Kevin Kiley: “last week, San Francisco announced a new grading for equity initiative. As the chair of the Subcommittee on Early…”

“last week, San Francisco announced a new grading for equity initiative. As the chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, this caught my eye. What they are proposing is truly beyond belief. This grading for equity initiative in San Francisco was in a sense a brilliant solution to San Francisco's problem of having so many failing schools. It would simply fiat that kids would not be failed. Anyone who got an F would just magically be given a C. Even if a student got a B-minus all the way down to 81 percent, that would actually be considered an A under this grading for equity initiative. By the way, there would be no grading on anything--not homework, not attendance, not midterms, or anything like that. Grades wouldn't be given at all. The only thing that would actually matter for grades is a final exam. Even then, a student would get to keep retaking it until the student got the grade that he or she wanted. Last week, I raised some concerns about this new initiative. Just for some context, it should be understood that San Francisco has had among the very worst student achievement gaps in the State and anywhere across the country. During COVID, they were just about the last place in the country to reopen their schools. Students were attending class every day with no problem throughout the country and even in other parts of California. Yet, this corrupt school district refused to open its schools.”