The new grading system at LT was introduced last year when students were virtual and has continued this year as students returned to school full-time. One main facet of the system is that only summative assessments are counted towards students’ grades, and all summatives can be retaken; formative work—homework, in-class work, quizzes—are not counted or weighted as a grade. 

At first, the system sounded like a blessing, but both students and faculty have begun to realize that the new policy creates a disincentive for students to do their very best work. 

As the student body is welcomed back to campus full time, study habits must be reformed after a year of complete chaos and disruption to people’s routines. Without formative work counting, students aren’t incentivized to actually do quality work—instead prioritizing work that does count towards their final grade. As a result, many students are completely blowing off important practice. Not only does this grading system cause people to slack off, but the lack of quality work completed is reflected in final grades. Choosing not to do all the work creates a cycle of poor test scores and an increase in retakes, considering students aren’t getting the necessary practice. 

Since there are far fewer points going into the grade book, summatives have caused a huge increase in the stress and pressure on students; the lack of cushion points from formative work makes tests matter a lot more. Formative points—which helped grades as long as students did the expected work—were a way for kids to feel better about the test, while also setting them up for success. In some cases, kids have resorted to learning “test to test” to get the best grade possible, instead of building on to their foundation of knowledge.

Conversely, other students are taking full advantage of the retake policy. Some don’t prepare for the test the first time around because they are guaranteed a retake opportunity, and the best score between the two tests is taken. This policy leads people to put less effort into preparing for tests, and bank on receiving a higher score for the retake, especially since they’ve already been exposed to the test format and material. 

Not only is the retake system an issue for students, but it creates an unnecessary burden on teachers as well; there is so much extra work to be done after each summative assessment. Teachers must write a whole new test, make sure each student receives the test, and then grade it. Classes will be almost two weeks into the next unit, and students will still be asking their teachers about a test taken so far in the past. It’s a hassle to have to handle such a large number of retakes every time a test is given, and it takes away time from focusing on the present work. 

The solution: allow formative work to count towards the final grade, so there won’t be such a high need for retakes. Students want credit for work they put time and effort into, and it would allow them to treat all work as equally important. 

Staff Vote: 21-4