Two months ago, the San Diego Unified School District announced a change in grading policy intended to make grading practices more inclusive, citing racial and other disparities in previous policies. At the Dec. 17 La Jolla Cluster Association meeting online, Nicole DeWitt, instructional support officer for high schools from the district’s Office of Leadership & Learning, answered submitted questions about the new policy. The “standards-based” policy is meant to “provide students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their mastery,” DeWitt said. It also eliminates non-academic factors such as student behavior from academic grades. In a traditional grading system, students often are given one opportunity to show their progress, such as through a test, and then the class moves on, she said. Giving students more than one opportunity benefits multiple groups of students, she said.