Members of our grading review committee met last month to continue their discussions of how to improve our district’s student grading practices.
This committee was born of our district’s strategic plan, finalized in July 2025, explained Matt Stroud, our district’s director of curriculum, instruction and technology.
“One of the things that emerged from that strategic planning process was a commitment to looking at our grading policies and developing a set of guidelines and best practices,” said Stroud. “Basically, we want to make sure we’re being intentional about why we’re grading and how we’re grading and do a better job of communicating that to our families.”
Past committee meetings have centered on examining the current research and best practices related to student grading.
The committee’s been working with Stephanie Burns and Jessica Petrosino, members of the Genesee Valley BOCES School Improvement Team, on the effort.
“They’ve got a lot of experience and expertise in this area that they’ve been able to bring to bear for us,” said Stroud.
Now that the committee has a firm understanding of currency best practices, members have been turning their attention to compiling data about current grading practices at Attica’s elementary, middle and high school levels.
“We’ll be comparing it to the research and seeing what areas we can improve and where we’re good,” Stroud said.
The committee is scheduled to meet again in early April and plans on releasing its recommendations shortly thereafter, sometime this spring.
It’s important to note, said Stroud, that decisions about whether to adopt potential changes to grading policies recommended by the committee will be up to school principals and building leadership teams.
“What we’re not doing is implementing a top down, one size fits all grading approach,” he said. “As a committee, we’re going to be offering recommendations. It’ll be up to our individual school buildings whether they want to implement those recommendations and to what extent.”
Before that April meeting however, the committee will be soliciting feedback from students, teachers, parents and student caregivers via online surveys and in-person focus groups.
The online surveys - including the one intended for parents and student caregivers linked below - went live last week while focus groups will be scheduled in the coming weeks.
“What it comes down to is that grading is the primary tool we have to communicate to students and families about their progress in school,” said Stroud. “We want to make sure they understand what grades are showing and that when we grade, we’re capturing what our students know and are able to do as accurately as possible.”
Parent/Student Caregiver survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbk-6wShAnR4ELxovf3txQP3qnOwwsIvrCyhh1JcfU1kqfpg/viewform