Hinsdale D-86 Backtracks On Grading Changes

BURR RIDGE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 appears to be taking a more cautious approach with changes to its grading policies.

This comes as Lyons Township High School is facing protests over its overhaul of grading. The school is backing off, as school board members are expressing reservations.

Last year, District 86 loosened its policy for accepting late work.

That policy forced teachers to accept work two or three months late, board member Debbie Levinthal said at last week's board meeting. She said "unlimited retakes" at Lyons Township and Stevenson high schools serve as "cautionary tales."

"I feel like that is detrimental to our teachers, and it takes the accountability off students and puts it on (teachers)," Levinthal said.

"We entirely agree," said Chris Covino, assistant superintendent of academics. "There will not be unlimited late work. There will be deadlines set by each individual course team."

In some cases, the teams have decided to take percentages off scores for each day late, he said.

Under a new policy, students must request extensions for assignments. This means they must advocate for themselves, Covino said.

The district also is closing a loophole that allowed students to take advantage of a 50 percent to 100 percent grading scale.

Under such a policy, a student's grade on an assignment could not fall below 50 percent.

"This whole business that became a loophole for students of putting their name on something or blowing on a piece of paper to get some credit cannot continue," Covino said.

Teachers and parents indicated far more students were taking advantage of the loophole than anyone would have anticipated, he said.

Now, students must follow instructions on assignments and complete them in good faith before they can benefit from the 50 percent policy.

Last year, Lyons Township High School stopped grading homework in its classes, which drew blowback from parents. The school has backed off that policy. Now, it plans to count homework as 10 percent of a grade, although such work cannot lower a grade.

District 86 has moved toward lessening homework in semester grades. Many parents have objected to that policy.

But only a few classes – mainly those with honors designations – count homework as 0 percent or 10 percent of a grade.

Levinthal said she was still concerned about de-emphasizing homework in such classes.

"If you don't back off and pivot on some of these things, I fear that teachers will work around these types of things," Levinthal said.

Covino said that if anything, more classes will count homework as a bigger percentage of grades next school year.