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District grading team reports progress, seeks teacher consensus on common grade scale
Summary
District grading-practices leaders told the board they are moving from 11 grade scales toward one or two common scales after listening sessions with families, educators and students; teachers raised issues of timeliness, consistency, academic integrity and AI.
District grading-practices staff and a teacher leadership subgroup updated the board April 2 on work to standardize grading practice across secondary schools and refine three rollout practices launched last year.
Tom Denwald, director of educational technology and assessment, described a teacher-led subgroup that meets weekly and a broader practices team that meets monthly. The teams executed listening sessions across secondary schools and with families; staff said they received more than 400 secondary-teacher responses and identified recurring themes: timeliness of feedback, consistency across classrooms, fairness in grade-earning, retake and late-work policy clarity, academic integrity and new challenges introduced by artificial intelligence.
Presenters said the teacher leadership team aims to narrow the number of grade scales used in the district's gradebook (Synergy) from 11 toward one or two next year. The team is exploring a 0-to-4 rubric and retaining a 0-to-100 scale with provisions to limit punitive zero grades and to encourage educators to support students to complete work. A classroom-teacher subgroup pursuing a competency model opted out of the common-scale work, presenting a separate pathway for some classrooms.
District staff said next steps include refining handbook language (attendance, retake rules, late work), designing professional learning for spring and summer, and reporting back during a study session later the same evening. No policy vote took place April 2; staff reported following the district's equity-driven decision-making process while building consensus among educators.
