Lilian Wang ’26
This school year, EA introduced a new grading system. Previously, students’ semester grades were independent of each other, and they each accounted for 40% of their final grade. However, semester grades are now the cumulative score of all the work done throughout a course; the total semester grade still accounts for 80% of the final course grade but the way in which it is calculated has changed.
One main reason for the change was that many students perform better in the second semester because they need time to adjust to their classes and teachers. Freshman Dean and US Teacher Ryan Klein states, “The old grading system put pressure on students to increase their grade before the end of the first semester, as the grade would lock permanently.” The new change alleviates some of those pressures and gives students new opportunities to improve into the second semester.
Several department chairs first proposed the idea during Upper School faculty meetings toward the end of the last academic year. They felt that first semester grades did not accurately reflect the work students would put in. Mathematics Department Chair Charles Yespelkis explains, “With all the disruptions (no homework nights, spirit week, homecoming, Thanksgiving, etc.), we felt that counting the first semester the same as the second semester wasn’t reflective of the great work students were doing. Most of our teachers ended up having significantly more work done during the second half of the year.” Agreeing with this idea of students facing disruptions, Aaron Zhu ’25 comments, “I know that the grades don’t always reflect students’ learning abilities, so it’s nice that [teachers are] trying to acknowledge that.”
Zhu argues that students are often under various pressures that may affect their academic performance, and therefore grades may not accurately reflect that students’ academic capabilities. The new grading system may help to alleviate pressure on students, and it shows that teachers are actively attempting to improve grading methods.
Faculty members also reviewed students’ grades from previous years and discovered that a cumulative grading system would improve most of them. In addition, the new system aligns with the grading policies of other schools in the area.
Discussing how the change will affect students, Head of Upper School Mike Letts says, “I think that it will actually help most students. We felt like it took a little bit of pressure off of students to jam things in at the end of the first semester. It’s just a really busy time, and students were getting overwhelmed with tests and papers and assessments.”
Letts argues that since the grades are now cumulative, students have more time and less pressure to improve their grades; instead of scrambling in December to finish assignments and do well on tests, they can naturally progress through the year.
The new system could also give students a better understanding of their performance in a class. Because the second semester was independent of the first semester, the second mid-semester report would only give students a snapshot of their work in the months following winter break instead of the work they did throughout the entire year.
However, not all students are in favor of this new grading system. Conor Gaul ’24 says, “I personally am against this change and prefer two separate grades for each semester. If you had a rough first semester, you get to think of the second as a clean slate. If you did well, then you are pushed to repeat that success as you can’t rely on the first semester to hold up your entire grade.”
Since a lot of students need some time to adjust to their schedules and classes, they might not perform well in the first semester. Gaul argues that many students look at the second semester as a chance to start over and get a better grade. In addition, with the new cumulative grade, students will always be reminded of their performance when they check their grades, which can be alarming to some.
Ultimately, the new grading system has both pros and cons. Students who typically do better in the second semester than the first might see an increase in their grade, but for most students, the new system will not significantly affect their performance. Overall, most faculty members and students are indifferent about the change, but as US Spanish Teacher Cari Cloud says, the new grading system will be a better “measure of student growth over time.”