March

THE great ROLLING GRADE BOOK DEBATE

by REEM AZIZ

Opinions editor

With copious amounts of assignments and stress, coupled with a seemingly never-ending pandemic, students have been presented with a new method of how their grades will be calculated. During these unprecedented times, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has deemed it important to institute a new grading system: the rolling grade book.

Prior to the 2020-2021 school year, grades were calculated on a quarterly basis and averaged for a final grade. In contrast to the previous system, the rolling grade book is a cumulation of all four quarters. Final grades are composed of all assignments and assessments given throughout the year.

Grades are an instrumental aspect of school and this new method of receiving it has been controversial among students, but the new grade book benefits students. The leniency and support a rolling grade book provides students is unmatched. The rolling grade book allows room for increased opportunities to improve overall grades, while also allowing students space for error, including an extended window for turning in late assignments. Additionally, the stress of having to calculate one’s quarterly grades and individual scores to get an idea of their final grade is diminished because the grade updates as the year progresses.

“With the rolling grade book, I like that one bad grade on an assignment won't bring down your overall grade too much,” said junior Katie Chervenic.

Despite its positives, the new grading system does not come without its setbacks. The rolling grade book makes it difficult to improve one’s if they start out very poorly. Since the grade is cumulative, if the foundation does not begin where a student wants it to, it may negatively impact them for the duration of the school year.

“The old grade book was better because it gave you a better chance of doing well [since each quarter was a fresh start]. Teachers measured grades based on a trend which was better because it reflected learning ability,” said freshman Rayan Saji.

This seemingly negative aspect of the rolling grade book can also be viewed as a positive. Since students will want to achieve the best grade they can for the year, the rolling grade book motivates students to continuously work hard. The former version of the grade book relied on averaging the four quarters for a final grade, which led students down one of two paths. The first being a strong first semester, which leads to lower effort towards the end of the year due to the fact that high grades in the start of the year allowed room for students to discontinue that work ethic and rely on those high grades to bring up their average. The second is the opposite path with where a student earns lower marks in the first semester, leading to an abundance of effort being needed to achieve the desired course grade.

In a rolling grade book, these situations are less likely to occur and more emphasis is placed on consistency throughout the year, rather than occasional surges of effort, leading high school students to developing a healthy habit of consistent work ethic.

Additionally, the rolling grade book benefits teachers’ grading process and lesson planning. When asked how the rolling grade book has impacted her process throughout the year, Honors Algebra 2 and IB Analysis SL teacher Leah McNamara said, “From a teacher's perspective, it takes away the need to stress over forcing assignments to fit into a schedule; instead, they can fall where they naturally should fall in the course of instruction. So I don't need to make sure to have three tests fall in the first quarter (for example) and three in the second quarter and so on, but I can let the lengths of the units and instruction time dictate the dates and times of larger assignments.”

Since its implementation, there has been discourse over the benefits and disadvantages of the rolling grade book. The rolling grade book has dissipated the averaging of four arbitrary numbers, originally the four-quarter grades, and replaced it with a genuine grade earned based on all marks earned throughout the year, regardless of their date of completion.

Fairfax county: SAVE OUR SNOW DAYS

by JAMIE O'DONNELL

Staff writer

Online school has taken a lot from students: normal sports practices, seeing friends during class, and being able to make genuine connections with teachers. All of this isolation, along with large amounts of work, has proved to be an enormous detriment to students’ mental health at Justice.

Blackboard Collaborate is indeed a cruel mistress, but there is a simple way for students to escape her ire: snow day! In a normal year, snow days are the perfect natural interruption of school’s monotony, especially as motivation wanes after the first semester. This year, they are needed more than ever. Along with the enormous stress and lack of motivation caused by online school, the cold weather has limited students’ ability to safely socialize outside. Extraordinary adversity calls for extraordinary compassion from Fairfax County Public Schools. To be forced to sit in front of a laptop after a snowstorm that would normally cause schools to cancel would be an unnecessarily painful reminder of our current circumstances.

Canceling online school in the event of snow is not unprecedented—one school district in West Virginia did so last December. In a letter to parents and staff, Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools Bondy Shay Gibson justified her decision to close schools, saying “It has been a year of seemingly endless loss and the stress of trying to make up for that loss. For just a moment, we can let go of the worry of making up for the many things we missed by making sure this is one thing our kids won't lose this year.” This is the example FCPS should follow.

While county officials may worry that canceling classes would only increase the shortcomings in progress created by the transition to online school, stress and lack of motivation are a threat to progress in their own regard. It is the responsibility of educators to not only look after students’ progress but their mental health as well. In addition, Fairfax County Public Schools’ calendar usually sets aside three days per year as snow days, pandemic or not. One or two days of the missed class would have little effect on students’ progress, but the benefit to their mental health cannot be understated.

Snow days are an essential part of the school year. If there is snow in the forecast, students should be staying up late, forgetting about the work that’s due tomorrow, and compulsively refreshing Fairfax County's website until the closure announcement pops up. A snow day is a time to go outside with friends, bake something with family, or just take a break from work to get cozy and read a good book. Students, as well as staff, need these opportunities to mitigate stress now more than ever. The snow day should be here to stay.