The first quarter of the Long Beach Unified School District’s (LBUSD) academic year ended last week and students will receive letter grades for their performance rather than credit as they have been since the spring semester.
An advanced-placement teacher at Wilson High School, who asked not to be identified due to job considerations told the Signal Tribune she uploaded her grades on Monday, Nov. 9.
“Some students are going to be surprised,” she said about those who are failing to access and complete assigned work in Canvas, LBUSD’s new learning management system.
Since COVID-19 health concerns shut schools in March– hurriedly relegating students to online learning at home– LBUSD quickly changed its grading policy to award credit rather than grades to avoid penalizing students for connectivity issues.
Chris Eftychiou, LBUSD public-information officer, told the Signal Tribune that the District is returning to traditional grading because students returned to a more robust distance-learning schedule compared to last spring.
“During the prior semester that ended in June, traditional grading had been suspended in favor of a pass/fail or credit/no credit system because of the abrupt shift to online learning at the onset of the pandemic last spring,” he said. “We have since also received feedback from parents indicating that they would like to see traditional grades.”
Though students will now receive grades, LBUSD is still concerned with fairness, given that students face ongoing technology and study-space challenges.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kristi Kahl told the Board of Education at its Nov. 4 meeting that her office convened a teacher leadership-group led by Pam Lovett, coordinator of LBUSD’s gifted and talented education (GATE) program, to carefully consider grading.
“The first question was, how do grading practices need to differ in a distance-learning environment?” Kahl said. “And what do we need to keep in mind when grading for equity?”
Kahl said the group revisited LBUSD’s mission of teaching for success with high expectations. It also reviewed new academic studies on learning assessment, especially in a pandemic. The group then created guidelines for principals to share with teachers at their schools regarding equity and grading in an online environment.
The guidelines include caring for students’ needs with flexibility and sensitivity and to separate a student’s academic proficiency from their work habits, character traits or behaviors.
“These [guidelines] remind us that these times are different and we really need to go into the process of assigning grades with a different mindset,” Kahl said.
The group also set more specific guidelines about grading, such as creating “soft” deadlines and not penalizing students for late work, Kahl said.
“Meeting deadlines is not necessarily something that’s always in their control,” she said.
Other grade-specific guidelines include allowing students to resubmit work and retake tests after getting teacher feedback.
“One of the things we know about learning is when a student receives feedback from the teacher and goes through the process of revising their work,” Kahl said. “That’s when very deep learning can occur.”
The guidelines also state not to assign points for attendance. While attendance is important, Kahl said, it can be beyond a student’s control and doesn’t indicate achievement.
Homework should be kept to a minimum and not graded, the guidelines state, Kahl said. And teachers should update grades weekly so parents can support their children.
In terms of what to grade, the guidelines suggest sticking to classwork, tests and quizzes that teachers, textbook publishers, or the District create, Kahl said. Practice work, notes and class discussions should not be graded.
In addition to issuing guidelines, Kahl said LBUSD’s research office revised the District’s computerized comments teachers can select from to assess students, so they are aligned with distance learning and LBUSDS’s attention to students’ social and emotional wellbeing.
“I’m happy to report that the number-one used comment in our district is, ‘A pleasure to have in class,’” Kahl said, adding that the office is keeping this comment option.The office will add other comment options, such as “Participates in synchronous sessions” and “Completes asynchronous assignments.”
It will also add comments that assess a student’s social and emotional wellbeing, such as “Displays a strong growth mindset” and “Seeks help when needed.”
“Those are some changes that we’ve made and that parents will start to see on some of our report cards,” Kahl said, adding that she’ll review grade results with the Board at its workshop next week on Nov. 17 and 18.
Besides the guidelines, teachers will soon face additional training on “unquizzes” in Canvas that allow teachers to assess students in an informal way, Kahl said.
“It’s a very flexible platform that allows the teacher to use it in an informative way– asking kids questions as a way for them to practice, or […] get a sense of what the class knows versus just using it as something you want to assign a grade,” Kahl said.
LBUSD already trains its teachers in “formative assessment,” Kahl said, which Carnegie Mellon University defines as teachers providing ongoing feedback to help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work.
“It’s this idea that if I’m teaching in the moment, I can figure out whether or not the students are with me,” Kahl said. “Then I can adjust my teaching in the moment.”
While grading-equity is important, Kahl said teachers are finding it challenging to give tests and assessments online in the first place and have learned to multitask in various platforms.
“It’s truly amazing what they’re doing,” she said.
I think it should stay credit/no credit untill they are back in the classroom. I have an “A”, “B” student that is having such a hard time submitting work to 2 of his teachers that he is now getting a D, two C’s, two B and two A’s. His grades have always been important to him and he’s a hard worker but canvas doesn’t always work properly. This is extra stress he doesn’t need right now. My personal experience tells me the only fair thing to do is suspend traditional grades for now. Not all children have an equal environment and technology to work with.