BEAUMONT, Texas — Governor Abbott announced Friday that schools will not reopen for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic school year. But that doesn't mean the learning stops. Instead, several districts are moving forward.
School is not in session, but flexible learning is still happening. Some schools are looking into different grading policies for students during the coronavirus pandemic.
A grading policy some schools are using is pass, fail, and incomplete.
This means students who are doing the work will pass. If students don't complete their assignments or are not communicating with their teachers during this time of flexible learning, they will either fail or get an incomplete status.
In Vidor, if a student receives a "fail" or "incomplete" status, they will be required to go to summer school to complete the work. Other schools are waiting for more guidance by the Texas Education Agency and will update their grading policy accordingly.
Port Arthur is also making changes, but the district's new policy is still in the works. The superintendent said students need to understand that just because you can't return to school, that doesn't mean you need to stop learning.
"The gap would be so wide if you did nothing from now until August. It would be almost impossible to catch up," said Port Arthur ISD Superintendent Dr. Mark Porterie.
In regard to grade point average (GPA) for high school students, some schools are still doing normal grading, while others are using the GPA of the fall 2019 school semester.
