Coming into this school year many students, teachers, and parents (including myself) had thought that the grade weight system was set and unchangeable. The (60%/30%/10%) rule was reinforced by the school to “represent what a student has learned” according to Dr. Neigel, the school principal. Like many of my classmates, I believed that the grading system was unchangeable.. However, this default grade weighting is adjustable by teachers within a certain range so that they can give the students what they feel is the best grading system

After realizing I had fallen victim to the game of “telephone”, where many students had created stories that they believed to be true about the grading system, students should understand the true intentions and flexibility that is possible. 

With that being said, here is the real information about the grade weighting system in BHS: The breakdown of (60%/30%/10%) is the default setting that teachers can change. This is to “ensure that student grades effectively communicate a student’s understanding of the content” said Dr. Neigel. This system is to fairly show the importance of each type of classwork. Major assessments are set as 60% of the grade, minor assessments are set as 30% of the grade, and classwork/homework are set as 10% of the grade. This is to show the importance of major assessments and minor assessments. If there was a much higher percentage for homework, it would be unfair because many times students can miss homework plus, major and minor assessments are much more important. Even though it is set at this, teachers can change it according to their classes; however, since major assessments cannot be less than minor assessments or homework/participation, there is a limit to change. Many teachers choose to keep the default grading as it is a very fair ratio. On the other hand, some teachers decide to change the grading system to better represent their classes. Spanish teacher Steven Cannon, uses a different grading system along with other language teachers. They felt as though language learning should not have the same grading as classes like math, so they changed their grade weights.

While the default grade weight has always been a part of the school, the change to Genesis created an opportunity for the school to restate the system.