Good grades are better than Pass/Fail

What does it mean for your child now that their classes will not return to school campuses for the rest of this spring semester? It means that you need to become both teacher and guidance counselor to ensure that your child stays on track.

Teachers and administrators have scrambled to learn how to conduct lectures in an online group setting. They are struggling to test students to determine if they understand the concepts covered in this new classroom venue. Some students don’t have access to high-speed internet or computers to partake in these classes. This isn’t fair to anyone – especially those students who don’t have laptops or teachers who don’t have the technical support to set up Zoom or Hangout classrooms.

As final exams loom over every high school teacher, schools are making difficult decisions about how to assign grades for courses taken this spring semester. College-bound students need strong GPAs and transcripts to be competitive in the college admissions race. I’m hearing that many high schools are succumbing to giving pass/fail marks instead of letter grades.

Average students benefit from pass/fail because colleges won’t know if they’re an A or a D student. For students applying to selective colleges, these pass/fail grades create a question mark about these courses. These students need to do other things to stand out in the college admissions process.

In addition to the problem with pass-fail courses on student transcripts, students really aren’t going to learn all of the concepts that would normally be taught in these classes. They lost several weeks of instruction due to the chaos that the shelter-in-place order caused in every school. Many classes have been reduced to just once zoom class per week while all other interaction with teachers consists of turning in homework assignments.

The problem with this scenario is that the students are expected (and need) to know all of these concepts in order for them to transition into the next class in the fall. That means that they’ll be starting the next level of instruction with a gap in their knowledge and skill set. This isn’t fair to their future teachers who will then attempt to teach those skills that weren’t taught this year along with all of the new concepts and skills they were planning to teach during the next school year.

Here’s what you can do as parent, teacher, and guidance counselor to your child:
1. Talk to your child’s teachers to determine what concepts will NOT be covered this year. Then look for resources that will help bridge this gap. Consider online lectures, videos, textbooks and other materials.

2. Use a planner to help your children organize their time so they can be sure to cover the additional reading, videos, or projects to supplement each of their academic classes. It’s easy for them to skip these extra steps amidst the lack of normalcy at home.

3. Insist that courses receive grades (not pass/fail) and work with your school to find solutions.

4. Hire a tutor who can teach concepts that your child is having difficulty with. Don’t let this snowball into a big problem next year.

5. If your children aren’t learning in one or more of their classes, consider enrolling them in accredited classes taught one-on-one with a real teacher (using Google Hangouts). They’ll have customized classes that focus just on your child. These courses will receive real grades (not pass/fail) and your children’s GPAs will be more favorable to college admissions officers.