Photo: Getty Images
Some of California's largest school districts are nixing "D" and "F" grades, making bad report cards a thing of the past.
According to NewsNation Now, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Oakland Unified, Sacramento City Unified, and several other California districts have decided to phase out "Fs" in grading and limit the use of "Ds."
Instead, high schoolers who fail a test or assignment can get a do-over or more time to complete the work.
Students who never finish their assignments or who fail the final exam would earn an "incomplete," according to Bay City News.
This approach is called competency-based learning. Its advocates argue that assessment should be based on what students have learned, not how they test.
“What mastery learning does is really allow students every opportunity to show that they know the material and if they don’t know the material, to get the support they need to be able to demonstrate it,” Steven Kellner with California Education Partners told NewsNation Now.
Its critics say the new grading system just lies about students' progress.
“One teacher takes homework assignments late, the other has extra credit, one curves scores on tests, so there is a clear and objective unfairness to students if they get one teacher versus another,” said Alix Gallagher with Policy Analysis for California Education.