character and ethical judgment” areas may, in part, have something to do with their race and abilities.  The report found that Black, Hispanic and students with disabilities in the early grades tended to have lower scores than White non-disabled students.

As the country seeks to prepare a 21st century workforce and emphasis is placed on character education in general and social and emotional skills in particular, school officials need to take care that these skills are measured in as objective a way as possible.   

School districts need to “accept responsibility” and make sure that the standards of measuring moral character and ethical judgment are fair and that they are fairly enforced.  They also need to be careful about labels and make sure that no group of students is unfairly labeled by a subjective report.