NC students couldn't take core classes pass/no pass under proposed policy change

Students would need to earn a passing letter grade in most high school courses to be able to graduate, instead of receiving a pass/no pass grade, under a proposed policy change that's up for a vote this week.

That would be a change in some school systems, where students may not be receiving a letter grade during the credit recovery process. It’s unclear how many school systems allow students to take core graduation requirements pass/no pass or how many students take advantage of that.

Credit recovery is supposed to only be for portions of a course, not for an entire course, according to Sneha Shah-Coltrane, director of advanced learning and gifted education with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI). But some students may still be able to take core graduation requirements pass/no pass because State Board of Education policy doesn’t spell out when it’s OK to do that.

The State Board of Education on Thursday will vote on whether to change the board’s graduation transcript policy to require that all non-elective graduation-required class — such as English and math classes — be graded with letters.

If approved, it would go into effect during the 2025-26 school year.

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As the policy is currently written, there could be students taking all classes as pass/no pass, Shah-Coltrane told the board during its October meeting.

"Not to say that is happening," she said.

But a student who chose to do that could potentially graduate with a 1.6 GPA, for example.

DPI officials spent months consulting with school system leaders about the changes. During a state board meeting last month, Shah-Coltrane said school officials were apprehensive at first but are now OK with the changes.

Nationally, credit recovery programs have faced scrutiny for being less rigorous than normal coursework.

NC voters 'chose a more positive way forward' in state schools race, Green says

This week, Democrat Mo Green beat Republican Michele Morrow in the state superintendent race.

Green will oversee the state’s 2,500 public schools, $13 billion in state and federal funds and 1.5 million public schoolchildren during a time of heightened politicization of education.

You can see election results for all of the North Carolina races on WRAL.com.