BY SARA TABIN
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Palo Alto Unified School District’s switch to pass/fail grades while students are forced to learn from home during the pandemic is getting an “F” from some parents.
More than 300 parents have signed a petition against pass/fail grades.
Steve Toteda, who started the petition, said the switch from letter grades to pass/fail was premature. He said parents and students plan to raise their objections at the school board’s meeting next Tuesday (April 21).
School officials say the pass/fail system will level the playing field for students who don’t have access to high-speed WiFi or tutoring now that schools are closed. Many universities including UC-Berkeley have switched to pass/fail grading for this semester.
College acceptance concerns
Palo Alto students who spoke with the Post said that dropping letter grades will prevent them from showing colleges that they can improve their academic standing from previous semesters.
Max Goetz, a senior at Gunn High School, said the pass/fail system is fine for him because he has already been accepted to college.
But he said the system could hurt juniors who had mediocre grades in past semesters and needed a chance to show an upwards trajectory.
“For those people who wanted to show an upward trend in grades, I think it’s a really unfortunate situation,” he said.
AP grade-point advantage taken away
Toteda’s petition says the new system will hurt the overall GPAs of students because they will no longer get the GPA bonuses that come with taking Advanced Placement courses. The petition says the district didn’t get enough input from parents and students.
“My junior worked hard this semester to pull up her GPA with ‘rigorous’ courses — everything you tell her to do,” commented Karen Hickey. “And now it doesn’t count.”
Joo Chia said juniors are “heavily handicapped” by the new system.
The petition suggests that the district consider having a system where students get the chance to improve the grades they had before the stay-at-home order was instituted, but no one gets a worse grade than they had at that time.
Superintendent Don Austin told the Post he was aware of the complaints but has received generally positive responses about the new system. Austin sent the Post an April 6 email from Santa Clara County superintendent Mary Dewan, which recommends pass/fail grading to ensure all students have the same opportunity for success.
“I understand people want school to look and feel like the things they know about schools,” said Austin. “When it’s different, and in this case, a lot of things are different, (so) it’s uncomfortable.”
There’s a faction in the district that has long wanted to eliminate AP classes. I guess they succeeded through slight of hand. I mean if they put it on a school board agenda that they were banning AP classes, there would be a large outpouring of parents, students and academics who would line up to criticize that decision. But by doing it this way, nobody will say a peep.
“Austin sent the Post an April 6 email from Santa Clara County superintendent Mary Dewan, which recommends pass/fail grading to ensure all students have the same opportunity for success.
“I understand people want school to look and feel like the things they know about schools,” said Austin. “When it’s different, and in this case, a lot of things are different, (so) it’s uncomfortable.”
Didn’t Austin take credit for being a trendsetter when PAUSD went to Credit/No Credit? Now he’s saying it was the SCC Superintendent’s idea?
How long will PAUSD use the coronavirus as an excuse for everything under the sun?
Can’t PAUSD give student’s an option? Some are fine with P/F, so let them have it. Some want grades, so grade their work and give them grades.
No grades, no SATs or ACTs? How will colleges choose students. Guess they’ll have to go back to the old stand by’s … skin color, parents wealth/clout, donations to the university … who cares about the kids who worked hard in school to get the best grades, it’s all pass/fail now.
During Phase III of learning if you are a Gunn High School Student you receive a minimum of 3 hours of homework per subject per week. For my children’s classes there is NO instruction. no Zoom class, no instruction videos by the teachers. It’s basically teach yourself the course for students. Additionally, the documentation says 3 hours of homework but realistically this week it has proven to be more than 3 hours per class and this is for a very good students. That’s three house or more of homework after my children taught themselves the coursework. The homework has continued on the same trajectory and same amount as outlined on their course syllabus … so teachers are expecting students to learn and compete the same about of work as if they were in class receiving instruction.
I think if your child has access to tutors then having grades makes wonderful sense. But what about children who do not’ have tutors? How do you make sure all students get instruction? Teachers have minimal zoom office hours but are not teaching… just post the homework and a few online resources and that’s it. Nothing has changed with regard to the homework the only difference is that teachers are doing no teaching, they give a few links on the internet to resource pages and that is it for instruction. Luckily my kids don’t need tutors but that isn’t the case for most of their peers who had a rough week this week.
This is the experience for two grades at Gunn including honors classes.
Honestly, we are not impressed with how the school district is handling schooling for high school students during this time. PAUSD has had weeks to implement the process and they failed.
The decision to drop letter grades should have been made after a rigorous debate, not behind closed doors in the superintendent’s office. This was a bone headed decision that devalues the hard work of students in order to make life easier for unionized teachers. The board needs to override Dr Austin and have a vote on this.
I agree with Jim W., the board used to debate important things like this, and the public was given the right to chime in. Under Austin, there’s no debate. Decisions are rolled out like edicts, and those who disagree are told to suck it up. When Dauber pushed to eliminate the two meeting rule, it was a sign of things to come.
Another major screw up by 25 Churchill and the board. When will this end?