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Guilford County Schools Announce Changes To Grading During Pandemic

A teacher in Guilford County prepares her lessons. KERI BROWN/WFDD (FILE)

Guilford County is offering guidance on the grading process for the remainder of the school year for grades K-12. This comes as districts across the states are adjusting while buildings remain closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

School systems rely on direction from the North Carolina Department of Instruction. Education officials worry about equity issues and missed learning opportunities during the pandemic.

The state says seniors will be given a pass or fail mark for the fourth quarter. Many districts are also working with these students to continue online work in the summer, if they don't pass the classes that are required for graduation.

As for grades K-12, letter grades can't be issued unless schools can ensure all students have access to distance learning. That's nearly impossible, since thousands of students still haven't logged on because of a lack of devices, internet connectivity, and other challenges.

Whitney Oakley, chief academic officer with Guilford County Schools, says third quarter grades will be given based on work completed before the building shutdowns.

“Students will receive grade credit for all of the work that they had completed in their understandings through March 13 and then either the pass or withdraw for the fourth quarter,” she says. “We are still waiting on additional guidance for how grade point averages will be calculated because that will be done at the state level.”

Oakley says teachers in the Guilford County School system have until the end of day on Friday, April 17th to enter grades for any work that was completed prior to March 13th.

The district has added 16 mobile hotspots in school parking lots and distributed more than 13,000 laptops to help students with the changes.

Nearly 7,000 GCS students in grades K-12 still have not logged in for remote learning.

 

For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you're experiencing.

 

*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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