With the first quarter officially over and the second quarter reaching its midway point, students and staff have begun to see with more clarity how the new grading policy affects grades and student engagement for the semester. Teachers and administration continue to express their support for the policy, explaining that they’ve seen a more academically focused environment, with students more committed to their work and motivated to finish their courses strongly.

While the new grading policy is a more accurate reflection of students’ performance, it also has the potential to increase failures. At the start of the second quarter, school data showed that 5 percent of students had non-passing grades in the first quarter in one or more classes and mathematically can not pass their classes for the semester under the new policy.

Additionally, there are also students who ended Q1 in the 20-40-percentage range for the quarter, who also realistically have a small chance of achieving a passing grade for the semester because it will require many of those students getting a high A for Q2.

“We, as a school, really supported students that were not being academically successful through parent-teacher conferences, counseling, mentoring, one-on-one support, and supporting them with their attendance,” said Assistant Principal Dirk Cauley. “We hoped that going into the second quarter, the number of students that were in a position where they couldn’t be successful would be reduced.”

The administration has also taken additional steps to assist students that mathematically can not pass.

The first option is the use of a program called Edmentum, which is a credit recovery process that provides digital curriculums and resources to students who have fallen behind in their classes. This program allows students to earn necessary credits for graduation through self-paced online learning.

The second intervention is the introduction of an academic contract for success, which launched on December 8. This contract consists of expectations that the student would have to follow in order to get a forced grade of a passing D. Some of these expectations include good attendance, make-up assignments teachers and students agree are necessary to prove concepts were mastered, and students governing themselves to align with the code of conduct. The goal of the contract is to incentivise the most academically at-risk students to turn things around in the second quarter to pass their classes that they failed in the first quarter.

“We are doing our best to provide students with opportunities to be successful and make sure that the contract is aligned with the guidelines of MCPS,” explained Cauley. “The contract is a way that inspires a conversation and agreement with students, so that we ensure students are not sitting in their classroom feeling like there’s no hope.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the new grading policy has been assumed to affect students’ ability to achieve A’s for the semester. However, teachers are trying to address students’ concerns by offering additional assignments in their classes and giving students more time to prepare for tests and ask questions.

“I definitely think the new policy is helping with attendance,” said English teacher Lori Leonard. “Last year for example, I had students who earned an A, B, or C first and third quarters, and then I never saw them in the second or fourth quarters. I am not seeing that this year. Most of the students who are still failing this year are those with terrible attendance or focus in the class.”

Contrary to the notion that it would be more challenging to earn A’s under the new grading policy, math teacher Michelle Harriger has noticed the opposite in both her classes.

“I looked up the number of A’s earned during the first quarter in every class I taught over the past three years,” said Harriger. “The average number of As earned–both in Algebra 2 and in Honors Precalculus–has steadily increased over time, including this year with the new grading policy.”