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A temporary grading policy for secondary students in Pleasanton Unified School District will be considered at a special Board of Trustees online meeting on Thursday, starting 4:30 p.m.
Under the proposal, PUSD middle and high school students with lower grades would receive “credit” (CR) or “no credit” (NC) marks instead of letter grades on their first-semester report card. Those who earn a first-semester grade of F would instead receive an NC, while students with a grade of D would receive a CR.
In both instances, a CR or NC mark does not impact a student’s GPA as negatively as a failing grade, according to district officials.
Students with earned grades of A, B or C, and those who earn an extra grade weighting in Advanced Placement or Honors-level courses with a C grade or better, would have their grades upheld.
“The proposed policy is being brought forward to support our commitment to equity for all students and in order to mitigate the immediate impacts to transcripts for students with grades D or F and the negative emotional effects that they have on our student’s mental health during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” officials said in a letter to PUSD families on Monday.
Students who earn a credit or no credit mark may still need to retake a course in order to graduate or meet college admission requirements.
The policy allows students with D or F grades to “avoid the immediate impact on the transcript until the course is remediated.”
“Additionally, the district desires to mitigate the negative emotional impact that failing grades on a report card might have on the mental health of students during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” officials said.
Based on results from Thursday’s meeting, final grades would be available on Jan. 15.
The district is also seeking feedback from families on remote learning in order to provide an updated recommendation to the board soon on students returning to campus.
Last month, the board recommended that secondary campuses reopen after Alameda County is in the red tier for four weeks, and as permitted by public health officials.
A reopening survey was sent to families along with the meeting notice; feedback forms must be received by this Sunday (Jan. 10) at 5 p.m.
“”The proposed policy is being brought forward to support our commitment to equity for all students and in order to mitigate the immediate impacts to transcripts for students with grades D or F and the negative emotional effects that they have on our student’s mental health during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” officials said in a letter to PUSD families on Monday.”
“Commitment to equity” = lowering the standards for everyone so no one is “offended” if other students happen to receive a higher grade. What are the long term impacts for society when underperforming students eventually leave school and enter the workforce? Will employers be forced to hire and/or promote them for a “commitment to equity”?
Easier solution is to grade on the curve!
MichaelB and Michael Austin – do either of you have any idea of what you are talking about? Did you actually read what was said? Do you have high schoolers trying to do remote learning right now? Do you have any idea the emotional stress and anxiety being felt by many students in the current situation? No standards are being lowered. This is a temporary solution and those students who choose to go on to college will need to remediate these classes anyway. Please take the time to understand the issue before weighing in on things you don’t understand.
MichaelB-Not all kids were blessed with high executive function skills and a brain free of learning disabilities. Try learning math remotely. They used to be able to ask a question in class and have the teacher be able to look at their work directly to show them what they are doing wrong. Try having the kid explain what they are doing wrong when they don’t KNOW what they are doing wrong, and try having the teacher catch the error and explain the right way to do it. It’s not working. This TEMPORARY policy doesn’t let anyone off the hook. They still have to make up the no credit class. If they want to get into college, they still have to take summer school to replace the D. Put away your axe to grind for just a minute and put yourself in someone’s shoes who might be struggling, or has an IEP with ZERO accommodations, making it completely worthless during remote learning. That noise about lowering standards doesn’t apply here.
“No standards are being lowered.”
The following comments from the article are self explanatory: “Students with earned grades of A, B or C, and those who earn an extra grade weighting in Advanced Placement or Honors-level courses with a C grade or better, would have their grades upheld.” Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Do you think students should be working to/have a responsibility to get a least “C” in their classwork? Or are you okay with the idea of a “do over” for those receiving a “D” or an “F” for the purposes of “equity” – when it was not required for other students?
MichaelB- What are you talking about? Kids are still getting Ds and Fs. “Or are you okay with the idea of a “do over” for those receiving a “D” or an “F” for the purposes of “equity” – when it was not required for other students?”. Should summer school be canceled from now on? Because if they want to get into college, or get credit for the F, they have to retake the course over the summer. That hasn’t changed. Students with D and F grades can take the course in summer school. This is no different. Why is this TEMPORARY policy unfair to the students with better grades? The A-C grades will get a kid into college so what is your beef?
@Resident001
I think a big concern is that his move inflates student GPA’s, so now the GPA for students from PUSD might not be considered an accurate measure of student achievement or mastery by colleges during the application process… which is really unfair to lots of seniors. Without standardized testing this year, the GPA needs to be bullet proof across the board so colleges have no hesitation, doubts or questions as to the validity of that metric.
To My Twin, I do see your point, you worded it much better than MichaelB. The CR will still stand on the transcript for colleges if it isn’t made up in summer school like a college bound student would normally do. We don’t really know HOW colleges will be looking at transcripts and selecting students yet. I think many districts will be implementing this. Also, there are many private and public schools open, private around here and across the country, and other public schools across the country are open as well. I predict that anything but STEM degrees will be worthless in 10 years.
My daughter is in the 10th grade and she has an IEP. She has a processing disorder which slows down her comprehension. She has always struggled in math but even more so with remote learning. She was able to get a C on her final which will keep her D in the class. So, she gets a CR. She excels in two sports but if her grades dropped too low she wouldn’t be able to participate. Really unfair to everyone else right MichaelB? Because of how crappy she feels about her academic abilities, sports are the only reason she attends school. Not everyone is a scholar, but there is room for everyone. She is struggling in a few ways right now and as parents, we should ALL be concerned about our kids. She could get a scholarship to college through sports but her grades disqualify her. Even with summer school, she knows academically she isn’t ready to go to a 4 year right out of high school, breaks my heart because she deserves it.
As one of the Resident001 stated, students have the opportunity currently to remediate D/F’s so this temporary policy has not changed that. D’s in college required classes must be remediated if the student want’s to go directly into a 4 year school. This temporary policy will not have any effect on our standing with the colleges that know PUSD schools and is in line with many many competitive school in the area. Again, MichaelB, you know nothing about the subject.
For Resident001, please do not diminish the opportunity for your student to go to Community College first then on to a four year. She will be able to continue with her sport at the CC and colleges give scholarships to transfer students as well. Community College is many times wrongly overlooked or shunned by the PUSD parent community. The diploma and degree received after 2 years at the 4 year university doesn’t come with a caveat at the bottom that says “but spent the first two years at a community college”. Please help take the stress off of your daughter by encouraging her to do her best, enjoy her sport and look at CC as a wonderful viable option to going straight to a 4 year, which 18 years olds are many times not academically or emotionally ready for. Our kiddos are going through A LOT right now (as we all are) and it is important that we as adults, tone down the retoric and support them during this unprecedented time.
Hi Linda! Thank you for your encouraging words! Yes, she is planning to attend a CC and then off to a four year. She is ok with this, but her dream of attending the signing ceremony at her school won’t happen for her. I have been noticing more and more players on college teams who went to a CC for two years. The past two decades we have seen both students and parents realize what an affordable and quality alternative CCs have become for those who can’t afford a university yet, or those who are not ready, Again, thank you.
This has nothing to do with the students, and everything to do with PUSD finding a way to cover its @$$ against lawsuits for failing to provide an equitable distance learning education.
Teachers are trying yes, this isn’t a knock on them, but kids are failing across the board. This is about absolving the decision makers on the distance learning curriculum and the failures of the board and teachers union from opening schools when they could have – they failed our students. The board failed our students 2x by not even filing for the waiver.
This fake grading system is wrong and does nothing for the students, it only helps the administrators. Its understandable distance learning was forced upon us, but that doesn’t mean the architects behind it get to throw their hands up and say, “we tried, this is the best we can do”. Either get our kids back in school like you committed to doing so and failed to execute on, or fix the distance learning.
Ignoring poor performing students so you don’t have to face the fallout from a poorly performing system isn’t their fault, its yours, time to own it and fix it.