Nobody will receive an ‘F’ at this Minnesota middle school. Here is their reasoning

Students at a Minnesota middle school no longer have to worry about receiving an “F” on any assignment. In the school’s grading scale, anything below a 50% does not exist.

If a Sunrise Park Middle School student were to not turn in their work, for example, they would not receive a 0%, according to a school video published Sept. 24. Instead, they would receive an “I” for incomplete. An I, like grades A-D, ranges about 10 percentage points — 50% to 59.49%.

In the video, principal Christina Pierre and associate principal Norman Bell explained the school’s grading system.

In an example explaining why the change was necessary, Pierre asked viewers to imagine a student who received a “B,” “C” and “I” on tests because they were absent for the third exam. She said the average grade for this student should be about a “D,” but that’s not the case with traditional grading.

An ”I’ would typically be worth 0 points, bringing down the other grades that represent about a 10-point span. The student’s overall grade would be an “I.”

“Clearly you can see that that ‘I’ being so far away when you average those grades is really going to have a lot of influence on the overall grade,” Pierre said. But, when giving the “I” the same grading interval as all others, the overall grade becomes a “D.”

To accomplish this, the “I” grade must be worth at least 50%, she said, which then eliminates the ”F.”

“Our whole intent is to ensure that grades focus on the process of learning,” Pierre said. “This is what we want our middle school students to learn and understand. We want them to become good learners.”

Encouraging students to truly learn the material, grades will not reflect anything other than what the student understands in relation to the school’s “learning targets,” Bell explained. This means factors like late work, extra credit, behavior and tardiness will not effect a student’s letter grade.

“There’s other ways that we can communicate those things to parents, and so they’re not going to be included in grades,” Pierre said. “We recognize that this is really increasing the rigor of grades. We’re insisting that students make sure that they learn the material.”

Unlike many other schools, Sunrise Park Middle School administrators shared that their students are encouraged to retake and revise any assignments or exams that they didn’t do as well as they hoped on.

“We realize that not every kid gets it the first time,” Pierre said. “Some students need more time to learn something than others.”

The school’s students will have 10 days from when the assignment grade was posted to complete a redo, and teachers will work with students to ensure they have learned the material before any corrections.

“We want our students to know that learning takes work, and we really want to encourage our students to put in the work that it takes to learn correctly,” Pierre said.

Sunrise Park Middle School is part of White Bear Lake Area Schools. This year, district Superintendent Wayne Kazmierczak was named Minnesota Superintendent of the Year.

In a news release explaining his accomplishments, the district explained his work on an equity audit following the killing of George Floyd.

“An example from the equity audit was the grading disparities among students of color. Grading can be one of the largest areas in which systemic racism and inequities are perpetuated,” the release says. “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.

“Under Dr. Kazmierczak’s leadership and in line with the district’s strategic plan and commitment to eliminating systemic racism, the district began tackling grading disparities a year ago when they dramatically changed their grading practices. Leaders in the district know that they will be supported as they have never been before because of the strategic work that has already been done all through the lens of equity.”

This Minnesota middle school isn’t the first to eliminate “F” grades. Also this year, McClatchy News reported the Sacramento City Unified School District “implemented a new grading policy in which the minimum grade a student can receive is 50%. The move is designed to create a more equitable grading system.”