Grading students during COVID has to factor in that students have had their access to the university and academic success roadblocked due to not only inequities in campus resources, but inequalities in general.

Unprecedented circumstances call for unprecedented grading methods.

If you are an educator, and you’re deciding the partial fates of your students academic self esteem, please understand that your tried and true grading rubric of the past was not built for COVID-19 living conditions, Zoom fatigue, digital divides, and student hyper-isolation.

I know students who are trying to be the best students they can be, while simultaneously serving as de facto educators in their own homes for their younger siblings due to COVID-19.

That responsibility affects their academic work output.

Graders...Please keep that in mind.

I know students who are working from the inside of a closet, because it’s the only place in their homes where they can find privacy and peace.

Factor that possibility into the process of deciding whether a student was putting a maximum effort into the final papers and exams.