Port Washington committee readies revised grading policy, proposes limited Regents ‘bump’ for Quarter 4

The Port Washington Union Free School District Policy & Personnel Committee reviewed a final draft of Policy 4710 that the administration plans to send to the full board for adoption. Committee Chair Deborah Brooks said the revisions synthesize feedback from PWTA leadership, building administrators and legal counsel and are intended to create consistent grading practices across courses and buildings.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Shields and administration staff outlined a recommended Regents-related incentive: if a student’s Regents exam score exceeds the Quarter 4 grade, the Quarter 4 grade would be increased by one percentage point only for that quarter. "If the Regents grade is higher than the Quarter 4 grade, a point will be added," the deputy superintendent explained when summarizing the administration’s proposal. Administration said the increase applies only to Quarter 4 and not to other grade-point tables used internally.

Administrators said the aim is to encourage consistent effort during the full course rather than allow a single exam to disproportionately determine a final grade. "We are trying to find that difference where we're not creating an even larger disparity between our students who perform well academically and our students who work very, very hard and do not necessarily achieve the highest academic grades possible," an administration representative said.

The administration also provided data previously shared with the board showing that counting Regents as 10% of a course would not change the final grade for the majority of students in most course levels: about 76% of students in honors-level courses, 97% in certain support-level classes and 85% of students at the Regents level would see no grade change under a 10% model, according to the material the administration presented.

PWTA leadership and some teachers opposed counting Regents or creating an incentive; in public comment, Jessica Fangle of the Parents Council urged clearer communication about how Regents will be treated this year and requested details of the timeline for adopting regulations. Administration replied that, if the board adopts the policy as planned, the described incentive could be put into place for June grading and formal regulations would be developed collaboratively and posted to the district website.

The committee indicated it would mark the policy for board adoption at an upcoming meeting (noted in the discussion as a morning session on the 28th). Administrators said Infinite Campus and other systems can support needed calculations; the district will finalize the numeric and technical details in regulations and communicate them to students and families before final grades are computed.

Next steps: the committee will forward the revised policy and the administration’s recommendations to the full board for consideration and asked that regulations and an implementation timeline be finalized and publicly posted prior to applying any change to student grades.