I don't live in the area, so I plead ignorance on how the nuances may play out with these specific schools.
I read through the article[0] from The Voice of San Francisco from which the submitted article draws. It's got a negative tone, so I'm a little wary of how fairly it presents the facts. However, this part of the new plan sounds like a great idea:
>Students can be late turning in an assignment or showing up to class or not showing up at all without it affecting their academic grade.
Schools can't control a student's home or personal life. I imagine that's the most likely cause of being late. In my case, I was late because of poor time management (ADHD). I was even voted "Most likely to be late" in the yearbook (didn't know that was a category). I was punished with detentions, not grade penalties. Despite receiving zeros on a lot of homework assignments, I still easily passed all my courses and was even allowed to enroll in the AP classes. If they had only based my grades on major projects or final tests, I'd probably have been in the top five students grade-wise.
>Currently, a student needs a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D. Under the San Leandro Unified School District’s grading for equity system touted by the San Francisco Unified School District and its consultant, a student with a score as low as 80 can attain an A and as low as 21 can pass with a D.
That's a vague summary. Especially since, later in the article, they quote a person who's been pushing the plan to school districts as saying "students who did not qualify for free or reduced-price lunch had a sharper decrease in A’s." Which implies the student body as a whole had a decrease in A's. So it's not bumping up everyone. I'd like to see more details about the new system.
[0] https://thevoicesf.org/grading-for-equity-coming-to-san-fran...
