I just received an email from our high school that will allow the kids to change their courses for the full school year 20-21 to P/NP. The way I read it, you might even pick and choose which grades to be P/NP. I find this unbelievable.
How will CA UCs and CSUs determine grades and applications for these kids that decide to do this?
What are everyone’s thoughts and what will be your strategy?
Is that for college-bound students, too?
Every student can use the option to change any grade in any class from a grade to pass/no pass for 2020-2021 only. You have to make the request by August 15 - I would think changing a D or a C to a pass would be a no brainer, unless you are set on an out of state school that will not accept pass/no pass. I am struggling with what to do with my son’s Bs in AP classes. Prior to last school year he had straight A’s, but struggled with online learning and 5 AP classes and ended up with B’s in 3 of them. Changing those to pass, would up his GPA, but I am worried that it might negatively effect his chances in some other way.
As it’s an optional, student-selected, course-specific change, I doubt many Admissions Officers would look at the selective “Pass” grades on a transcript and think “Oh, the student probably got an A in that class”.
I find it interesting that the legislation goes out of its way to state
When a teacher provides the pupil with a grade for a course, existing law requires the grade, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, to be final. Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district or the superintendent of the district from ordering a change in the pupil’s grade unless the teacher who determined the grade is given an opportunity, to the extent practicable, to be included in all discussions relating to the grade change
Effectively followed by “and we’re getting rid of that”.
A B in an AP class is a pretty good grade. I’d keep it and wouldn’t risk letting it be mistaken for a C or D.
Yes, for any C or D it’s a no-brainer.
Bill Text - AB-104 Pupil instruction: retention, grade changes, and exemptions. is the text.
Looks like ability to change a letter grade to P or NP is only for the 2020-2021 school year.
In high school, if a letter grade is converted to P or NP, is a D grade turned into P or NP? In many colleges, a D grade turns into NP.