The San Francisco Board of Education will be holding discussions and voting to change the admissions criteria of Lowell High School for the 2021-2022 school year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s Unified School District announced in an email to KCBS Radio.
The existing Admissions Board uses grade point average and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) scores from a student’s 7th grade and the first semester of 8th grade to offer admission to Lowell High School. Since the data isn't available for this year’s applicants, the school district is unable to offer admissions.
The Board of Education adopted an alternative grading system this spring in which 6th to 12th grade students were assigned “Credit/No Credit” for each course. The SBAC was not administered in Spring 2020 as directed by California Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency order suspending the test.
SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews has proposed a policy in which students who live in San Francisco and want to apply to Lowell High School will use the same application form used for all District comprehensive high schools and have an opportunity to be assigned to Lowell High School without the GPA or test score requirement.
“With Lowell, just as with all our high schools, we’re committed to academic rigor and equitable access,” Dr. Matthews said. “This policy is a response to the pandemic and the recommendation is that we do this for one year given current conditions.”
Board President Mark Sanchez added that in facing the pandemic, the board has had to adjust its existing structure to meet the moment.
“This discussion is coming before the Board in time for us to give clear information to 8th graders and their families at the beginning of the fall enrollment cycle.”
The Board of Education is holding a meeting on October 13 at 3:00 p.m. In order to meet the timeline for the fall enrollment process, the Board of Education plans to vote at the regular board meeting on October 20.
