Empty classroom. | John Moore/Getty Images City tweaks grading policy for remote learning, but still no letter grades for most

The city’s Department of Education is proposing slight tweaks to a proposal for grading during remote learning, but letter grades for students younger than high school still appear to be off the table, according to a participant in a call held by schools Chancellor Richard Carranza with advocacy groups Monday afternoon.

Last week, the DOE shared a proposal with elected officials in a conference call in which they said students in kindergarten through eighth grade would receive grades of either “satisfactory” or “needs improvement,” according to a NY1 report. High schools would maintain letter grades but failing grades would instead be marked as “incomplete.”


“Now they have changed the nomenclature but not the substance of the actual policy,” Andrea Ortiz, manager of education policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, told POLITICO.

Ortiz said for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, the DOE proposed using metrics of either “approaching standards” or “meeting standards.”

For students in sixth through eighth grade, the system will also determine if a student is “approaching standards” or “meeting standards” but there will be a third option of “in progress” for students they have not heard from or who haven’t engaged.

For high school, she said, there will still be letter grades but failing grades will be marked as “in progress” so students can receive individualized support in the summer and the fall. High schoolers, regardless of the grades they receive, will also have the option of potentially opting into a pass/fail system so grades don't count against their GPA.

Ortiz was among 100 or so people who participated in the call with Carranza and other Department of Education leaders. The individuals were from advocacy groups that sent a letter to Carranza a couple of weeks ago calling for the creation of a task force to tackle disparities stemming from school closures.

Ortiz said the system is too stringent and she's "very upset about it."

"I raised my concerns pretty vocally in the call about how anything that could potentially give a failing grade to a student or would have any letter grades honestly," she said. "It’s not based on the realities of immigrants’ lives and maybe it’s coming from a place of ignorance because of lack of proximity to the issues that families are facing.”

When asked whether this is a final policy, she said they didn’t quite specify “but it sure sounded like this is where they’re at, and they’re gonna announce it pretty soon.”

The DOE would not confirm the details of the proposed policy.

Not everyone in the education world thinks abandoning traditional grades is helpful to students.

Success Academy, the city’s largest charter network, said Monday it will continue its normal grading practices under remote learning. In a letter to students and families, Success CEO Eva Moskowitz suggested proposals from the city and other places like San Francisco and Seattle could ultimately hurt children academically.

There have been competing views on how best to tackle grading for the city’s 1.1 million public schoolchildren, many of whom still don't have sufficient access to remote learning technology.

Parent-Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, has called for dropping students’ lowest grade from this school year’s three marking periods.

A number of parent leaders and advocacy groups, along with City Council education chair Mark Treyger, sent a letter to Carranza and Mayor Bill de Blasio calling for a series of measures, including ensuring all seniors graduate and all students are promoted to the next grade.

They also said all elementary school students should get narrative reports for marking periods and no grades, and that all middle and high school students get full credit for the marking period.

"I think the most pressing issue before the DOE is how do you find baseline — how do you make up for lost instruction for thousands and thousands of children who were already shortchanged and traumatized before the pandemic?” Treyger said.

Treyger said the DOE has to assess reading and writing levels as well as students' ability to adapt to the use of technology. And, he said, learning levels should be aligned with the City University of New York, the State University of New York and the DOE's own admissions policies.

The New York Immigration Coalition Education Collaborative also sent a letter to Carranza calling on the DOE to give full-course credit or “pass” in lieu of formal grading systems, promote all students to the next grade level and identify students who need additional support.