In the days leading up to June 5, 2020, hundreds of IHS students flooded SchoolTool to make an important choice that would reflect their academic performance throughout the entire school year. The choice, given to students by IHS, allowed students to select either an alphanumerical or Pass/Fail grade for each of their courses, a hybrid system created to acknowledge the difficulties of students during distance learning 1.0 and the school’s shut-down.
Almost exactly three months later, students have returned to school both virtually and in-person after previous plans were discarded. IHS’ ever-changing plans need an accompanying grading system that is as flexible as possible and fits student needs. Giving students the choice between alphanumerical grades and Pass/Fail grades is the obvious frontrunner, and should be implemented a second time for the first semester so that students are able to regulate their mental health, have an overall more positive learning experience, and preserve their GPAs while they confront the immeasurable challenges presented by a global pandemic.
Offering Pass/Fail to students last spring was the school’s way of alleviating stress and acknowledging the difficulties for students as they learned to work in a flawed distance-learning system. It was the right move in murky waters, but the administration’s subsequent mistake has been assuming the waters have cleared. The 2019-2020 school year may have ended, but the pandemic—and its myriad effects on students—will not disappear anytime soon. In fact, the situation is significantly worse this fall than in April when distance learning 2.0 began: COVID-19 cases are at a comparable level (and as seasons change and Cornell remains open, chances of cases spiking are high), employment is still at a low (-4.9 percent from last July according to the USBL), and the entire country is mired in ever-heightening political turmoil. The Tattler surveyed sophomores, juniors, and seniors through their school emails, and out of the 60 students who responded, many students indicated that they were more stressed one week into the 2020-2021 academic year than in the spring when distance learning 2.0 was first implemented, with one student expressing the sentiment of many in three words: “MORE. WAY MORE.” The only thing that has changed is that students and teachers have had time to adapt, but adapting does not mean students can perform at pre-pandemic levels, and the school should not expect them to.
Teachers are more familiar with technology after a summer of training, and have developed lessons that can be delivered online. Familiarity, however, is not mastery and new technology is not a replacement for in-person school. Mr. Prokosch, a Global II and AP Euro teacher, commented on the new teaching experience, saying, “everything is slower when teaching virtually. It’s also more draining for both teachers and students alike, especially in 85- minute periods. It takes more effort and more patience to get students to engage in class.” He specifically criticized Canvas, the new Learning Management System which IHS implemented over the summer: “To be quite plain, Canvas has made it twice as difficult to teach during distance learning…it is debilitating to use during synchronous teaching in high school. It’s too clunky and too complicated.” Students echoed these concerns: “With the new system—including Canvas, block schedules, brand new teachers, and new classes— getting back in the rhythm of school is more difficult.” Old technology has not served students well either: one student said, “District-issued chromebooks are also incredibly slow due to old hardware and the large number of applications the district keeps adding has made it almost impossible to use them effectively during classes.”
As a result of confounding technology and a delayed school start, teachers will not be able to include the same level of content in their curricula. AP Stats teacher Mr. Kirk anticipates “roughly [a] 10-20 percent reduction in content and topics” for the math department. And yet, students will still have to confront standardized testing (Regents and AP) at the end of the year. As a result, although they are offering concessions and altering curricula, many teachers are reluctant to lower grading standards. It is most likely that classes won’t be any easier this year than in the past, and students would be able to more properly manage their stress by designating classes that are greater challenges for them as Pass/Fail, while working hard in other classes that come easier to them to produce high numerical grades. Instead of making the adjustment back to school more intolerable, students would be able to regain their lost sense of control, keeping their mental health in check.
Even before the pandemic, attempts to relieve stress by altering grading standards to be less demanding have been effective. Mrs. Mellander, a Humanities 10 English teacher, has developed a system over her years of teaching which she calls the “A Team.” In this structure, all students in her class receive a guaranteed 95 each quarter if their assessed individual assignments meet the expected high standard quality of work, and they put in consistent effort. It is essentially a Pass/Fail course with a numerical weight advantage. In her eyes, it has been a rewarding system: “I heard the majority of the students say they were more willing to take risks, they weren’t worried about being wrong anymore in class, and that they turned things in they were really excited about and had fun with, because they knew they were going to get the A. That’s what I want. I want students who are authentically engaged—it can still be hard, the work can be hard—but I want there to be some joy and some freedom, and less concern about ‘what if I fail?’”
This uptick in participation is especially relevant for virtual learning, where students, either out of boredom, fear, or awkwardness, can easily hit mute and walk away. Depending on the level of comfort students have with the subject and their peers, working in groups and breakout rooms can especially have low levels of engagement from students. As described by Mr. Kirk, “Student participation definitely has changed. It’s challenging enough at times to work in groups when you’re physically next to each other in a classroom, but it’s even more challenging when that interaction is in the form of a small rectangle on a screen.” Without having to worry if they’re right or wrong, students may feel more confident to take risks and participate more. Anything that can be done to make students feel more comfortable in a strange environment would be beneficial to both students and teachers.
Students who choose Pass/Fail are not the only ones who similarly stand to profit off of this grading system. By allowing students to select their preferred grading method, the system proves itself to be a truly inclusive structure, as it still meets the wishes of students who wish to have alphanumerical grades. When asked why they picked alphanumerical grades, one student replied, “I had grades in the nineties for all of my classes, and I felt that these alphanumerical grades showed the hard work I put into all of my classes,” while another stated that they “wanted to reap the fruits of [their] labor.” Acknowledging the hard work students put into school even through dire circumstances gives them a sense of accomplishment, and such positive results will continue to motivate them to continue to do well in school this year.
On the other hand, critics of the system may believe that choosing Pass/Fail is a self-fulfilling prophecy: students will select the easier option because they don’t want to put in effort, and if they aren’t held accountable by grades, they will slip through the cracks and learn even less than before. But Pass/Fail does not affect that standard at which individual assignments are graded, and students will still be held accountable by teachers. Another way to ensure students aren’t lost to the Pass/Fail system is to add a caveat. Before switching to Pass/Fail, students will have to meet with their teacher and/or counselor to discuss why they are making that decision. This will serve a twofold purpose: it will prevent students from just checking-out of class, and it will also give counselors and teachers an extra chance to meet with and help students who are struggling. Teachers would be able to pinpoint which parts of the curriculum are most difficult to the student and assist them, and counselors would be able to offer support, time management advice, etc.
The approximately 82 percent of IHS students that are college-bound (reported in the 2018-2019 overview) may worry that a Pass/Fail designation on a course will stain their transcript. But colleges are not unaffected or unaware of how schools are changing grading systems. For current seniors, colleges and universities across the country have assured students that applicants will not be disadvantaged by lowered grades or missing test scores. This concession will surely hold for current sophomores and freshmen as well. While many fear that a “Pass” on a transcript instead of an alphanumerical grade will indicate that they have done worse in the class than someone who has chosen to report a grade, a class chosen for Pass/Fail has no impact on the student’s overall GPA, something that will benefit students in admissions. This allows students to take classes that would otherwise be stressful—and so, still be learning challenging material—without tanking their GPA.
Some students might instead prefer a different system. For example, other schools use systems that bridge the gap between Pass/Fail and full grades, like the 1-2-3-4 mastery system that relieves stress while still rewarding students for hard work and encourages improvement. However, IHS does not have the infrastructure nor the spare money to implement a new grading system in the midst of a school year. The infrastructure for Pass/Fail, on the other hand, has already been put in place. Large amounts of time were already invested in developing and understanding the structure from both IHS administration and families last year. According to an email sent to families in August, “…our community has demonstrated remarkable patience and resilience as we have sought to meet the needs of our learners.” While administration and staff were working hard during the end of the school year to provide a smooth transition back to school, a lack of communication also followed; students and families experienced mass confusion while trying to sort through IHS’ latest reopening plans and the newly introduced grading system.
If a different grading system is now introduced, straying from allowing students to choose between alphanumerical and Pass/Fail grades, the cycle of confusion will restart and the “remarkable patience and resilience” students showed will have been misspent. Because last school year’s distance learning grading system has already been accomplished and sorted out, implementing it a second time would be more time-efficient than creating a new program, conclusively avoiding more mass confusion. IHS’ time would be far better spent revising plans to keep students safe as they return to school instead of changing yet another aspect of their plans.
The advantages to the Pass/Fail system are clear, but whether all teachers choose to embrace it is another question. The stigma around choosing Pass/Fail is all too existent, with one student stating, “…we all know the societal stigma that occurs when you choose to just “Pass” instead of presenting the actual grade, and I hate that that is real, but it is.” Another said they were even “discouraged from choosing Pass/Fail” by one of their teachers. Working to acknowledge and eliminate this omnipresent stigma should be a top priority among teachers if students are once again given the choice of Pass/Fail grades. The focus needs to be placed on students’ individual needs and the choice that is best for them.
The word ‘unprecedented’ has become equivalent to TV static these past seven months, but it’s an apt enough description. Public schools have never faced a crisis on this level before, and students have never been forced to adapt to such a chaotic climate. The entire world is limping through a pandemic, and it is only right that the scales be weighted in favor of prioritizing the well-being of students. The least the administration could do is offer a lifeboat, a system that caters to each student’s needs. Allowing students to choose between alphanumerical grades and Pass/Fail is the most flexible grading system under such extraordinary circumstances, and is the most wise choice. Stress levels are constantly climbing, virtual environments present endless challenges to both students and teachers, and ICSD certainly has no time to develop another system. Until a vaccine is found, IHS’ main focus needs to be on mitigating harm to student health and learning. The solution is abundantly clear.