Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times reports that no student will get an F grade during the coronavirus closure, and schools will remain closed this summer.
Blume writes:
No student will receive a failing grade on their spring report card and Los Angeles campuses will be closed not only for the remainder of the academic year, but throughout the summer as well, the district announced Monday.
The actions are the latest sweeping measures taken by the nation’s second-largest school system in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There is still no clear picture in testing, treatments or vaccines and we will not reopen school facilities until state authorities tell us it is safe and appropriate to do so,” L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner said during a Monday video briefing. “The remainder of the school year … will be completed in the current, remote fashion and we will have a summer session in a similar manner.”
The no-fail policy was posted in a late morning bulletin and confirmed by Chief Academic Officer Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, who spoke of educators’ concerns about the family hardships that are likely to limit students’ ability to learn in the district, where 80% of them come from low-income families.
Beutner praised the work of all district staff, especially teachers, during his video briefing, but acknowledged that all students have not had the same access to academic work since campuses closed on March 16.
“Many of the examples we see of successful video learning have a significant selection bias,” Beutner said. “Affluent families with resources at home, schools with years of training and limitless budgets and students with demonstrated aptitude to learn independently. Public schools have in their DNA the commitment to serve all students, irrespective of circumstance, and it will not be so simple.”
The state did not issue a universal mandate on grading, but California Department of Education guidelines say that schools should “enable students to complete state graduation requirements with needed flexibilities” associated with online learning. In their briefings, state officials have stressed that local educators intend to be understanding of students’ situations.
The state guidelines say that schools “should weigh their policies with the lens of equity and with the primary goal of doing no harm to students.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“NYGovCuomo
says there’ll be an announcement later this afternoon on a regional re-opening plan with governors from New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware.”
Really interesting how these governors are just stepping up and filling the void left by the Trump Administration’s incompetence. A regional reopening plan! Good for them.
By the time the Trump Administration gets to work on the virus crisis the governors will already have both closed the country down and opened it back up 🙂
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Trump has NO CLUE. The governors who ignore him and just do the right things to take care of the people in their states are smart to do so.
Fauci is a saint and should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, drumph wants so badly.
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There are reports that Trump may fire Fauci because he gets better press than Trump
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The LA Times had a Banks column this morning proclaiming that Stuporintendent Beutner is “performing admirably”. And this Blume article also gives him far too much credit. The fact is that Beutner wanted to have online classes be just like real classes. The district was pushing to have a continuation of standardized interim testing, a punitive grading policy (I assume, since everyone was going to get WiFi and therefore access); teachers and students videoconferencing for six hours a day in addition to class work, homework, grading, and planning; and a whole bunch of mandatory training for teachers lasting into summer which was not all about online teaching options, but also included mindfulness classes, for example, teaching us to accept the injustices of rigorous, standardized online teaching without complaining.
It was the union that called on Beutner to make the teaching schedule flexible and less onerous, to make grades non-punitive, and the professional development relevant and less time consuming. The union protected students from harm. Beutner dragged his feet. The union saved teachers and students. If we had an experienced educator as superintendent, the positives in our new policies could have been accomplished weeks ago with collaboration instead of negotiation.
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LCT,
Thanks for the clarification.
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It’s great to know that we still have some intelligent people in charge.
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