Suspend Grading Protocols for all K-12 New Jersey Students
Governor Phil Murphy and Commissioner Dr. Lamont Repollet:
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a host of unanticipated trauma and challenges that students, teachers, and parents/guardians/caregivers have never encountered before and accentuated many others that already existed. In the midst of this pandemic, we have undertaken a rapid and sudden transition from traditional schooling to schooling in the midst of a crisis at home.
Our students who are already most impacted by educational injustice will be most harmed by the "business as usual" approach towards grading and schooling during the middle of a global crisis.
Many of our students and their families are facing a host of challenges that range from, but are not limited to:
- parental unemployment
- parents juggling work from home and teaching during a crisis
- food insecurity
- socio-emotional challenges
- lack of or uneven and inequitable access to wifi/internet/technology
- new and unfamiliar learning platforms
- Sickness and/or death in the family
- lack of access to accommodations, teaching aids, and other supports for bilingual, ESL, 504, and students with (dis)abilities
New Jersey educators have been provided the much needed relief of having standardized tests and SGOs canceled this school year. This courtesy must be extended to our most vulnerable populations, our children.
Petition by
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To:
Governor Phil Murphy and Commissioner Dr. Lamont Repollet:
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Governor Phil Murphy and Commissioner Dr. Lamont Repollet:
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, students and their families have been faced with a host of challenges that have made learning during this crisis not only difficult but also uneven and inequitable.
Unfortunately, at this time, we can not fully assess the impact that COVID-19 will have on us going forward, let alone the impact it is having in the moment. It will be years before we find out the true effects that COVID-19 will have on current and future student-learning, and the social emotional well-being of their communities, families, and educators.
Because of this, it will be inappropriate to assess and grade students as if they are operating and learning in a "normal" school setting, and under "normal" circumstances. The state has already correctly canceled all state-sponsored standardized tests for students along with the SGOs for their educators. Therefore, we ask that the Governor and Commissioner of Education suspend grading for this marking period and the remainder of the school year.
We are asking that this marking period, all participating students be given As, and that students who have not done any work after being provided multiple resources and multiple attempts by the teacher, school, and district be given a grade of “incomplete.” We are asking further that these “incompletes” hold no negative weight on their GPA.
This will be a necessary and reasonable move by state officials to issue this mandate. It is not enough to leave this to the discretion of individual districts; this must be a state initiative.
Sincerely,