It used to be the case that every teacher had his or her own grading system. Starting this year, however, the school has implemented a mandatory, school-wide weighted grading system, as if teachers previously had too much freedom in their curriculum. This system requires teachers to allot certain percentages of the student’s grade to different categories, such as tests and homework. Moving towards a more rigid grading approach is only going to further de-emphasise creativity and further emphasise regurgitation. This is a step in the wrong direction.

According to “Grading and Reporting to Parents,” a document produced by FCPS that is located on the Lake Braddock website, “The teacher develops a percentage-based and/or letter-based evaluation design best suited to his or her class for arriving at the quarter grade.”

A weighted grading system may be “best suited” for a class that has constant tests and quizzes, but is it really optimal for an art class, or any class with few major assessments, to have these weighted grades? For example, in AP U.S. History, there is only one test this quarter, and as a result, this test is worth 25 percent of each students’ grade. In an aggregate point system, the magnitude of this test would be mitigated by the other work done in this class. A single bad test wouldn’t cause a grade to plummet by a full letter grade or more. Due to the changes, however, students’ grades at the end of the quarter may not match their achievement in the class due to a one-off day.

In this new system, where homework is in its own category, worth no more than 10 percent of a student’s grade, kids are given less of an incentive to complete their homework. If a student has previously completed all of their homework for a class, then doing homework cannot raise their overall grade, it can only hurt it. Students no longer do their homework because it will benefit their grade; they do it out of fear that their grade will drop. This is unhealthy. It replaces an environment where students are motivated by the possibility of improving in a class with an environment where students are driven by fear.

This new system is a regression on the education we are receiving at this school. There is a reason that the majority of teachers didn’t weight their grades in previous years: A weighted system wasn’t, and still isn’t, ideal for their course. The school must return to its previous, more fluid structure. The benefits that come from weighting grades would still exist because if teachers see that the positives outweigh the negatives, they could choose to use weighted grades. If teachers did not believe that the positives outweigh the negatives, then they would not be forced into using weighted grades anyway, as they currently are. This rigid system is helping no one.