How Does this Extended School Closure Affect Graduation Status and Grade Paranoia?

By: Annabelle Williamson

As the state-wide school shut down continues, many students don’t know how this time will affect them finishing their year at Redwood.

Many school districts in California such as Long Beach Unified and San Francisco Unified have changed the ways they are grading in order to relieve grade paranoia among students.

Long Beach Unified has switched to a pass/fail grading system since the shutdown, relieving students of grade obsessing. San Francisco Unified has also discussed refraining from giving out F’s to students and letting them pass this semester with an A, according to Edsource’s “Letter grades? Pass/no pass? A’s for all? Districts differ in grading online learning” article.

But Visalia Unified is taking a less extreme approach to this new situation. According to the Superintendent, Dr. Tamara Ravalin, letter grades for students are frozen as of March 13. Meaning, whatever letter grade a student had on March 13, they would carry into the quarantine.

“We have asked teachers to reach out to their students and allow extra work and/or makeup work so students could bring their grades up. We want students to have every opportunity to do the best they can in their classes.” Dr. Ravalin said.

Although no new assignments can be graded for classes, teachers can assign extra credit to students who do not have the grade they want, as of March 13.

Many students obsess over their grades even when school is in session. On the topic of converting to a pass/fail system, the school board feels like they have made the right decision in allowing extra credit rather than dismissing grades all together.

“If we do not return to finish the semester, the grade will be the March 13^th grade. Students should have ample time to improve their grade over the next six weeks.” Dr. Ravalin said.

Good work ethic is expected by many board members in making this decision.

Daniela Carlos, ‘21 left school on March 13 confident in her grades and isn’t stressing about changing them during this time but she also sees the ways in which a credit/no credit system would benefit the student body.

“Having the system be a credit/no credit allows students to not be forced in this workload of homework and get time to be stress-free and focus on their mental health,” Carlos said. “Regardless of credit/no credit, I still feel the need to do [the assignments] because I feel like something bad would happen to my grades or all of a sudden my grades would start to go down.”

Seniors are also taking this school shutdown with a lot of stress as many feel like it would affect their graduation status.

Although frozen grades are a stressor, seniors don’t have to worry about being in danger of not graduation, unless they were already in danger of it before March 13.

“We are planning online opportunities for summer school so that students can make up credits. Upon advice from the Governor’s Office, we are to plan on alternative educational approaches for summer school instruction, so we are doing that in case we are not allowed to resume traditional instruction,” Dr. Ravalin said.

The district is supportive of students who need the extra help to graduate and they are taking the time to put measures in place to make sure every student has ample opportunity to graduate.

Nolan Martinez, ‘20 is not as worried about his graduation status as many others are. “I had already gotten accepted into colleges and applied for COS. My main worry was the AP exams because we were cut short from what we had to learn.” Martinez said.

Although he isn’t worried, he doesn’t feel like he or other seniors are getting the information or reassurance that they need. “I don’t really know about the situation. It’s all still very confusing and nothing is really being communicated that well.” Said Martinez.

Even though there is a lot of confusion surrounding grades, and graduation status for seniors, students do not have to worry about their grades dropping during the time we are not in school! Graduation status for seniors also will not change unless you were already in danger of not graduating before the lockdown began!