In a novel effort to tackle declining student performance and enrollment in San Francisco public schools, the superintendent has opted to lower performance criteria across the board and focus on “grading for equity,” according to new guidelines announced this week.
Superintendent Maria Su will be implementing her new equity-driven plan this coming fall despite not being subject to a public vote by the Board of Education, as first reported by The Voice of San Francisco.
The new effort to achieve parity across racial and social economic barriers will focus on instructing teachers on new grading practices rather than on producing a more rigorous classroom environment. The plan will affect the more than 10,000 students in the area’s 14 high schools, enabling students to receive a ‘C’ for a grade as low as 41% on a 100-point exam. Students can also achieve an ‘A’ with a score as low as 80% and pass with a ‘D’ with a mere 21%.
Other changes include removing homework and classroom participation as criteria for determining a student’s final grade. Students will be assessed primarily on a final exam, which they can retake multiple times while attendance and punctuality will not be factored into an assessment.
The school plans to contract with Joe Feldman, CEO of Crescendo Education Group, who explained the rationale behind the “grading for equity” philosophy in 2019, writing, “Students who did not qualify for free or reduced-price lunch had a sharper decrease in A’s, reflecting how traditional grading practices disproportionately benefit students with resources because of the inequitable inclusion of extra credit and other resource-dependent grading criteria.”
“If our grading practices don’t change, the achievement and opportunity gaps will remain for our most vulnerable students. If we are truly dedicated to equity, we have to stop avoiding the sensitive issue of grading and embrace it,” Feldman continued.
Su’s plan is similar to another equity-driven makeover by nearby Dublin Unified who implemented similar guidance in 2023. Dublin’s changes included removing zeros for missed assignments and granting a minimum of 50% for any “reasonably attempted” work. Dublin’s pilot program was suspended after parents groups banded together to shame the school board in degrading standards while making their children ill-prepared for higher education.
Given enough public pressure, the San Francisco School Board may be forced to review the new plan. Laurie Sargent, an eighth grade English teacher in the Dublin Unified School District, said regarding the attempted change, “Nowhere in the working world do you get 50% for doing nothing. If I don’t show up to work, they don’t pay me 50% of my salary — even if I made a reasonable attempt to get there.”
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