DEI Strikes Back: San Francisco Rolls Out ‘Grading for Equity’ Program in Schools

Program will allow students to pass with scores as low as 21 out of 100, according to reports

San Francisco’s public school system is quietly rolling out a “Grading for Equity” program that will reportedly exclude homework or weekly tests from final grades and allow students to pass with scores as low as 21 out of 100.

The plan, unveiled Tuesday by Superintendent of Schools Maria Su, will take effect this fall at 14 public high schools and affect more than 10,000 students, the Voice of San Francisco reported. Under Grading for Equity, semester grades will depend entirely on a final exam that can be retaken multiple times—even if students skip assignments or fail to attend class.

News of the plan comes as President Donald Trump cracks down on DEI initiatives both in public schools and in higher education. In addition to revoking billions of dollars in federal funding from elite universities, Trump has demanded that state education departments eliminate many DEI programs or risk losing their funding, prompting lawsuits that are making their way through the court system.

Su did not seek approval from the San Francisco Board of Education before announcing the drastic overhaul, according to the Voice. Her staff has told board members that they have no authority to reject the plan, which was revealed on the last slide of a PowerPoint presentation in a 25-page board meeting agenda.

She made the announcement the final week of the spring semester, as parents weigh whether to keep their children in San Francisco’s public schools this fall. The district is facing over $110 million in budget cuts amid declining student enrollment and mounting concerns about academic standards.

The district faced backlash last year after then-superintendent Matt Wayne paid a Stanford University professor $30,000 to create an “equity-centered” formula for deciding which schools to shutter. Parents argued that the formula rewarded poor-performing black and Hispanic schools while targeting low-income, high-achieving Asian children, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The controversy led Wayne to resign in October.

Su’s Grading for Equity system will allow students to earn an A with a score of 80, a C with 41, and a D with just 21 out of 100, according to the Voice. In the current grading system, students need a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D.