By Sarah Meiselman
Fulton County has issued a new grading policy for the 2022-2023 school year, but as a student, I wanted to know if it really fixed anything. Its goal is to make academic grades across schools in the county express the same amount of mastery of material if the percentage the students earned is the same. In other words, a student with an “A” in biology at North Springs High School should know the same amount about biology as a student with an “A” in biology at Centennial High School. The new policy has 55% of the grade’s average formed by major assignments like tests, 35% by minor assignments like quizzes, and 10% by the practice category that is used for exercises like homework. For year-long courses, a teacher is required to enter a minimum of two majors, three minors, and three practice grades into the gradebook every nine weeks. Late work has a maximum deduction of 25% on the original score, and missing work may be entered into the grade book as a 0. Students are limited to one recovery attempt per major assessment, and can receive no higher than a 75% score on that major.
If administered, finals or midterms can only count as one of the major assessments of the course and cannot have a separate weight. Classes with an End-of-Course (EOC) assessment, however, only use the new system for the first semester. In the second semester, the class has a 20% weight for the EOC, 40% for majors, 30% for minors, and 10% for practice.
The new minimum number of majors, minors, and practice grades required every nine weeks makes classes across the district have similar requirements of students but doesn’t fit with every type of class. Mr. Tyree, the French teacher at North Springs High School, said, “It has forced me to give more formal major assessments. Within the language program, some of what we do is based on students speaking and listening, which doesn’t always work great on paper.”
With these new rules, teachers must change their class to fit the new mold, which isn’t always best for a student’s learning. Mr. Tyree explained to me that, “With the new policy, there comes pressure to make sure the assessments fit the standard form, so the administration can see that this is the assessment, these are the objectives, and these are the key components. In the past, it’s all been left up to teacher’s subjectivity, so in a way, the change is good because it streamlines things, but on the other hand, it hinders teacher autonomy and creativity.”
Especially in language courses, students can come in at very different levels, so grading may need to be subjective. Mr. Tyree said, “It also limits what the teacher may find acceptable per student. For example, you might come into class knowing no French, and you progress, but then administration comes in and compares how well you perform to someone who speaks French at home or has parents who speak French. There’s a need for a teacher to be able to explain how both of these students have progressed equally, even though their French is not equal, because one has the exposure and resources at home, while the other one doesn’t.”
One of the biggest problems of the new system is that it has stripped teachers of many of the freedoms they used to have in planning how to get their subject matter across to students. While this was planned to put all of the classes across the district at an equal level, it has the flip side of taking away teacher individuality.
Mr. Tyree said, “I wonder if there was any thought placed into how to bring equity and teacher autonomy into the equation together. When you mandate a teacher’s every move, then there’s nothing special about their creativity, perspective, outlook, and unique characteristics as a teacher that they’re bringing into the classroom.”
Teachers are also now required to grade their students every nine weeks on self-direction, collaboration, problem solving, and work habits, also referred to as non-academic skills. For the purpose of this article, they’ll also be referred to as behavioral grades. The scale for grading them goes from rarely demonstrates to consistently demonstrates. Mr. Hanson, the principal of North Springs High School, explained to me that, “The behavior grade comes after the academic one, and it indicates that a student doesn’t do their work or doesn’t turn in assignments regularly.”
The new policy is attempting to fix the problem of a student’s behavior impacting the representation of their comprehension of class curriculum. It separates a student’s achievement of learning the class material from a student’s ability to follow directions, to work well with others, to solve problems, to be prepared for class, and to stay on task.
In the previous system, most teachers would include participation, work habits, etc. in a student’s grade, which went to their numerical average for the class. For example, dressing out in PE is a work habit that shows nothing of a student’s physical competence, but PE coaches would put it in as a practice grade.
This was problematic, because as Mr. Hanson pointed out, “If you do what you need to do in order to master the content, and you master it well, that’s an A or B. If you struggle, and yet you do all your work, but you still struggle with the content, do you deserve the same grade as somebody that mastered the content?”
Grading was a flexible process for teachers in the past. Mr. Hanson said, “We used to have a system where you could get assigned behavior grades or participation grades, but that doesn’t necessarily tell you how well a student has mastered the class. This new grading policy, and the changes, are designed to say a B is a B, a B represents ‘x’ level of mastery, and a B is comparable at North Springs, comparable at North View, and comparable at West Lake.”
As a student, I don’t know how practical this is. I’ve noticed that the student population varies from school to school, and not only that, but not every grade is earned under the same circumstances, teachers, and time. This new policy has made everything the same, without addressing the fact that the students and teachers differ from school to school.
Another issue I’ve noticed is that while this policy has begun the process of making schools across the district equal, it has not fixed another problem that, to me, is just as important. Assessment of behavior as a score (in this case, rarely demonstrates to consistently demonstrates) limits the effectiveness of a high school in preparing its students to behave respectfully regardless of parental involvement or positive reinforcement. The old system had a reward system that would not exist after school, where good behavior directly gave the reward of success (a good grade). And yet, the new policy still gives positive reinforcement for good behavior through its own set of grades, even though those grades are not numerical and instead use vocabulary like “consistently demonstrates.”
While understanding material related to a class or job will give students good grades and good opportunities after school, good work habits, participation, or good collaboration skills will give them good relationships, just like it’ll give high school students good relationships with their teachers and classmates. That reward itself should be enough, but instead, high school students are still getting the reward of seeing “consistently demonstrates” in their infinite campus (or maybe the punishment of “rarely demonstrates”). That does not reflect accurately on life after high school. While the old policy was even worse, this new one is not yet perfect.
North Springs also has PBIS rewards, in which teachers give Sparta-bucks when students perform the PROS: being prepared, respectful, on time, and smart. These rewards provide a fun way to ease high schoolers into adulthood, without being a big deal, and without involving parents and a lot of work on the teacher’s part. Teachers can talk to their students personally when needed to fix behavior. Coming out of the COVID-19 lockdown, schools have seen a spike in misconduct, but this will inevitably come down as students are reminded of how to behave.
High school students need to be taught how to improve their work habits and develop their character without having someone by their side holding their hand. The new policy is simply not needed. By the last stage of required education, teachers should be able to omit behavioral grades altogether so their students can get a feel for the treatment they’ll face in the workforce, which is just a few years away. This is the perfect time, when students are at a point where they can make mistakes and face a punishment that isn’t as severe as the loss of a job but can still have a large impact on changing their perspective of authority and respect.
Furthermore, as Mr. Tyree pointed out, teachers have packed schedules already and have limited time in their schedule to complete this process for all of their students.
He said, “For years, I have made comments in the comment sections of the grade book just so that I can keep a record of why students may have a low grade or why they’re missing points on an assignment. I want the parents and students to be aware. Because it’s always been something I’ve done, it’s not a huge change, but I have to admit, I have not done it for 100% of my students. If someone comes in, does what they are supposed to do, and has a 98% average, I may not make any comments.”
Teachers are being given a new task, without being given more time to complete them. Mr. Tyree said, “If teachers are being put in a situation where we have 150 students and we’re supposed to make comments on all of them, then there’s a question of where that time is coming from. Am I going to get additional daytime hours to do that or am I expected to do it at home during my personal time? I think that the change comes from a good place but I’m curious to know how much teacher input was added to the conversation when these things were finalized.”
Without enough time to thoughtfully grade each student’s behavior, teachers may be forced to only individually score the students who have become a disruption, and give all other students “consistently demonstrates” for all four categories. This makes the process pointless, because teachers already talk to students with behavioral issues, since they interrupt the class. Mr. Tyree said, “How effective are we expecting this to be if we don’t supply teachers with the tools that they need and the opportunity to be able to effectively role out and implement some of these plans? They’re often good plans, but when are they supposed to be done?”
As I learned more about the new grading policy, I kept debating which parts I would save and which I would get rid of. While I think separating behavior from the numerical average was great, I would leave it there and not have teachers grade the non-academic portions with “consistently demonstrates” or anything else. Instead, behavior shouldn’t be graded at all. As for the new minimum number of majors, minors, and practice assignments, I think it should be kept, but with exceptions for courses that are less standard, like the language or art program. And lastly, we need to accept that each teacher is different, so the only way to truly make every class the same would be to take away teacher autonomy, which would cause every student to struggle either because they cannot comprehend the class material, or they are extremely bored.
These harsh new rules have already begun to chip away at a teacher’s power to make changes to their class to fit their students’ needs. Teachers now have new roadblocks on their path to creating a school year that focuses on student needs for that specific year, because teachers are now also making sure their class fits the classes in other schools across the district. I think it boils down to this: Should a class be able to change because the students need it to, or should it be kept in the mold that resembles the classes of that subject in the other schools of the district? I for one think teachers should be given flexibility so they can cater to their students’ particular needs that students from another district may not have.
