Graduation Requirement and Pass Fail FAQ from High School Counselors

We miss our seniors and our juniors graduating early!

We hope this message finds you all well!

Please take the time to read the following points to hopefully answer questions you may have about completing your senior year.

Graduation and Award Ceremony postponements

• There are no determined dates yet for a postponed graduation ceremony and awards celebrations. 
• Please continue to check your email for updates. As we have more information as a district, we will send those dates out to you. We promise we don’t have inside information on this!

What is required and not required learning?

• All DMACC dual credit classes involve required learning. They are college credits and are treated differently from HS credits. DMACC dual credit classes require you to complete work assigned to the class. Please check with your DMACC dual credit teacher if you have any specific questions about what you are required to complete. 
• AP courses are set up to help you review for the AP test at this time. 
• All SEP traditional courses with no college credit attached are considered voluntary learning. If you do nothing, your grade will stay the same as it was on March 12th. 

Graduation Requirements?

• If you have the grade of an F in a required class for graduation, you NEED to be in communication with your teacher to determine the best way to get that grade to passing. The F will not go away without you doing any work. 
• If you are uncertain what classes in your schedule are required for graduation, please communicate with your counselor as soon as possible to determine which classes you need to pass in order to graduate.
• At a point later in this semester, teachers will have the ability to grade any work you complete to raise your grade and adjust your scores in Infinite Campus. Please be patient with this system as it is dictated by the state and out of our control. In the interim, do everything within your control to raise your grades to where you want them.

Is Senior Seminar still required?

• Yes.
• Seniors who have not completed the testing component need to communicate with their counselor.
• All seniors still need to submit their Graduate Reflections Essay to their counselor, if they have not already done so.

What about online classes?

• If you are taking an online Edgenuity class for high school credit, the date for completion remains the same. Online classes have not changed during this time.

Pass/No Credit option, is it good for me?

• As was communicated by Mr. Pettit, all final second semester grades will default automatically to either a P for pass or an NC for no credit due to an F in the class. There is no limit on the number of classes you can choose to use the Pass/No Credit option this semester. The P for pass and NC for no credit will not result in you earning any GPA points.    
• All grades from voluntary learning for SEP non-DMACC credit classes are locked in as of March 12th. They will only change if you complete work to make that grade change and are then share that completed work with your teacher. 
• As the end of the semester approaches, please watch your email for a Google form. This Google form will allow you to notify teachers as to which classes you want to keep the letter grade in and which classes you wish to receive the automatic P for pass or NC for no credit.  
• Please remember, the F is marked on your transcript as NC and worth no credit toward your graduation requirements. 
• This is a great time to actually keep your grades and raise your GPA. The first instinct is often to take the pass, but this may not be in the best interest of your GPA. For instance, if you have an A in a class, receiving the A would help your GPA instead of taking the pass for no GPA points. If you have a D in a class, you may want to take the P for pass as the GPA points assigned to a D would lower your GPA. If you have an F, you may want to take the NC for no credit as the F will negatively impact your GPA. However, if you need the specific credit to meet graduation requirements, you would either need to improve your F to a passing grade or retake the course (if possible) over the summer. Please check with your counselor to determine if failing a course would impact your ability to reach the 48 credits required to graduate.
• Students will have the opportunity to adjust their DMACC class grades to pass/fail later this semester. Watch for communication about this from DMACC. We will not be able to do this for you, as you will have to follow DMACC protocol.

Please take care of yourself and let’s make a bad situation better by doing what we can do!

Sincerely,

High School Counselors