Grading Policy in the Time of COVID-19: Considerations and Implications for Equity

The COVID-19 pandemic creates unprecedented conditions for K-12 teaching and learning, and education leaders everywhere are working quickly to make the best policy decisions possible. Knowing that the current context is dramatically different than previous school years and that students’ access to learning from home varies, how should schools grade student performance?

This brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform, Grading Policy in the Time of COVID-19: Considerations and Implications for Equity, explores some of the policy options California districts and other states have pursued, as well as considerations and tradeoffs related to equity. The pandemic serves as a reminder that achieving equity for all students has always been a challenge; differential access to learning threatens to exacerbate existing disparities among students, schools, and districts. But it also raises the question: What can we do to shift this current circumstance to transform a broken, inequitable system to one that provides a high quality education for all?