Pasco high school students must earn their grades despite coronavirus class shutdown

High school students in Pasco will need to work to pass their classes, even if failing isn’t an option.

While high schoolers in Kennewick and Richland start with the grade they were earning before schools closed in March, the more than 5,000 Pasco high school students don’t.

Students will need to finish the weekly assignments posted on the district’s website or given by their teachers to pass their classes, Superintendent Michelle Whitney told the school board this week.

“Our goal is not to have students retaking courses after the COVID closure,” Whitney said. “Our goal is to provide opportunities for students to learn the standards that they need to learn in order to be successful in subsequent classes.”

Pasco school leaders were the last of the three Tri-City districts to explain their grading plans after the state superintendent’s office laid out guidelines for districts to determine grades as a result of the coronavirus shutdown.

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal told parents, teachers and school districts that no student will fail a class but a “passing” or “completed” mark was not enough.

As news about Pasco’s plans came out, parents raised concerns about not hearing yet from some teachers and wondering how to find the assignments.

“I’m a bit nervous,” one parent said on Facebook. “My 10th grader at PHS has only been assigned math so far. I am going to have to email his teachers and counselor.”

A parent of a seventh- and an eighth-grader said they’ve had little contact with their teachers also.

Other parents offered support, saying to check spam filters or Microsoft Teams for messages from teachers.

Parents can reach teachers and principals through email, said Shane Edinger, the district’s director of public affairs. The schools each have a website with a contact page and the district has a staff directory online.

If they aren’t able to reach anyone by email, each school has someone answering the phones during regular school hours. Staff members can connect parents to teachers or to the principal.

“Our buildings may be closed to the public right now, but the school district and our employees are ready and available to help and serve our students and families during the COVID-19 closure,” he said.

How grading will work

For most of the district’s 19,000 students, the grading process is similar to the neighboring districts. Students have two options — keep the grade they had in the last quarter or trimester or try to get a better grade.

Students can improve their grade by doing the weekly assignments provided online or by working with the teacher, Whitney told board members.

“The teachers won’t grade every assignment, but the students will get feedback and based on all of that interaction, teachers will assign a grade for the end of the term,” she said.

While elementary and middle school students have an option of keeping the grade they had, high school students were just days into their new classes when schools were closed. That left the district without a grade to carry forward.

Now students will be graded on how well they understand the material. To earn top grades students will need to demonstrate strong progress, participate regularly and complete most of the assignments.

For students that barely advance or don’t progress, rarely participate and don’t complete school work, they could be looking at a D, or in some cases an incomplete.

“We’re really empowering our teachers to use professional judgment to provide feedback to our students, to report that learning, to look at competencies to look at course completion when necessary our teachers will be allowed to modify grades based on the extenuating circumstances.”

The district will continue to give the students who are struggling a chance to get a better grade, including summer school, online classes or other options.

Concerns from teachers

While a majority of teachers would have preferred to hand out a pass or fail grade, about 70 percent were in favor of having some sort of grading system.

Some teachers and parents are concerned because of the large number of students who may not have easy access to computers and the internet, as well as have new responsibilities at home.

Emerson Elementary Teacher Susan Grace wrote to the board to ask that they consider the students at the most risk of not being able to do the work.

“Will a letter grade measure the learning of a high school student who has had to work to provide for his family because his parents are unemployed?” she said. “Will a letter grade measure the learning of a student who has now become her sibling’s caregiver while her parents work because their jobs are essential?”

These students are learning valuable life skills, but may miss out because they’re not able to do as much school work as others. She was concerned a grading system might cause problems for years to come.

While the district is looking to help the students at the bottom, board member Steve Christensen asked if they can come up with a way to help students who received a “C” when they normally would get an “A.”

“I like the grading plan, and I’m not opposed to it,” he said. “I just think we need to be careful that we’re not limiting (students).”

This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.