Freshmen at the Upper School (US) readied themselves for advisory on Oct. 30 to receive their Mid-Trimester 1 grade reports, their first at the US. When they looked over their sheets, something was missing: their grades. For the first time, freshmen only received written feedback without accompanying letter grades.
Olivia Baker ’29 wasn’t informed ahead of time.
“It was extremely surprising and odd not to receive grades,” she said. “However, it makes sense because when you are adjusting to a new school in only a few months, you are still figuring out how everything works. Because of this, it was nice not having to worry about letter grades, specifically.”
Olivia said the comments provided more insight than a letter grade.
“Not having grades made me see what I had to work on much more clearly. Instead of focusing on improving my grade, I could see how I could make a change. It was also reassuring to receive positive feedback that a grade might not reflect.”
James Tao ’29 was hoping to receive midterm grades.
“Let’s say I am performing badly in a class and receive a bad letter grade, then that pressure from the grade would help me improve,” James said. “Without the letter grades, I am a bit unsure of what I need to improve on and where I stand in the class.”
US Math Teacher Sarina Simon leads an Algebra 2 class with freshmen.
“I had to write a different type of comment than I would normally because I had to be very deliberate with telling a kid they were struggling without giving a letter,” she said. “On the flip side, sometimes their behavior was not reflected in their grades. A student might feel as if they are doing well in the class because they got a few good grades, but if I notice they were struggling in class and not behaving, the grade might not reflect that, but a comment does.”
Ms. Simon said not providing letter grades was an adjustment.
“I focused solely on areas of growth and steered away from describing the students’ growth with statistics. Instead of saying, ‘This student only completed nine out of 10 homework assignments,’ I focused on routines. Was the person settling into class? Were they grasping the topic? And how could they improve?”
US Director Jessica Keimowitz and Chief Learning Officer Jed Lippard worked to omit the freshman mid-trimester grades. US parents received an Oct. 17 email, seen by The Vanguard, that stated: “Ninth graders [would] receive comments at the mid-term, but they [would] not receive grades until the end of the trimester.”
“Because the ninth graders start school two weeks later due to Bivouac, a group of faculty that met last year to review the grades and comments processes suggested not assigning grades to ninth graders for the first mid-term marking period,” Ms. Keimowitz said. “By the time midterms come around for ninth graders, they don’t have enough data to provide an accurate grade. For some kids, it might be over-inflated, and other kids might be weirdly low because they haven’t figured out the expectations for taking a test. The goal was to try to take the temperature down for ninth graders surrounding pressure and grades.”
US Freshman Grade Dean, Freshman Advisor and Science Teacher Jenn Gatti said the decision was well thought out.
“We really want students and their families to focus more on the constructive comments their teachers provide as a guide for the rest of the trimester, both in thinking about habits of mind and skills that are going well, and they should continue to rely on comments as things that they can improve upon.”
Midterm grades for freshmen could return next year.
“I heard from some of my advisees’ families that the comments that were most helpful also had information included about the grades their students had earned on individual assignments and tests,” Dr. Gatti said. “Not all students are as open with their families as others are about sharing their graded work. The parents and guardians I spoke to wanted to have a better sense of the progress of their students’ grades to better support them in the second half of the trimester.”
