Committee moves to ban policies that inflate grades and orders task force on uniform grading

The Senate Education subcommittee voted to adopt a subcommittee amendment and give H5073 a favorable report. The bill would prohibit any public school district or charter from adopting a grading system that requires teachers to assign a minimum grade or score that exceeds a student's actual performance on required assignments. The bill would also authorize the Department of Education to withhold 10% of a district's funding for violations and require the state board to convene a task force before the 2026'027 school year to evaluate revisions to the uniform grading policy and report by Feb. 1, 2027.

Donna Barton, the committee's research director, said the measure addresses grade floors and district practices that "artificially inflate grades," and that testimony showed about 20 districts were engaging in some form of grade inflation. Barton said the bill applies to middle and high schools and includes provisions for recovery and content-recovery options that already exist in policy.

Senator from Edgefield asked whether the bill covered uncompleted assignments; the committee discussed whether the text should refer to "completed" assignments or "required" assignments. Senator Macon suggested changing the word "completed" to "required" to match other sections of the amendment. The chair accepted that as a clean-up amendment and the committee adopted it before voting the bill a favorable report.

The bill also instructs the state board to review and update the uniform grading policy every seven years. The subcommittee recorded the favorable vote and the measure will proceed toward the full Senate.