On March 25th, Palo Alto School District Superintendent Don Austin made a well-intentioned decision to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Palo Alto Educators Association that determined, “Teachers will provide credit/no-credit grading to secondary students.”

With this, PAUSD became the first in California to adopt a credit/no-credit policy instead of grades for the second semester of the 2019/20 school year. 

It is important that students and parents understand that this policy will have a significant and negative effect on the GPA of any student currently enrolled in Advanced Placement or Honors classes because of lost weighted benefit.

Since PAUSD announced its credit/no-credit policy, many large school districts cited by the California Department of Education including Los Angeles, San Diego Unified School Districts, and San Jose’s East Side Union High School District, have decided to maintain the letter grading system. In these districts, grades were assessed as of March 13 and no student will receive a grade lower than their grade as of that date (grades can only move up).

The vast majority of schools boards throughout the state - those that have announced their grading system and those still in review - have undertaken a transparent process including soliciting input from other school district administrators and board members, high school department chairs, teachers and counselors to carefully weigh this important decision. 

We want the same opportunity in Palo Alto.

This petition urges the Palo Alto School Board to discuss and solicit feedback regarding grading policies for the balance of the school year at their April 21st Board of Education meeting.