Rolling Gradebook is Here to Stay: Administrators and Teachers Respond to Questions

On the evening of November 20th, the Scarsdale Middle School orchestra room slowly filled up with teachers, administrators, and parents to hear an update on the district’s practices on grading, grading reporting, and more specifically, the Rolling Gradebook from Scarsdale High School’s Principal Kenneth Bonamo. Bonamo was joined with faculty and additional SHS administrators including the SHS Assessment Committee to address not only the attendees in the room but a parental audience viewing on a webinar. There was a twenty five minute presentation and a thirty minute question and answer session where the panel took questions from both in the room and webinar audiences. As Bonomo began, he emphasized that he along with his colleagues “are committed to their (students’) success and development” and he hoped parents would recognize this commitment demonstrated in his presentation.

Principal Bonamo led the review along with his panel that consisted of Assistant Principal, Andrea O’Gorman, Director of Counseling, Oren Iosepovici, Dean of Students, Michael Hiller as well as teachers, Science Teacher Joseph Vaugh and Social Studies Department Chair Jennifer Maxwell. Together, they represent the SHS Assessment Committee that works and collaborates with teachers, students, and parents on all things regarding assessments. Bonamo began the session with the how, when, and why the SHS Wellness Committee first looked into changes made to grading and grade reporting in the district.

How Was The Program Developed?

The district began its research and various pilot programs to figure out the healthiest way for students to be academically assessed over seven years ago. With the “growing mindset” in mind, the SHS Wellness Committee started researching and teamed up with Stanford University’s Challenge Success program. In the Spring of 2016, a school wide survey addressing key issues on how students used time as well as understanding pressures and stresses students felt in the academic environment was administered. The next changes made were based on the survey results, along with input from the Challenge Success partnership. It included the following three policy revisions. First, the district adopted a new no-homework policy during vacations and no large assignments due right after breaks. Second was a revision of the schedule to include the common tutorial sessions in lieu of homeroom three times per week and third was the elimination of designated testing days at the end of marking periods/quarters and replaced with individual classes determining the best days for assessments based on the natural endings of subject units.

As student wellness became more and more the focus of the district, information in books, conferences, and studies were looked at especially in the area of grading and assessment. In 2021, the Tri State Consortium, of which Scarsdale School District is a member, held a Tri-State Study Group that discussed the book Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. Also that year, the Scarsdale Teacher Institute (STI) offered a course on the book, On Your Mark by Thomas Guskey. The following year, Guskey was invited to speak in front of the district’s teachers. Bonamo wanted to clarify that although both authors delved into new ways of looking into assessing students as well as reviewing historical testing practices that may now be viewed as flawed, neither made an outright recommendation of a rolling gradebook.

Rather, it was the Scarsdale teachers who made the connection from the authors' views in their works and Guskey’s visit that the rolling gradebook would satisfy a new and different approach to assessments that would fit the growth mindset as well as a common system for how grades would be reported across the school. In Fall of 2023, the rolling gradebook pilot for all departments was rolled out. And at the end of the school year, in late spring of 2024, a survey was sent out to students and teachers on the rolling gradebook to see how the pilot worked.

Pilot Program

Based on the results, the SHS assessment committee recommended moving forward with the rolling gradebook, starting Fall 2024. Bonamo pointed out that over the summer they continued their work with the wellness and assessment committees and he noted that from a student-authored Scarsdale10583.com article the administration became aware that parents had concerns about the rolling gradebook (RGB). One of the concerns received from the comments of the article was that parents were omitted from the Spring RGB survey and Bonamo agreed that this was a ”misstep”. He clarified that moving forward parents would be included in future rolling gradebook surveys, the next one being Spring 2025.

Additionally, Bonamo commented that the RGB allows students to look at long term yearly achievement as well as to have an accurate idea of how the student is doing at any point during the school year. He continued to argue that the RGB would allow teachers to give assessments at the end of units instead of having them fall at the end of the quarter and this would alleviate overwhelming students with clusters of exams and projects due all at the same time. He also added that the weight of the tests would be in relationship to each other as opposed to a specific marking period which may or may not be evenly distributed throughout each quarter.

How Does It Work?

At this point in the presentation, Bonamo clarified the difference between the traditional gradebook and the rolling gradebook in a chart. He summarized that the way to view the rolling gradebook is “to think of the academic year as one long quarter. Each report card grade represents that students' performance to that point in time from September and not just from the previous 10 weeks”. He added “that teachers can adjust the point values or weightings of individual or types of assessments depending on their overall course design and the needs of their students”.

He talked about the numerical rolling gradebook GPA conversion to a letter grade for grade reporting and explained that the letter grades “reduces the number of breaking points” which alleviates stress and unhealthy comparisons.

At this point, Mr. Bonamo turned the presentation over to Mr. Vaughan, a veteran Physics teacher who has been using the rolling gradebook for close to two decades, to discuss the unbalanced quarter grades. Mr. Vaughan demonstrated through a chart of test grade examples over four quarters, how “the rolling gradebook prevents the timing of a test from affecting the outcome of the final grade.” He added that some students like the snapshot the rolling GPA grade provides at any given time throughout the year while others prefer to see achievement for a single quarter. And other students commented that they felt “tied” to an early quarter despite doing better in later quarters.

Jen Maxwell, the Social Studies Department Chair, chimed in that her department historically weighted the first quarter at lower percentages to help students adjust to the school year and understand how teachers grade first assessments. She argued for the flexibility of the RGB rolling gradebook as it allows teachers to assign lesser weights to early assessments and then adjust to more points in later assessments. The flexibility of adjusting points allows the teacher to adjust to the classroom and manage student anxiety. Maxwell also forecasted changes to the New York State education system with examples of optional Regent exams and the use of AI technology. In both instances she argues that the flexibility of the RGB would not be affected by these changes.

On a whole, the panel was very supportive and positive toward the new grading system. However, there were a few cons highlighted as well. Bonamo brought up the fact that with quarterly grading, fluctuation in grades are seen more “sharply” from quarter to quarter. With RGB there is a “smoothing effect” where, if students grades dips, there will be missing flags on the grade reporting which is alarming.

What Do Parents Think?

Parents, though not included in last Spring’s survey, will be included in the future. They voiced concerns about motivation, grade flattening and student’s feelings of being “tied” to early grades. Parents also had concerns on the timeliness of returned assessments if RGB is not confined to quarterly marking periods. (There was a misunderstanding on the rolling gradebook and college applications and how it impacts universities requests for first semester grades, however, Bonamo was able to clarify that this really was not an issue). And lastly, it was mentioned that parents need to be part of the communication process and participate in surveys and other assessment discussions. Bonamo explained that the assessment committee is currently working on addressing each of these issues..

There was a little hesitation from both audiences when the floor was opened for questions. The first parent to step up had a comment rather than a question. She informed the administration that her child was very happy with the newly implemented rolling gradebook across disciplines.

From here, parent’s questions were more about misunderstanding and shortcomings of the new system. The panel was to clarify how “each assessment was equally weighted throughout the year?” Mr. Vaughan explained that the RGB was not structured on equally weighted assessments but rather each point was equally weighted throughout the year. He went on to give the example that in the beginning of the year he might offer 400 points in the first quarter as students ease into the subject matter and the class. In quarter three he would allocate 800 points, as the students have adjusted to the classroom environment and assessment expectations. Mr. Vaughan is an experienced teacher with many years using the rollingrade book. Ms. Maxwell also commented that there is a lot of “math” to the rolling grade book but is in general an easier tool for teachers to keep a better record of students’ activity and achievement.

However, other teachers, who are new to the system may not know how to fully use it. Bonomo agreed that both new and experienced teachers need more education on how to use the flexibility of RGB. There were multiple questions about putting flags on the report card, or changing the letter grade to the RGB numerical gpa on the quarter report cards. Bonamo responded that he didn’t like putting numerical grades on report cards since he feared it promoted unhealthy comparisons. Bonamo also said they are working on how to flag slight dips in numerical grades that dont show up when converted to letter grades. However, Vaughn added that “nobody wants to be surprised”, so they are also working on advising teachers on how to recognize these flags in their gradebooks so they can communicate and contact parents of a dip in a grade that would be overlooked by the “smoothing effect” of RGB.

Another big concern parents brought up in the Q&A session was the fact that some teachers do not return graded assessments in a timely fashion due to the flexibility of RGB. The parent commended the two teachers on the panel and wished more teachers followed their strategies. Bonamo agreed that this is indeed an issue and something that needs to be addressed regardless of RGB. He added that there is a “guiding principle that before a student takes an assessment or turns in a paper/project, they should receive the previous assignment/assessment of the same kind with enough time to process and integrate the feedback into the work they are submitting”. Bonamo was adamant that he would like to target and guide the teachers who may be doing this. It may be a number of teachers but he hoped that it is not all the teachers. He welcomed feedback to help the teachers who need it.

Parents asked teachers to be more communicative with students and one complained that with the elimination of designated test days, her children still had multiple tests and assessments due on the same day, increasing stress and anxiety. There was a brief mention of “regrading” and how this was used in RGB but this was not clarified.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Bonamo concluded the session by explaining that he welcomes all feedback. He said that he understands that this is just the second year of the rolling gradebook and made sure to point out that in the first year the objective was to educate the community. He recognized that in its second year, teachers are still learning and there is a definite need for professional development on best practices that will make the system cleaner and fairer to students.

It was very clear from the discussion that the administration intends to keep the Rolling Gradebook but that there is work to be done.

You can view the session on Vimeo here: