Learning Together

As we enter this season of reflection and celebration, we want to extend our sincere appreciation for your continued dedication to our students and to one another. Your commitment, care, and professionalism make a meaningful difference every day.

We wish you and your loved ones a restful and joyful holiday season, and all the best in the year ahead.

Respectfully,
The Office of Instruction

As our district continues to explore equitable grading practices, one theme has surfaced in several conversations across departments:

Even when teachers agree on common grading categories and weights, using points instead of percentages can unintentionally change how much an assignment “counts.”

In our current system, SchoolTool calculates all grades as percentages and the overall grade students and families see is a percentage.

But when teachers enter grades using point totals, those points can create new, hidden “sub-categories” that distort the intended weighting — even when teachers believe they are aligned.

Points Create Variable Weighting Within the Same Category

When two teachers both say, “Formative is 30% and Summative is 70%,” we assume that each assignment within a category contributes proportionally to that category. That’s true only if all assignments in that category are graded using percentages.

But when teachers assign different point values — 10 points, 30 points, 60 points, 5 points — they are actually creating multiple weights inside a single category.

This means:

• A 60-point formative assignment counts six times more than a 10-point formative assignment.

• A quiz worth 50 points outweighs another teacher’s quiz worth 20 points — even if both are listed as “formative.”

• Students in different classrooms may experience vastly different impacts from the same performance.

And because the system quietly converts everything into percentages at the end, this “hidden weighting” is not obvious to teachers, students, or families.

To ensure grades meaningfully reflect student learning — and not teacher-selected point values — we encourage teachers to:

• Use percentages when entering grades into SchoolTool

• Keep point values consistent OR avoid points altogether

• Talk with teams about how assignments should be weighted within categories

• Ask: Does this grade reflect the student’s learning or my grading structure?

These shifts help us move toward a grading system that is:

• More consistent
• More transparent
• More equitable for students

Our goal is NOT to eliminate teacher autonomy, but to ensure that autonomy does not unintentionally lead to inequitable weighting that affects student outcomes.

If you have questions or would like support analyzing your gradebook setup, please reach out — we are here to help! Please remember that our feedback form remains open and we welcome your questions and considerations. This will be shared with the task force at our meeting in February.

As we reflect on the strong start to the school year, we want to celebrate the hard work, collaboration, and leadership taking place across our elementary buildings.

Elementary teacher leaders recently came together for their second districtwide meeting, engaging in collaborative learning focused on shared leadership inspired by "Arise" by Elena Aguilar. Grade-level and department teams participated in district calibration, reviewed pacing, and began planning for upcoming Tier 1 meetings. This work that led to pacing adjustments for grades 3–5. Teams also reflected on collective strengths, received updates on the initial review of a K–5 math screener, and ended the session by highlighting “strengths in action.”

Representatives from third grade at each building, along with library, music, and art teachers, continued collaborative work around arts integration. A dedicated team of educators supported the development of meaningful, standard-aligned experiences that will be implemented in January.

Across the district, Grade 1 teams shared updates on Tier 1 instructional shifts during a virtual meeting, and classroom teachers and interventionists had individual time to collaborate with literacy consultant Sara McClendon to strengthen responsive instructional practices.

Together, this work reflects our shared commitment to collaboration, continuous improvement, and high-quality learning experiences for all students.

Congratulations to Sara Collom, Paige Pasquarella, and Kara Snyder who were the first three to respond to last month's riddle correctly.

If you know the answer to this month's riddle, click HERE to submit your answer. The first three (3) people who answer the riddle correctly will receive a special prize in their mailbox next week!

Good luck!

December Riddle:

I show up in quiet moments and shared successes.

I help us pause and look back before moving ahead.

I remind us why the work matters.

What am I?