Minnesota Middle School Announces It Will Stop Giving ‘F’s To Fight ‘Systemic Racism’ | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ashe Schow.

    Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, is the latest school to change its grading system in the name of combating "systemic racism."

    In a YouTube video, the middle school announced that it would eliminate the "F" grade.

    "Our whole intent is to ensure that grades focus on the process of learning," Principal Christina Pierre said in the video, according to Fox News. "Therefore, grades will not include behaviors, attitude, tardiness to class, whether the assignment was turned in late or on time. There's other ways that we can communicate those things to parents."

    Associate Principal Norman Bell added that students would be encouraged to retake tests and quizzes and to revise papers and projects within 10 days of grades getting posted.

    As noted by Fox, the school website mentions that an "equity audit" had been conducted and found "grading disparities among students of color," according to Fox.

    "Grading can be one of the largest areas in which systemic racism and inequities are perpetuated. Dr. Kazmierczak and WBLAS believe grades should be a measure of what a student knows and has mastered in a given course. Grading should not be a behavior punishment and should not be a measure of how well a student can survive stress at home," the website states.

    The removal of the "F" grade by Sunrise Park is strikingly similar to the new grading policies of Clark County, Nevada. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Clark County also eliminated the "F" grade, replacing it with a "W" to indicate students are "working on standards below grade level." Students grade 6-12 can also receive a "P" for "Passing (to be used for specific courses designated by the Academic Unit.)"

    Like Sunrise Park, the new Clark County policy also states that "Grades shall not be influenced by behavior or other nonacademic measures (e.g., late or missing assignments, attendance, participation, responsibility)."

    After a backlash to the new grading policy, Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara defended the policy, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Jara said the policy promoted equity, the latest buzzword of progressives to use instead of equality, since equity refers to outcomes instead of opportunities.

    "Over the summer, the school board voted to change the district's grading policy. It will allow students to revise assignments and retake tests, and will eliminate some behavioral factors like attendance and participation from grades," the Review-Journal reported. "But some have opposed the changes, saying they lower standards for students."

    Jara stood firm, insisting the new policy doesn't lower standards.

    "It is not about lowering the standards," Jara said. "Again, [it's] holding children accountable to demonstrate what they know."

    Jara also told the outlet that the new grading policy wouldn't go into effect when school started again but would be implemented in the near future.

    KLAS reported that some have spoken out against the new policy, saying it will lower standards and ultimately harm students.

    "This grade change takes behaviors completely out of the question," Tam Lester, teacher at Del Sol Academy, told the outlet. "And it, arguably, at the detriment of the student."

    What they will need is those learner-ready behaviors," Lester said, adding, "things like focus, things like participation, things like time management. Some of these policies are taking those away."

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