DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - The Dallas school board will present a plan to the superintendent later this month on how to grade students are learning from home because of coronavirus.
The district has cancelled class indefinitely and shifted to remote instruction.
Students in Dallas will still receive numeric grades, but the district's chief of school leadership says, "in practice, it'll end up, essentially being as if it is pass/fail."
"It's not counting toward GPA or rank, it is only counting to either give you a grade promotion or award credit at the high school level," says Stephanie Elizalde.
Elizalde says grades must also come from the district's comprehensive curriculum, not from assignments developed by teachers on their own.
"Our concern has nothing to do with our individual teachers but rather, with this distance learning, we must have some sort of consistency," she says.
Elizalde says teachers can assign additional work, but it cannot be graded and count against students. She says all categories of grades will carry the same weight. Prior to the distance learning order, she says homework, assignments and tests would have different impact on a student's grade. Starting with the date distance learning began, Elizalde says all of those categories will have the same effect.
Dallas ISD will also reduce the number of weekly grades in some subjects from two to one.
"Without fail, the majority of our school districts around the state have been very concerned students of agency would be the ones who could complete classroom assignments, and students without connectivity would not be able to be at that point," says Ivonne Durant, Dallas ISD's chief academic officer.
The school board will present the plan to Superintendent Michael Hinojosa for potential changes April 23.