Students have been noticing there has been a change in the way teachers are organizing their curriculum, along with a grading system change that has been implemented recently. Teachers used to do 90-10% as a grading structure for summatives and formatives but now they do 80-20%. The new grading scale is affecting all Park staff, not just a singular department.
The Echo Editorial Board has noticed the changes are making it harder for kids to learn. These new systems are really hard to implement because students learn in different ways. Classes are structured differently and not every class can organize the same. If an advanced level math class was to organize their grading the same way that an art class would, so many kids would fall behind. The advanced math class has more coursework and longer learning hours, so if they choose to be more strict on late work it could have a bigger impact on the students in the math class than the art students. A lot of classes aren’t even following the new standardized organization. Many teachers that have been in this field for a long time have systems they know work for their classes, and they don’t want to change them.
The Board hasn’t been noticing any changes and it has not had any impact on learning so far. The Board also says that teachers are trying to stay more uniform with the schedules in their departments and this system doesn’t work because teachers teach at different paces, and it can rush the curriculum they’re working on just to keep up with the rest of the department. They are trying to be more strict about late work, but with teachers all teaching differently it will make it hard to all follow the same deadline.
The Echo Editorial Board has been recognizing it is more beneficial to have teachers create their own grading structure because if there is a test that a student missed and could not make up for, it would drastically change their grade. If teachers did not have this new scale then it would be best because the teachers know what works for their class.
The Echo Editorial Board believes that although we have a new grading system in play, teachers are taking their own paths. Teachers that have been at the high school for a while and have figured out what works best for their course. Implementing this new system makes students feel like whoever created this unified grading system did not put themselves in students’ shoes.
The Echo Editorial Board believes teachers should use the 80/20 system as a backbone, and adjust accordingly for their course. The Board thinks this would be beneficial to students because it would make their grades feel more personalized to demonstrate their knowledge. It would also be beneficial to teachers because then they could personalize their course.
The Echo Editorial Board unanimously believes that teachers should have their own grading scale, as well as having more creative liberty to weigh tests according to their class.
