Mineola school leaders on Sept. 18 described a district‑wide initiative called Build Your Own Grade, an instructional model that emphasizes proficiency scales, transparent success criteria, student choice and regular teacher conferencing, and they demonstrated a new, district‑built learning‑management system used in a beta rollout.

Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagel said BYOG is intended to reduce “mystery” in grading by making criteria and evidence explicit for students across kindergarten through 12th grade. He said the model uses badges and proficiency scales in elementary grades and progresses to topic‑based bundles, knowledge/application/transfer point allocations and multi‑week transfer projects at the high‑school level.

Why it matters: the district framed BYOG as alignment with the state’s evolving “portrait of a graduate” and as a response to concerns about subjectivity in grading and overreliance on high‑stakes exams. The approach keeps Regents and state standards in place while adding alternative, performance‑based evidence of mastery.

Instructional details presented included station rotations, one‑on‑one teacher conferencing, clear rubrics and the ability for students to resubmit work within a grading window. Teachers designed units with knowledge items (watch/read/do), application tasks and transfer projects; the district said exams remain but will represent a smaller share of a course grade.

The superintendent showed a prototype LMS that the district built as a proof of concept. He said the district did not purchase an off‑the‑shelf solution because available platforms would not support the BYOG scoring model without substantial cost; the prototype was developed privately as a proof of concept and is in beta. Staff acknowledged glitches in the beta — videos not loading for some students and inconsistent automated scoring — and said teachers can manually award points as a workaround while technical issues are resolved.

Students and trustees who visited classrooms described station rotation lessons, student ownership and an increase in transparency for parents. Two student representatives said BYOG helps students who are not strong test takers because many graded activities besides exams contribute to the final mark. The district said teachers have participated in professional development, including a multi‑day BYOG institute, and several pilot courses are underway at the middle and high school levels.

Discussion versus decision: the board received the presentation and demonstration; no policy or curricular changes were voted on at the meeting. Nagel said the district will continue the beta, add technical support, and expand professional development as needed.

Ending: board members and parents in attendance praised classroom examples and urged continued monitoring of the LMS beta and prompt fixes to technical issues so teachers and students are not disrupted.