Committee approves grading-policy overhaul, forwards revised policy 125 to full board after extended debate

The Manchester School District Committee on Teaching and Learning on Feb. 11 voted to forward proposed revisions to Instruction 125 (middle and high school grading) to the full School Board, following extensive discussion among committee members, building principals, teachers and consultants about how the changes will be implemented.

The committee's revised policy text emphasizes that grades “should only reflect a student's academic performance” and “should not be used as a form of punishment.” The document also lays out six guiding points intended to align grading with standards-based practice, clarifies the separation of academic grades from work habits, and adds a differentiated grading table for Manchester School of Technology (MST) to avoid conflating MST’s competency labels with percentage-based grades used at other high schools.

Committee members said the policy is a “bridge” toward a future…