Mehlville board votes to replace middle-school standards-based grades with traditional A–F system

The Mehlville R-IX Board of Education voted 6-0 April 20 to change middle school grading from a standards-based system to a traditional A–F system for grades 6–8, effective with the 2025–26 school year.

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Brian Smith told the board the recommendation follows three task-force meetings with parents, teachers and administrators and extensive community input gathered through ThoughtExchange and district outreach. “Our next task really is to be able to first ask you for a recommendation, to move the middle school grading practices from a standards based grading system to a traditional A through F system,” Smith said as he presented the group’s findings.

The task force included middle school administrators, parents of sixth- and seventh-grade students, core and encore teachers, and other staff. Smith told the board about a structured process in which participants reviewed eight grading options and used a dot-voting method to indicate preferences. According to his presentation, the task force voted 19–2 in favor of moving to traditional grading.

Board members and staff discussed logistics the district will need to resolve before the system goes into place, including report-card formatting, homework and late-work policies, consistency across teachers, and how grades will appear in the student information system (Infinite Campus). Smith said the district will need to set clear grading philosophies, define how behavioral factors are recorded, and train teachers and families on the new approach.

A formal motion to adopt the recommendation passed on a voice vote, recorded as 6 in favor, 0 opposed. The motion did not list a named mover or seconder in the public transcript.

The board packet posted online includes the task-force meeting dates, the community survey/ThoughtExchange results, and the voting summary the district used in its presentation. District officials said they will continue outreach and publish implementation details for teachers, students and families before the 2025–26 school year begins.

Mehlville’s action ends the districtwide middle-school use of standards-based grading that had been in place since the 2019–20 school year and replaces it with a single, districtwide A–F approach for both core and encore classes.

What’s next: district staff will finalize implementation details, adjust report-card formats and update Infinite Campus configuration; a public timeline and materials will be posted on the district website.