Latin students returned to the Upper School in August to many academic changes, most notably in the grading and assessment practices of various departments.
Ash Hansberry, who is filling a new position at Latin as Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, spoke on how the new grading changes fit into Latin’s broader academic framework. “We have these [academic] systems. Parts of them work, and then there are some improvements or pain points, so now we are at a place where we know enough to be able to make some adjustments,” they said.
These adjustments have occurred across multiple departments, including science, English, and history.
In terms of subject-specific changes, Science Department Chair Melissa Dowling said, “Instead of counting only the two most recent scores for each learning objective, [the Science Department is] changing it to a decaying average. This means that all assessments will count, but the two most recent scores for each objective will count more.”
“We put this in place because we had students that would show up to class asking if they had a test that day and what it was on, knowing that they could take it again,” she continued. Students’ poor academic habits around assessments contributed to changes in the Science Department and beyond.
Upper School science teacher Josh Phipps echoed this sentiment. “I think [the new system] encourages some certain behaviors that will enhance a student’s learning, and for those who were using the old system in a way that was useful, I don’t think it does too much to harm them.”
Students have validated the decaying average stance, particularly those who experienced piloted changes in Mr. Phipps’s AP Physics class last year. “It felt like the rules kept on changing, but my approach to assignments never changed. I always try to be prepared even if I know the assignment will not count,” senior and AP Physics student Shiv Opal said. According to Mr. Phipps, only one change was made to the AP Physics grading system.
Reassessment policies have also been altered for the new school year.
Ms. Dowling said, “The reassessment process is mostly the same as years prior, but the only difference is that instead of students being able to reassess unlimited times [per assessment], they are now only able to do it twice.”
While the decaying average model was introduced to help students take early assessments more seriously, this change was introduced in response to those who took reassessments too seriously.
“We would [also] get students who would continue reassessing until they got that perfect score,” Ms. Dowling said. ”Both of these are things we are trying to prevent, and we feel that if kids are preparing, they shouldn’t need more than two attempts.”
In addition to focusing on a day-to-day and assessment-to-assessment perspective, many changes have been geared toward the retention of concepts over time. Mx. Hansberry said, “We’re seeing that there’s a desire, both from faculty [and] from students, as they get to college, to have a little bit of [a] check on that cumulative knowledge.”
In response to these desires, many science classes are instituting midterms and finals to measure progress at the end of each semester.
The Science Department isn’t alone in making adjustments to align standards-based grading with larger-scale habits.
“The standards-based assessment is really about your skills, but then we know reality is that some of those other pieces matter to a degree as well,” Mx. Hansberry said. “Multiple departments are looking at incorporating an Academic Habits standard—that’s something that started in the English Department, but you will see it in a few other classes as well.”
The focus on adding more fixed boundaries to standards-based grading has also come in the form of re-implementing first-quarter grades on report cards.
This change will apply to every department except for Language, where first-quarter grades are difficult to re-introduce due to the department’s proficiency model. “We expect that many students will be earning in about the C range at the beginning of the second quarter,” Language Department Chair Elissabeth Legendre said. “So we really wanted to take a year to think about how do we assign grades and how can we do this in a way that doesn’t surprise anyone.”
In all other departments, first quarter grades will be reported to give students and families an earlier check-in on progress. Upper School English Teacher and DEI Curriculum Coordinator Brandon Woods said, “Five months is a long time to have to wait for those traditional markers of where a student stands.”
However, because standards-based grading looks at progression toward year-long objectives, faculty and administration are carefully considering what first quarter grades mean in the scope of Latin’s courses.
This consideration is especially important for seniors, whose early grades may be reported to colleges. As seniors work on early applications, this change has been on their minds.
“I originally was worried about the grading changes because SBG doesn’t work with giving grades because the whole point is to show progress,” senior Aislinn Curry said. “The College Counseling Office has done a lot of reassuring us.”
Mx. Hansberry seconded this consideration from an administrative standpoint. “We’re working with college counseling and the senior teachers to think about how best to make it clear what the grades represent,” they said.
These conversations are also happening more broadly, as faculty and staff grapple with questions such as those Mx. Hansberry posed: “How can we report at the quarter in a way that acknowledges these are year-long courses, and there are goals that students are not going to necessarily have met yet, and also [that the] first quarter does matter as an indicator towards your progress to date and your investment in the course?”
In answering these questions, and in pushing to assess students and report their progress more accurately, individual departments and the broader administration grapple with the challenges of condensing student progress into grades. As Mx. Hansberry said, “You can only communicate so much information with one letter.”
Edit: A detail was added specifying the number of changes made to the AP Physics curriculum.
