Kalifornia schools phase out D and F grades for high school students!

SACRAMENTO, Kalifornia (PNN) - December 13, 2021 - As high school students transition out of distance learning imposed by unlawful pandemic restrictions, several Kalifornia districts are dropping the use of “D” and “F” grades in an attempt to reengage students in school and boost entry into the state’s public colleges.

Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified, Sacramento City Unified, and San Diego Unified are among the districts phasing out “D” and “F” grades for high school students.

If students fail a test or don’t finish their homework, they will be given another chance to retake the test or receive an extension on submitting assignments.

“Our hope is that students begin to see school as a place of learning, where they can take risks and learn from mistakes, instead of a place of compliance,” stated Nidya Baez, assistant principal at Fremont High in Oakland Unified.

“Right now, we have a system where we give a million points for a million pieces of paper that students turn in, without much attention to what they’re actually learning,” Baez said.

If students do not pass the final exam or finish homework by the end of the semester, they would earn an “incomplete”. The aim is to encourage the learning of course material without compromising students’ abilities to enter the University of Kalifornia and Kalifornia State University should students receive a poor grade.

Advocates of such “competency-based learning” suggest that assessment should be based on what students have learned instead of how they perform in tests.

The announcement of grading changes come after some public schools in Kalifornia gave students the option of changing their letter-based grades to pass/fail grades.

Sam Davis, board director of Oakland Unified School District, said that the “D” grade should be dropped but students should still be given the appropriate grade if they fail.

“D grades are not valid for college eligibility at UC and Cal State but obviously if students don’t master the material, they shouldn’t be getting credit for the class, then they would be getting an F,” said Davis.

Critics of the proposed changes argue that they only serve to pander to students who do not display the intelligence to get them into universities. The end result is that college and university degrees have less and less significance, because anyone can get them; in other words, they do not reflect the educational accomplishments they once did.

Under these new changes college and university graduates may not have the skills needed to compete in the real world, even though they have a degree. The general population will thus be stupider over each succeeding generation.