VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — On Friday, Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence announced teachers won’t grade students' work during the fourth-marking period. He made the decision to end grades for the school year in the third marking period which ended Friday.
Dr. Spence said it’s not fair to grade students working from home during this time due to their access to technology and their home environment.
He said, “It’s unfair to grade them. Grading them would be grading them on their access to technology, their WiFi, the consistency of their home environment, and all of those other factors that I mentioned rather than grading them on what they are leaning, and our intention is not to do that. However, we have to know that they are continuing to engage in the learning. Our teachers are calling our families. They are meeting with them online.”
On Monday, teachers will start an emergency learning plan. While teachers won’t grade their work, Dr. Spence said that doesn’t mean students can stop doing their assignments. They still have to do their work during the fourth marking period, because the Department of Education requires students to continue learning in order to get credit and move on to the next grade.
“If you stop working, we will not be able to promote you to the next grade level. If you stop working, we will not be able to grant you credit,” Spence explained.
Next year could be challenging according to Dr. Spence. He believes this time stuck at home could affect students' learning. He said there may be gaps in learning, and he’s looking at ways to solve that problem during the next school year.
He asked, “Do we need to expand our school calendar? Are we going to need to provide additional tutoring assistance? Are we going to need to provide additional after-school or extended summer learning opportunities?
School leaders are still trying to deal with this national emergency. Dr. Spence said the coronavirus pandemic has forced the division to put a freeze on hiring and on non-essential spending. He said city leaders recently told him because of a loss of local revenue, the division will lose more than $40 million in funding for two years.
Spence said that number is not including a loss of state funding, which could affect teacher raises.
“If we roll back the 3.5% compensation increase that would be a cost-saving, which would save the division about $19 million is one of our recommendations,” Spence said. "That decision has not been finalized.”
As for graduation this year, Spence said it won’t be the same as past years, but leaders are looking at several options.
“Right now, we are leaning towards a face to face graduation. Next week we will announce a few things we know about that and finalize some plans,” he said.