Cobb schools issue academic guidance

Cobb schools issue academic guidance for end of 2019-20 year

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Cobb schools guidance academic year

After Gov. Brian Kemp closed schools for the rest of the school year, the Cobb County School District on Thursday issued academic guidance for the final few weeks.

The district has been keeping a running update at this link, and the following are the important bullet points added about grades, etc., at all school levels:

  • No students’ grades at the end of the second semester can be lower than the grades received on Friday, March 13, 2020.

  • Give students a choice to accept their grades as of Friday, March 13, 2020 as final grades for 2019-2020 OR continue to earn grades for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year to improve their grade(s).

  • Report grades as pass/fail for all students in all K-8 courses. High school courses will be reported as grades for GPA calculation purposes.

  • Continue to provide academic, emotional, and social support for student needs for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.

  • Allow work submitted after March 13th to be used for grades or to measure what students know. Specific directions will be provided by your principal. Any work submitted will only have a positive impact on a student’s grade(s).

  • Allow any student who was on track to graduate on Friday, March 13, 2020 to receive credit for all courses for which they were enrolled on or before March 13th.

That guidance, the district said, is based on recommendations from the Georgia Department of Education.

Cobb Board of Education member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, said in her e-mail newsletter Friday that “our efforts to move school to home should not be additional stress for our families nor the teachers. Please just do your best and we acknowledge that that will look different for each family.”

The district also indicated it was “actively evaluating all options related to graduation ceremonies,” but didn’t indicate what those options might be.

Next week is spring break, and the district had announced earlier there will be no distance learning next week.

The student meal distribution program the district began with MUST Ministries when schools closed in mid-April will continue the week of spring break and through the end of the school year. Pickup times are Mondays from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at eight schools, including East Cobb Middle School.

Principals have been communicating with their school communities about the end of “in-person” learning.

Here’s part of what Lassiter principal Chris Richie wrote in a letter to school families:

“We often wish that we could have school for the sake of learning and we now have an opportunity to have great discussions with our kids as you make decisions as a family on how to proceed in individual classes. Regardless of whether your child chooses to improve their grade(s) or take their grade(s) as of March 13, the skills, curriculum, and learning opportunities they are exposed to will benefit them in future courses. Teachers can notify your child of their grade as of March 13. All graded assignments added to the gradebook after that date will only benefit the student’s overall final average. Any assignment not submitted after March 13 will be left blank in the gradebook. We will continue to instruct and assess until grades close out on May 20.”

He said starting the week of April 13—when spring break is over—digital learning will be reduced to four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesdays are for students to catch up on classwork and for teacher planning.

He also expressed sorrow for the Lassiter seniors who won’t be having a traditional commencement exercise:

“How do we say goodbye to 500 plus seniors to let them know how much we all appreciate their work, their community service, and celebrate them as the graduating class of 2020? We all truly hurt for our seniors who were looking forward to so many awesome Lassiter senior traditions. How do we properly end the school year for our exceptional freshman, sophomore, and juniors and let them know how much we are all looking forward to their leadership next school year?”

One more thing he noted, and the district has stressed this as well, is to consult the Emergency Crisis Hotline for those having difficulties adapting not only to the new learning process, but in coping with the effects of the Coronavirus crisis.

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