As the new school year began, FCPS made many changes to the grading system. Some major changes were found in the weighting of assignments, adding the D- grade and the opportunity to retake up to 100%.
“We want to make sure that every student in FCPS feels that the grading is clear and consistent [so that] from student experience to student experience it’s fair,” Chief Academic Officer Sloan Presidio said. “Beyond that, [we] hope students are taking advantage of this new grading policy and getting feedback from teachers to improve.”
At the moment, the FCPS grading advisory committee is waiting on quarter grades from students to see if the new grading policy has made positive effects.
“We’re going to be looking at grade data at the end of each quarter to see if grades are going up or down,” Presidio said. “Particularly after [this] first quarter, we’ll [be expecting] more feedback.”
Students are keen to see positive changes as a result of the policy.
“Overall, I do like the grading policy, but summative assignments require a lot more effort than normal assignments do,” freshman Lana Galinsky said. “I hope [FCPS] does change the grading policy but not by a significant margin.”
As the grading committee awaits for new data to be collected by the students, they also expect news and changes from the school board about the policy.
“We’re on a pause right now in terms of our committee work,” Presidio said. “Our school board is working to make some additional policy changes to the grading policy, and once they have that finished, we’re going to reconvene.”
While the FCPS grading advisory committee is currently on hold, the committee plans to reconvene soon, using the information collected from the first quarter in order to make the next step.
“We are [still] gathering data to evaluate how these policies and practices are really impacting students,” Presidio said. “If we see any big shifts or changes, then we will need to take another look at the policy changes that we put in place for this year.”
Chemistry teacher Cat Gamboa grades students’ tests in her classroom. Once all of the first quarter grades are inputted into the grading system, the FCPS grading committee will reexamine the new policy, and make changes if necessary.
