Elimination of quarter grades simplifies grading for students, teachers

After just one year of the controversial 80-20 modification to the grading system, LZHS is rolling out a new change that eliminates quarter grades.

According to a briefing on the change posted to the District website on Friday, the change will benefit all types and levels of students. “I think this is really in you guys [the students] best interests,” Joanne Biondi, Special Education teacher and committee member, said.

Instead of final grades being calculated with two quarter grades and the final exam, students will receive three progress reports throughout the semester, but only one grade aside from the final. The streamlining of the system, Biondi says, will simplify student – teacher discussions about grades.

“Hopefully the ability for students to [only] look at one grade will be very important for teachers, “ Biondi said. “It’s one place to look, and hopefully that will be simplified for us as well.”

“We’re trying to think about potential problems so we can anticipate those, “ Biondi said.

One issue, acccording to Biondi  will be the changes are for “students who, let’s say, don’t turn in their work in September and then suddenly it’s January [and they’re asking] ‘can I turn this in?’ So hopefully those deadlines will developed and held.”

Overall, Biondi is optimistic about the process.

“We clearly developed this with students in mind,” Biondi said.