District 86 to present full grading and "assessment literacy" review to board in October

Hinsdale Township High School District 86 administrators will present a full review of grading practices and an “assessment literacy” initiative at the board’s October meeting, following multiple public comments and questions from trustees at the Sept. 25 board meeting. The board’s request follows public testimony criticizing recent grading changes and a multi‑week pilot of new assessment practices.

The issue drew repeated public comment during audience participation. Roberta Packer, a Hinsdale resident, criticized what she called a shift toward “equitable grading” that de‑emphasizes formative work and homework and relies heavily on summative testing. “We are doubling down on a complicated grading system and adding a complicated testing approach both based on fads,” Packer said, arguing the district should “stop the experimentation.” Linda Berg, a former college instructor, urged restoring a meaningful formative component and proposed a 70/30 cap on summative weight.

District leaders described the new work as an effort to make assessment practices more consistent and to give students more actionable feedback. Bill Walsh, principal of Hinsdale Central High School, said the district has begun professional learning around “assessment for learning” and brought in Tory Bridal, director of assessment at Stevenson Township High School, to consult. “Practice, scrimmage, game” was Walsh’s summary of the approach: teach skills, practice them in test‑like settings, and build reflection so students are prepared for summatives.

Board members pressed for details. Trustee Waters asked whether current grading distributions left too much weight on a small number of summative tests; Walsh and other administrators explained that some courses currently use 90/10 or 85/15 summative/formative splits and reminded the board that many courses also set a separate final‑exam weight (commonly 20%). Walsh illustrated the math: if 20% of a course is the final exam, a 90/10 split of the remaining 80% makes the total summative share about 92% of the overall grade in those cases. Trustees described that concentration of weight as a concern for students and families.

Superintendent Locke (Dr. Blanca Locke) and principals said the district is not implementing a single prescriptive model overnight. Locke told the board the work will take multiple years and that department chairs are leading the effort within each content area. Trustees pressed administration to bring concrete data and a clear timeline. The board agreed — by consensus during the meeting — to receive a full presentation, including data on grading distributions and proposed changes, at the October board meeting so trustees can perform oversight and decide next steps.

The October presentation is to include more granular data on how many sections use high summative weights, how many summatives (tests) run in a semester, and examples of the “practice scrimmage” formative items the district plans to standardize. Trustees said they want the presentation to show how proposed changes will affect student grades, mental health concerns raised during public comment, and how the district will measure implementation success.

Trustees also raised the growing role of artificial intelligence in student work and the need for clearer teacher practices for verifying students’ independent work. Administration said this issue will be part of broader conversations about assessment authenticity and academic integrity.

The board did not adopt any immediate policy changes at the Sept. 25 meeting; the action taken was a direction to administration to present the fuller review in October and to provide the underlying grading data for trustees to review.