Did your child’s school profile mention how they handled the pandemic. No HSs in our county address this on their profiles.
Our school system closed in March 2020, partially opened for very limited hybrid in April 2021 and did not return to full in-person classes until this fall. Also, grading policies were changed and midterms and finals were cancelled. Lastly, instead of students taking 7 classes all year, they switched for one year to HS students taking 4 classes a semester, so 8 courses in a year.
I think this should be mentioned in the profiles, just want to know how other school systems handle this. And if you are comfortable could you share the wording?
During the 2020-2021 school year, students who chose in-person instruction as a model had a combination of in-person instruction and livestreaming instruction from home due to Covid- 19.
My kid’s school also included a paragraph:
“ For the Spring Trimester (March to June) of 2020, xxx School District moved to a CR - Credit or NM - No Mark grading system due to emergency COVID school closures. In addition, California State Assembly Bill AB 104 allowed students to request Pass/Fail grading for the 2020-2021 school year. The 2021- 2022 school year was almost 100 percent virtual. We re-opened for in-person instruction with very limited capacity for high need students in March of
2021. Most of our students remained virtual for the 2020-21 school year. For the class of 2021 we saw a dramatic increase in the number of graduates attending local community colleges, many for financial reasons as our local 2-year colleges provide free tuition and fees for 2 years. Many 2021 graduates also chose to stay closer to home due to the COVID pandemic. In the past, 60+ % of our graduating seniors enrolled in 4-year colleges and 25+% enrolled in 2-year colleg-
es. Overall about 70+% of our students meet 4-year college entrance requirements despite where they choose to enroll.”
Thank you, that’s incredibly honest and detailed. I don’t disagree with how our school district has handled Covid, but transparency has never been a strong point.
My children’s high school did not even mention in the profile that they were remote for virtually all of the 2020-2021 school year. I was absolutely stunned. Like it was normal year??!! All they did was explain the pass/fail policy for spring 2020. I have no idea if this was an oversight or was nefarious. I think that grades for most kids were higher in remote learning than they would have been in person, and if the school had admitted that they didn’t teach much and handed out grades that weren’t deserved during the 2019-2020 school year it would have reflected badly on its students (including mine) in terms of college admissions. I can’t think of any other reason they would hide the fact they were closed for so long. This is what the current profile says: “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all XXX schools transitioned from classroom instruction to distance learning the 4th quarter of the2019-2020 school year. As a result, the traditionally used grading policy was altered for the Spring Semester of the 2019-2020 school year. For the 2019-2020 Spring Semester only, all XXX schools utilized a Credit/No Mark grade reporting system for all students. The marks received during the 2019-2020 Spring semester are not reflected in the student’s GPA. Due to AB 104, we were mandated to offer students the opportunity to change any letter grade from any class taken in the 2020-2021 school year to Pass/No Pass.”
Interesting that grades went up. In our district, we had two opposite trends. The number of A grades went slightly up, and the number of failing grades increased significantly.
Actually, I would say for most kids grades went up. If you showed up and did the minimum amount of work, you got at least an A-. There definitely were some who did more poorly too. What I heard was that there were more As given, but also more Ds and Fs.
Yes, D23’s private school has updated its general school profile; but, also, the specific COVID circumstances for a particular student are addressed in the counselor letter (for colleges that require those letters). For example, last school year D23’s school did not offer certain class levels during hybrid learning, resulting in D23 taking college prep biology, rather than the honors biology she would have normally taken.
Specificity is so important – “hybrid” schedule doesn’t mean much without more context. At D23’s school, hybrid meant certain classes were always in person and others (e.g. math, world language) were entirely online. (That was to maintain stable cohorts, which, in retrospect, wasn’t really necessary, but I don’t blame the school for trying to follow state guidance.)
And, no, D23’s school wasn’t handing out As like candy as a reward for showing up. Increasingly, I’m just shaking my head at the move toward test optional or, like the UC (we’re in California), test blind. How in the world are college admissions officers evaluating transcripts given all the variables: remote/hybrid/in person; lax grading at some, but not all, schools (on top of already pervasive grade inflation); and, apparently, rampant student cheating (but not at all schools, as some actually employed strategies to prevent this).
This was the Covid statement on our high school’s profile:
“Due to school closures and changes in grading policies in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, XXX High School will not
report an exact class rank. Students will be given a percentile rank. In 2019-2020 students had an option to receive a
numerical grade or a P (pass) or an IN (incomplete) in courses not completed or passed. In 2020-2021 students received
a numerical grade or an NC (no credit) in courses not completed or passed. New York State regents exams were waived
for both years, reflected by E (exemption).”
