Port Washington committee backs smaller honors/AP weight, separating Regents from course grades and adding minus grades

Port Washington Union Free School District curriculum committee members recommended narrowing honors/AP grade weighting to 0.3 (roughly one step on the letter-grade scale), removing New York State Regents exams from local course final grades, and adding minus grades to the district grading scale, while staff said implementation and transcript changes remain under review.

The changes are intended to reduce incentive pressure to overload on AP/honors courses, make room for electives, and reduce stress on students and families. Dr. Feeney, the committee liaison, said, "The regents exam would be completely disconnected from any grade that the school is giving," explaining the proposal to stop treating Regents as a separate "fifth bucket" that can shift yearlong averages.

Committee presenters and board members described the package as a single, interlocking proposal: shift from the current model that treated end‑of‑year state exams or teacher finals as a separate grade component to a four‑quarter system in which any teacher‑administered final would be folded into the fourth quarter. That change, the committee said, would significantly reduce the final exam's impact on students' overall year grades.

On weighting, the committee said it considered going to no special weighting but settled on 0.3 as a middle ground. The 0.3 factor is intended to de‑emphasize the extra boost AP/honors courses currently carry under the district's 1.0 weight, while still providing a modest recognition of course rigor. Committee members said colleges increasingly unweight GPAs and that lowering the weight would encourage students to choose electives without fearing a disproportionate GPA penalty.

Committee members and parents raised concerns about "double testing" when students in Regents courses might also face local final exams; presenters said they do not expect a widespread return to local finals during Regents weeks and that most teacher finals would be in non‑Regents courses and counted only within quarter grades. The committee noted that the district currently requires students who take an AP course to sit for the College Board AP exam; presenters also discussed College Board messaging discouraging extreme AP maximization.

On grading granularity, the committee recommended adding minus grades (for example A‑, B‑) to narrow wide grade bands that members said currently make it hard to differentiate student performance. Supporters said narrower bands better reflect in‑class rubrics and align with common college grading practices, but they also flagged the need for professional development so teachers apply new bands consistently and avoid increasing grade‑negotiation disputes.

The committee reviewed equity questions raised by parents and board members: how to treat honors opportunities available in some grades but not others, how to count accelerated courses taken before ninth grade, and whether transcript changes would disadvantage students used to the current system. Presenters said the committee favored showing both weighted and unweighted GPAs on transcripts to reduce confusion and that the district previously experimented with not reporting class rankings.

No formal board vote was taken; presenters said the package is a committee recommendation. Staff said they will work with the district’s student‑information vendor, Infinite Campus, to model transitions and to draft an implementation plan that identifies items that could be moved next year and those requiring a longer roll‑out. Presenters told the board the committee would communicate a transition plan and that further community input and professional development would guide final choices.

The committee’s proposals touched several linked topics — weighting, Regents treatment, grading bands, transcript presentation and implementation — and presenters urged the board and community to view them as a coordinated package rather than as isolated edits. No final policy change was adopted at the meeting; the committee signaled it would return with specifics on implementation and timeline.