by Danny Pham
Marking periods are the times when teachers sum up their students’ scores from class participation, homework, projects, quizzes, tests, and exams. This helps students know how they have done in those periods to improve grades and the parents that they can keep track of their children’s studying progress. At Greenfield School, there are currently 6 marking periods, and each includes 6 weeks (about 1 and a half months), which is enough time for teachers to note down the quizzes and test grades. At the end of each period, our school holds an Award Assembly that honors students have “A” Honor Roll, “A&B” Honor Roll, and Citizenship Award.
In the year 2023-2024, Greenfield school will have a change by having quarter (9-week) marking periods instead of 6-week ones. This decision may have both positive and negative effects such as: giving students more opportunities to improve their grades, to reduce stress; but it can lower their grades down due to long-term period. Let us move to the interview of school faculties and students about this decision.
As an administrator, Mr. Manna claims: “Our lower school already operates on nine-week quarters. The overwhelming feedback from faculty - though it was not unanimous - was that nine-week quarters would be preferred going forward at Greenfield. Not only do these grading periods align with our lower school schedule, but students and teachers are not as rushed in shorter, six-week marking periods. Students will have three additional weeks every grading period to learn additional content and earn more grades. While students may often think they'd prefer fewer grades, the truth is it's nice to have additional assignments scattered across a longer grading period, particularly if a student has an off day on a graded activity or assessment. During shorter grading periods, a single bad grade, particularly on a major assignment, can be hard to recover from. However, in the longer term, students should have ample graded coursework to help offset a lower, perhaps more uncharacteristic grade. Fewer grading periods also means fewer transitions, including - to cite one example - a modification to awards recognitions. Awards assemblies will still happen, but adjusting their frequency will reduce lost instructional time. There are considerable benefits for our community in moving from six terms to four academic quarters, and we are happy to be able to make this change in 2023-2024 in support of our students and teachers to improve the educational experience at Greenfield!”
As a teacher, Mr. Benoit says that: “I love the change. I think it will help decrease the level of stress in our students since there will be fewer marking periods.”
Freshmen Ella, Emily Ross, and Emily Barnes agree with this decision, they say that this will give students more time to pull their grades up if they have bad grades. On the other hand, Jasmine says: “I don’t mind it.” Larken still wants to stay for 6-week periods.
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