April 20, 2020 Update From Newark Acting Superintendent Salinas

Press release from the Newark Unified School District:

April 20, 2020

Dear Newark Community,

I hope you are all doing well and staying safe. This week I wanted to share a few updates:

Technology– Chromebook distribution continues this week; a big thank you to our school principals and staff for their hard work. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, school principal or email us at [email protected] if you still need support with a device.

Grading– As we have now transitioned to distance learning, we know that our teachers and students are working under different conditions. Teachers are following our district and state guidelines and with new conditions, we will adhere to the following temporary grading guidelines for the remainder of the school year:

Elementary– Overall subject grades (or performance levels for standards) for trimester III report card will not be given. Teachers will give summative comments for each student.

At the time we suspended in-class instruction, students had only 10 days of in-class instruction for the trimester. In addition, not all students have the same access to technology with school closures and distance learning is not conducive to administering elementary assessments. Teachers summative comments will build on the entire school year’s progress and inform next year’s teacher about progress.

Secondary- Secondary teachers will not assign letter grades and instead will use “credit/no credit” to indicate the student’s progress in the class. The temporary “credit/no credit” grading system aligns with CDE’s guidelines to ‘hold students harmless’ during this unique period and also mirrors many neighboring district policies for secondary students as well.

In short, no negative consequences will result from the imposition of the “credit/no credit” grading system with respect to student grade point average (GPA) or to students’ transcripts for college entrance. The California Department of Education (CDE), in conjunction with the University of California and California State University systems, issued a statement indicating acceptance of “credit/no credit” grades in lieu of letter grades for the second semester. The vast majority of private universities, as well as out-of-state universities have indicated the acceptance of alternative grades for the second semester of 2019-2020. Again, the purpose of this flexibility by universities is to ensure that students are ‘held harmless’ by this public health emergency. These changes are temporary, covering only the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year. NUSD will formalize these guidelines with our Board of Education and we are also continually evaluating whether changes will be necessary for the summer or fall terms.

Please know during these unprecedented times that NUSD is aware of the many needs of our families and is committed to making decisions that best support our students and our community. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate this together.

In Community,

Leticia Salinas, Acting Superintendent

This press release was produced by the Newark Unified School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.