Wilkes County Students Given Choices on Grades

Students will decide what shows up on their transcripts

WILKESBORO-Some Wilkes County students won’t get grades for the spring semester. Others will have to choose what ends up on their final transcript. That was what Dr. Donna Cotton, Chief Academic Officer for Wilkes County Public Schools, told local school board members during their meeting Monday.

The changes come thanks to the North Carolina Board of Education, as the group issued new guidelines at the end of last week. Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, Monday’s meeting in Wilkes was a digital version, held over the Zoom app. More than 20 people listened in as Cotton explained what the changes meant for local students.

No Grades for K-5

Under the changed rules, students in kindergarten through 5th grade won’t receive a final grade for the spring semester.

“What will happen is teachers will provide year-end written feedback for students and their families,” Cotton said, “based on their learning for the entire academic school year.”

This won’t be a generic state-issued form. The NC School Board gave local districts permission to create their own documents. Instead, Cotton said, this will be a chance for teachers to give more written communication and discuss what the student learned through the year. The state board’s changes also included more documentation between teachers.

“This year’s teachers will have a form [to] share academic information about students as they move to the next grade,” Cotton said.

The material would also include notes on the student’s social and emotional well-being. Let’s say Tim was in Miss Cooper’s 3rd grade class and he’s moving into 4th grade with Ms. Phillips. Miss Cooper would then be required to put together a document outlining how the student did in her class this semester and things he needs to work on. The idea is to help students and teachers as they adjust to life back in a classroom. The state school board discussed in last week’s meeting a belief that written notes could help.

“Teachers will have more conversations with each other about students’ transition to the next level,” Cotton told the Wilkes board on Monday.

Pass or Fail For Middle School Students

In middle school, students will receive a final course grade of either PC-19 or WC-19. That grade will start with whatever the student earned as of March 13. If on March 13 he or she had a B, then that’s what they started the remote learning session with. Any assignments given during the remote learning period can’t make the grade go down.

“What happens after March 13 can only improve grades,” Cotton said. “Students will be held harmless for any learning after March 13.”

So a Wilkes County middle school student’s report card for spring will either show PC-19 or WC-19. PC-19 is just a code stating that the student passed the course. WC-19 stands for withdrawal, as Cotton explained that the district would not be giving out failing grades for the spring semester.

“A WC-19 will be assigned to any student who wasn’t passing the course on March 13 and through remote learning was not able to get to the point to pass,” Cotton said. “A WC-19 does not mean a student failed. A student may not have been passing on March 13, and through no fault of their own, they couldn’t make it better through remote learning. There could be a lot of things going on at home and we are not going to give students an F when it’s no fault of theirs they did not have the opportunity or the ability to bring that grade up.”

High School Students Must Choose

Under the new guidelines, high school students in grades 9 to 11 have a choice to make. They have to pick how each final course grade for spring 2020 will show up on their transcript. Now what does that mean? Well, they have two options.

In Option 1, the student can simply say they want a number grade. This is something they can request class by class or overall. Then they have to choose between the grade on March 13 and the grade on May 29, at the end of the semester. As with the younger classes, assignments in remote learning can’t cause a grade to drop, so the May 29 score will either be the same or higher than the one on March 13. The benefit of choosing a number grade is that the student will receive course credit and they will get that grade calculated into their GPA.

In Option 2, a student can say they don’t want a number grade, instead going with either a PC-19 (Pass) or a WC-19 (Withdrawal). The potential benefit here is that neither the PC-19 or WC-19 will impact the GPA. Let’s say a student had lower grades than normal this semester. They were passing, but they would lower the overall GPA. By choosing the pass or withdrawal route, the student would avoid that.

“They’ll make those choices after they’ve had advisement from their teacher or school and also after talking to their parent or guardian,” Cotton said. “It is the expectation that every student in grades 9 through 11 will be contacted by a teacher or school counselor over the next several weeks to see what their choice is. This is not just something where we’re going to send out a piece of paper and expect them to fill it out. Every student will be reached by a teacher or school counselor to make sure they understand their choices.”

As for seniors, nothing changed from previous discussions. All senior grades on their transcripts will either be a PC-19 or a WC-19 for the spring semester. As we reported last month, the Wilkes school board will not require a senior project for anyone in the Class of 2020 due to the current ‘stay at home’ order by the governor.

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