SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Some of California’s largest school districts are dropping D and F grades for high school students. While the hope is to help students reengage in school after distance learning and to boost their chances of acceptance into the state’s public colleges, some educators find lowering the bar both offensive and detrimental. School districts in San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento are among several eliminating grades below a C beginning this school year. “Our hope is that students begin to see school as a place of learning, where they can take risks and learn from mistakes, instead of a place of compliance,” according to Nidya Baez, assistant principal at Fremont High School in Oakland. In Oakland, high schools are gradually moving toward the new system. Parents, students, and teachers need time to understand what’s expected of them, and they must “buy in” to the change, Baez said. The …