San Francisco To Pass Kids Who Score 21% On Tests — In The Name Of ‘Equity’

San Francisco’s public school’s chief announced a “Grading for Equity” plan that will affect more than 10,000 high school students in the deep blue city.

The new grading system will award scores as low as a 41 on a 100-point test with a C grade, according to the Voice of San Francisco. Students with a score as low as 21 out of 100 will pass exams with a D grade, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Maria Su, San Francisco Superintendent of Schools, unveiled the plan on Tuesday, without seeking approval from the San Francisco Board of Education, according to The Voice of San Francisco. The plan will go into effect this fall, in 14 high schools in the San Francisco area, with training for teachers in August.

Su announced the program on the last slide of a 25-page PowerPoint board meeting. Her staffers say they have no authority to reject the plan, according to the Free Beacon, while plans to train teachers in the new grading system are set to be implemented in August, according to The Voice of San Francisco.

The plan follows a $110 million budget reduction for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Off The Press said in an X post that this program “eliminates homework from final grades.” While The Voice of San Francisco says that “Grading for Equity” eliminates the toll of weekly tests on a student’s grade.

With the new system, grades for the entire semester rely on a final exam that can be retaken multiple times, according to The Free Beacon, and an 80 of above on a 100-point exam will count as an A.

Teachers will have the choice of whether or not to implement “Grading for Equity” this fall. However, students and parents will not, and The Voice of San Francisco cites concerns about negative impacts on class rankings, scholarship access, and daily study habits as a result.

Similar grading projects went incredibly poorly, according to Newsweek, which cites the automatic awarding of 50% grade for “reasonably attempted” work in California’s Dublin school district, 2023. This policy was eventually suspended.