Grading policy leads to controversy in central Texas school district

A Marble Falls High School junior who battled COVID-19 while trying to excel in remote learning hopes district officials soon change a grading policy that would waive calculating fourth quarter marks in GPAs.

Last week Zoe Stedman, 15, wrote to school officials and her local newspaper, The Highlander, to bring attention to her situation.

“I am a rising Junior at Marble Falls High School, and I recently recovered from COVID-19. After I contracted the novel coronavirus, I worked tirelessly to finish the year with high grades. That is why I, along with many of my classmates, was devastated to learn that MFHS has decided not to include students' fourth-quarter grades in their GPAs,” Stedman wrote.

School officials made the grading policy decision in May, and communicated it via email to district families on June 1, according to a letter from Marble Falls Independent School District Supt. Chris Allen Chris Allen posted on KXAN.

For students like Stedman, who wants to apply to Stanford and UT Austin, it makes efforts to achieve high grades seem futile.

“I simply ask that MFISD adopt the policy of schools like Pearland and Cypress Fairbanks. who offer students the option of counting their 4th-quarter grades toward their GPA,” Stedman wrote in her June 5 letter to The Highlander. “This policy solution would accommodate students facing impossible circumstances while rewarding those who were able to show up and do well.”

In a phone interview Thursday with the Education Daily Wire, Allen said the policy has not yet been finalized.

“Issues have been raised by parents and we will make determinations that are in the best interests of all students,” Allen said.

“We hope to have the matters resolved no later than next Tuesday [June 16], and communications will follow soon thereafter,” Allen said.

The district educates more than 4,000 students, 1,100 at the high school level.

In response to the coronavirus-mandated closures, the district has sought to serve the diverse needs of students and their families, including providing WiFi access and more than a thousand meals a day, while maintaining robust academic standards, Allen said.

“Marble ISD teachers did heroic work with remote learning, and our social work staff continued to offer help and were able to be responsive to parents in ways that provided them comfort during this time,” Allen said. “We made more than 5,000 phone calls to make sure parents and students were doing all right during this pandemic, and I’m very proud of the work of this district.”