Another major policy statement determined by an Academic Affairs
Committee concerned guidelines for marking and grading. Ms. Rivera in
her suburban New York high school was putting together a teacher hand-
book, involving as many members of the school community as possible
in its creation. Marking and grading guidelines officially fell under the
auspices of this committee.
Her goal was to have all staff use similar guidelines to ensure fairness
of assessment regardless of teacher, while at the same time providing for
individual differences within different disciplines and teacher styles.
With so many variables involved, this was going to be difficult and
involve discussions over several meetings. The committee needed direc-
tion to know where to begin. So, when Ms. Rivera introduced the topic,
she explained the general goal and raised two issues that such a policy
statement would have to address: cumulative grading and makeup work
for assignments and examinations.
All constituents on the committee agreed that fairness of assessment
with flexibility for teachers was to be the goal of the final policy. Stu-
dents, parents, and guidance counselors wanted fairness. Teachers wanted
room for some maneuverability. At the same time, all saw the need for a
general policy to guarantee fairness. When introducing any topic, a school
leader needs to remember with whom she is working. She begins with an
understanding of their needs and preconceptions. She phrases what she
has to say in such a way that everyone at the table feels his needs are be-
ing addressed.
All committee members needed to understand the concept of cumula-
tive grading. Taking on the role of teacher, Ms. Rivera fully explained this
concept, using much of the language and examples previously developed
for her new teacher workshops and later incorporated in the final docu-
ment (reproduced here in appendix A). The main aspects were accepted
as a blueprint to be refined, giving the topic focus. Similarly, methods for
dealing with assignment and examination makeups were explained and
general consensus reached.
Interestingly enough, it was the students on the committee who came
up with the most modifications in all areas. Students on such a committee
tend to be those who do well in school. They expressed a great deal of
latent anger at the unfairness they saw in teacher methods of grading and
providing makeup work.
108 Chapter 8