9:45 AM -11:00 AM

MGC 3-5 Open to all faculty who preregister This plenary will argue against the use of conventional standards in college courses that grade student writing by single standards. Inoue will discuss the ways that White language supremacy is perpetuated in college classrooms despite the better intentions of faculty, particularly through the practices of grading writing. BREAKOUT SESSION: CREATING ANITRACIST WRITING ASSESSMENT ECOLOGIES IN WRITING COURSES

11:20AM – 12:35PM

MGC 3-5 (Note: We believe this workshop will be most helpful to Writing Studies faculty, but others are also invited to sign up.) This interactive workshop will focus on redesigning writing courses’ assessment ecologies in ways that reduce the negative effects of a single standard of writing used in conventional grading practices. It will offer an alternative to such grading practices, labor-based grading contracts, and a comprehensive theory of assessment that may lead participants to other ways of redesigning their courses’ assessments.

There’s more, but this is enough. Click on the headline to take in the full degradation of grading proposed here. It’s pretty clear what this all means: more liberal condescension of minorities. “Reduc[ing] the negative effects of a single standard of writing used in conventional grading practices” can only mean “not grading according to standards of excellence.”

I’m told that “minority” is now an incorrect term (like “illegal alien”) on campus. We’re supposed to say “marginalized groups.” Fine: nothing will marginalize a struggling student more than telling them they are exempt from academic canons of excellence and achievement. But this is the Orwellian world of higher education today, where the real racists parade under the banner of anti-racism.

Memo to American University alumni pondering year-end donation appeals: Not. One. Dime.