In the recent weeks, COVID-19 has shut down many schools and overall areas across the world. This has never happened in recent times. Because of this, schools around the world, including Westport schools, are simply “going with the flow.” This go with the flow attitude that Westport schools have adopted applies to all aspects of home school life, including grading.

Recently, Bedford has changed its grading style for the fourth quarter to pass or fail, in which a D- is an A+ and vice versa. This is in place of having exact numerical grades that tend to make students stressed. That is why Bedford has switched to pass or fail: so students no longer have to worry about one, two, or even ten points, as it shouldn’t make a difference in the quarter’s grade. 

On the other hand, some are skeptical about if this style of grading will remain throughout the entire fourth quarter. In an email, Dr. Rosen said that “…in the end, it will depend on how much time we have back in school if we’re able to return.” Dr. Rosen is talking about what will happen in terms of grading if students and staff members are able to go back to school in the 2019-2020 school year.

That email was sent on April 8 and since then, it has been confirmed that Bedford will not reopen until at least May 20. Adding on, many people that are deeply involved with this have maintained that it is unlikely that Connecticut schools will return until the 2020-2021 school year. In Dr. Rosen’s email, he made it clear that if distance learning was going to remain for the rest of the year, so was pass or fail grading.

Many students have very positive attitudes towards distance learning, as they no longer have to worry about their grades (as much). 7th grader Brett Lampert says “I think that pass or fail was a good idea because it helps eliminate stress from students’ lives. In this time period, it is very important that students have low levels of stress because of all of the concerns going on in the world. I think pass or fail will help eliminate this stress.” It seems like this opinion is shared with many other Bedford students, too.

Overall, it seems like the pass or fail grading system, which students love so much due to the fact that it reduces stress, will be the grading system for the entire 4th quarter and therefore will be the grading system for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.