The urgent need to accurately grade students during the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the Santa Barbara Unified School District into uncharted territory. After grappling with the issue for two weeks, district staff will present a final recommendation for the school board on Thursday — and it’s not what some expected.
The proposal, released just 24 hours before the meeting, gives high school students the option to either take a credit/no credit grade as the default or to take a traditional letter grade for individual courses. Though the state Department of Education has given several other options, one of the most considered is a credit/no credit–only approach that doesn’t allow for letter grades.
The issue has cast a spotlight on the inequities among families in the district. While some students may have access to a better home-learning environment, others may be less prepared to achieve high grades, forcing them to take a credit grade rather than an ‘A’ they could have otherwise earned before the pandemic began.