Aligning itself with other area school districts, the San Juan district changed its grade policy Friday to allow students to receive letter grades.

Previously, the district had announced that as classes resumed online and “to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 response,” the only grade teachers would assign was credit or no credit. Unlike pass/fail grades, credit/no credit has no effect on grade point average.

Credit/no credit will still be used for interim grading period marks and will be the default grade for final semester marks. A district statement explaining the change said:

“For many students, (credit/no credit) will be the best option in the distance learning modelThe University of California and California State University system, as well as many of the top private universities in the nation, have endorsed this model and shared that it will not impact a student’s ability to earn college admission.”

The statement continued: “However, we also recognize that for a variety of reasons students may want to earn a letter grade. For example, this could be especially important for students working to increase their GPA. To support all of our learners, our high schools will allow students to petition for a letter grade for the fourth quarter or term.”

Teachers must notify students of their letter grade and the impact that remaining work will have on that grade by May 29.

Students may change their minds and switch back to a credit/no credit grade until June 9.

The full statement is available here.