March 24, 2021
Dear BGHS Families:
We are excited to announce that we will be holding a special Spring Break NX Academy for our scholars! This program will run from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. beginning on Monday, March 29-Thursday, April 1st.
Our program is designed to provide instructional support for students who have courses in progress that must be completed by June 1, 2021.
As a reminder, in the spring 2020 semester, the New York City Department of Education, issued grading policy guidance for remote learning. The guidance stipulated that high schools must use their existing grading scales for marking period grades for the rest of the year.
Schools were instructed to calculate final grades using their existing grading scales and calculation methods, with the following additional requirements:
- Students whose final grades are failing must be awarded a grade of NX (course in progress).
- Students for whom there is insufficient work to determine a final grade must be awarded a grade of NX.
- If students’ final grades are passing, parents/guardians make the final decision about whether the final grade remains on the existing scale or is updated to credit (CR). This decision was permissible after final report cards were issued in June.
- Grades of CR are not included in students’ GPAs.
For students who received final grades of NX, teachers were instructed to document students’ areas for improvement in gradebooks, report cards, and other existing platforms for recording student progress, so that this information would be accessible for further planning. The DOE provided standards-aligned report card comments in STARS which was used for this purpose.
Given the impact of COVID-19 on our community, students received additional time, through January 31, 2021, to continue working toward passing these courses. You can review the grading policy for blended and remote learning for more information about these expectations at https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/chancellor-s-message-for-families#grading.
Students were eligible for additional time to complete their assignments for these courses if they met one or more of these criteria:
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- Your student experienced sustained device and/or internet connectivity issues;
- Your student experienced a traumatic illness or death in their family; or
- Your student has experienced another hardship that impacted their academic progress.
If one or more of the criteria above applied to your child, we were able to appeal for more time for them to complete their NX courses from our Superintendent. The Superintendent then made a final determination that was shared with me by the beginning of March. At that time, I sent out notifications of the new deadline for completing these courses which is June 1, 2021.
Please note that all sessions for our Spring Break Academy will be remote. Students will be provided with Google Classroom access codes so that they will be able to access the learning management system for the course.
Please contact AP Cami Whittingham, if you have any questions or concerns at [email protected]
or (718)467-1700 Ext. 4001.
Best regards,
Grecian Harrison
Principal