San Francisco Unified School District was set to implement a pilot program called “Grading for Equity,” but the plan sparked widespread public backlash for its merit-lowering approach. The plan lowers the grading scale; ignores class tardiness and drops homework assignments; and allows students to retake a test multiple times after failing.
San Francisco schools oversees about 50,000 students in 122 schools. The largest student demographic is Asian students, who make up about 38% of the student population, followed by Hispanic students at 30%.
A pilot program for 10,000 students was set to begin in the fall, for the 2025-2026 school year, at 14 schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.
The main person behind “Grading for Equity” appears to to be Superintendent Maria Su, who requested approval for the pilot phase when she appeared at a May 27 school board meeting.
The Voice of San Francisco, an online news outlet, is credited with being the first news outlet to report on Su and the “Grading for Equity” plan. Its story says the pilot program was sneakily buried in the school board’s 25-page board agenda, where there is only one direct reference to it.
Since that initial story, public uproar and Superintendent Su’s overnight reversal have been reported by numerous news outlets, including Fox News and Newsweek.
“Grading for Equity” has since been denounced by everyone from San Francisco’s mayor to a Democrat congressman, Ro Khanna, who represents the 17th District.
“Giving A’s for 80% & no homework is not equity,” Rep. Knana complained in an X post, “it betrays the American Dream and every parent who wants more for their kids.”
Randy Thomasson, of Save California.com, tells AFN the “quick reversal shows that the 'educrats' don’t mind treating kids as guinea pigs."
“This is just an experimental thing. They have no evidence that doing no grades for academics would work,” he says, “And when 70% of California public school children can't read, write, or compute comprehensively, you know there's a big problem."
The title of the plan, “Grading for Equity,” Thomasson adds, gives the plan away that educators have “totally abandoned standards” for students in the classroom.
“It is now to try to make children feel good,” he complains.
Rather than admit the “equity” plan was a mistake, Superintendent Su has stated she postponed the plan because of misunderstanding and “misinformation” about it.
“I have decided not to pursue this strategy for next year to ensure we have time to meaningfully engage the community,” she said in a statement.
