District leaders have presented the policy used to grade remote schoolwork as equitable, offering students time to improve their letter grades without the risk of failing. But a growing contingent of student activists and teachers say it has torn up the playing field for already disadvantaged students, in part because those who complete work on paper but not online are ineligible for letter grades.
Lane Tech College Prep junior Finley Williams said the “vast majority” of CPS students she’s aware of oppose the grading policy announced April 30. She cited widely circulated petitions with nearly 20,000 signatures in remarks last week to the Chicago Board of Education.
“It does not allow students without access to technology to raise their grades,” she argued, calling the incomplete a “thinly veiled fail” that penalizes students and “will doubtless result in thousands of students enrolled in virtual summer school.”
Even a “pass” punishes high-achieving students who are unable to perform as well as they could when in class with in-person support, she said.
She suggested that incomplete grades should only be given to students who were already failing a class prior to remote learning.
Walter Payton College Prep senior Zachary Vanderslice said a pass grade under the district’s policy “communicates a student was not able to keep up a grade” and is effectively a reduction.
Yet he said students are without the support structures of school.
“Expecting graded projects and quizzes of students ignores the reality that they’re struggling with depression and anxiety, already find(ing) it difficult to simply get up in the morning,” Vanderslice said.
Avery Sims, a junior at Westinghouse College Prep representing the student activist group, Chi Student Pandemic Response, asked for a policy that takes into account more of the situations students are facing at home.
“It does not seem to account for the students that are trying to provide for their families, that are essential workers,” Sims said.
While finalizing grades, one teacher tweeted that seeing students at risk of an incomplete “is emotionally devastating.”
“We are basically just grading for socioeconomic status,” the teacher said.
Another CPS teacher, Roxana Gonzalez, said she recently asked her students how things were going at home, and read some of their responses to the school board last week. One student works every day filling Instacart orders. Another whose parents still have to go to work babysits three young children. One student told Gonzalez: “It’s OK, but I’ve lost some family members to COVID.”
“I just feel really disconnected from everything, and I seem not to care about things anymore, but I do care, but I don’t have the motivation or drive to even show it,” one student wrote in an email Gonzalez read. “I don’t really know how to fix myself, and I don’t know if it’s just me.”
Gonzalez, who said she teaches in Belmont Cragin, finished reading the email and added: “The truth is, it’s not just them.”
“It’s no exaggeration when I say that many of our students and families are struggling to survive,” she said. “... When my students don’t complete work because they are themselves working, caring for sick family members or feeling the weight of this collective traumatic experience, it’s not because they’re unmotivated or careless. The grading policy rewards those with privilege that shields them from these hardships and will disproportionately affect students without access, which we know are our immigrant, undocumented, black and brown youth.”
African American and Latino students, along with English learners, have been much less likely to log into Google learning platforms used by the district than their white peers.
Students shouldn’t have to worry about grades and the possibility of summer school during a pandemic, Gonzalez said.
As summer school will also be virtual this year, Chicago Teachers Union leaders and other critics have questioned how that will benefit students who need the extra classes because they still lack digital access.
Board of Education member Lucino Sotelo raised concerns at the meeting about how the district is going to work with such students, asking: “What are we going to do to first reach them, engage them to enroll?”
He asked how to pinpoint what’s hindering students from participating in remote learning and what the district can do about it.
“I cannot say that remote learning in the summer is going to all of a sudden miraculously be so much new and improved in comparison to what’s happening today, but what I will say is we have an obligation to make sure we are opening up opportunities for students," said Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade.
Though CPS did loan out 122,000 laptops and tablets to students, others still need devices or internet access, and the district is looking at how to get those to students so they can participate in summer school, McDade said. For families who are choosing not to do online learning, the district can continue to provide packets.
On WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” on Thursday, CEO Janice Jackson said the district “definitely will use the summer to implement our remote learning plan for summer school while also strengthening our remote plan should we need to use it in the fall.”
“But we’re also looking at a variety of options ... for what the fall may look like. We don’t yet know.” CPS will continue to make decisions driven by public health professionals, she said.
For this year, the traditional “Summer Bridge” program is renamed “Summer Learning," and will target students in first through eighth grade who have incomplete final grades in math or reading. Other programs include virtual credit recovery, acceleration and what’s known as Extended School Year, already the norm for many students with special education plans.
“This year, more than ever, summer school represents a much-needed opportunity to provide students with additional support," McDade said.
Summer school typically starts in late June.
The district will also offer educators more extensive professional development over the summer, she said.
The district will continue to provide uninterrupted food delivery for families and grab-and-go meals, rather than its usual summer meals program.
So far, Chicago Public Schools estimates spending about $44 million to address the pandemic, Chief Operating Officer Arnie Rivera said. That includes an estimated $24.4 million on technology such as laptops, tablets and internet hot spots.
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