New emphasis on Ed Code leads to tissues no longer being worth extra credit

Students should not rely on tissue boxes and other school supplies for extra credit to bail them out anymore. 

Starting this year, a higher emphasis on an already existing rule in the California Education Code will prohibit teachers from giving extra credit to students for bringing in school supplies for classrooms.

The California Education Code in general does not recognize extra credit as valid, and the state has recently started to enforce this rule more strongly.

As a result, teachers at SHS can no longer enter extra credit for bringing in school supplies, such as tissue boxes, directly into the gradebook. 

Principal Paul Robinson agreed with this new emphasis, reasoning that tissue boxes have no academic measure and therefore should not be counted as extra credit. 

“We have to be careful to make sure the measurements we use to assess student learning are valid academic measures,” Robinson said. 

However, teachers are finding ways around the new policy by giving out homework passes for bringing in school supplies and keeping record of extra credit for the end of the semester when a student wants their grade to be rounded up to a higher letter.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Chen disagrees with this renewed emphasis, saying that teachers should give extra credit for bringing in tissue boxes.

“I think that teachers should give extra credit because that way we don’t run out of tissues and we get a reward,” she said.