Students in kindergarten through fifth grade in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 are evaluated on how close they are, or are not to mastering the material, but when they move to middle school their evaluation is done with more traditional letter grades.
Now, District 60 administrators are taking a much closer look at how students are evaluated in middle and high school to make it more equitable. A zero on one test can make it impossible for a student to recover enough to pass a course.
Jennifer Rice de la Sanchez, the district’s director of teaching and learning, said eliminating number grades below 50 will reduce the likelihood a student will fail a class for a missed assignment or test.
“Equity is a tool which drives all of our work,” she said. “At the end of the day, some things may disappear in the way we express grades for grades six through 12.”
District 60 administrators and others involved with student evaluations held a virtual town hall on Oct. 3 to share with parents and other community members the potential changes that may occur, and gather feedback from those present.
Sanchez said she anticipates a proposal will be ready for consideration by the District 60 Board of Education in November.
Traditionally, Sanchez said a test score between 90 and 100 merits an A, a B registers between 80 and 89, a C between 70 and 79, while a numeric score between 60 and 69 brings a D. Anything between 0 and 59 fails with an F.
Should a student receive a zero for not doing an assignment or taking a test, it would take a 93 to attain a C average and three scores of 80 — the lowest possible B — to achieve the minimum achievable passing grade of D.
Giving an F the same 10-point differential as the other four grades — between 50 and 59 — means it would be much easier for a student to remedy the failure, pass the course and, if in high school, earn credit toward graduation.
Nate Weber, the district’s social studies coordinator for all grades, said giving each middle and high school grade a 10-point range creates a 50-point grading scale rather and the current 100 points. As feedback is gathered, there are different viewpoints.
“We’re trying to find out what everybody thinks and what option is best,” Weber said. “The 50-point scale is preferred by a lot of people. Now we’re hearing from the community. Maybe we want to make a zero grade an incomplete. At the end of the day, all grades have to be justified.”
Initially, the 50-point grading scale was proposed in May for the current school year. Sanchez said a decision was made to delay making changes until the 2025-2026 term because of the challenges getting middle and high school teachers ready for the switch in August.
“Summer is the time a lot of teachers are away,” Sanchez said. “There would be a lot for them to learn. If we make a change we want a smooth implementation.”
“At the end of the day, grades are a judgment,” Weber added. “Some teachers have been doing it the same way for many years.”
Weber said at times teachers may enter a student’s behavior into grading, regardless of how well they know the subject. While not discounting the importance of classroom behavior, a different way of evaluating it may be appropriate.
Robert Vossel, the district’s science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) coordinator, said the grading system for elementary school students is not likely to change. Those marks of 1, 2, 3 or 4 show not only how well a student knows a subject, but the improvement made through the year.
Vossel said a student who masters the material exceptionally well earns a 4, mastery of the material brings a 3, approaching mastery merits a 2, and a 1 means the student must work to better learn the subject matter. As a student better understands the work, the grade will improve.
Sanchez said none of the changes, if any, will become effective before the start of the 2025-2025 school year.
