As school starts up again, students should be looking forward to dances, tests, homework and quarter grades, right? Wrong. The District and the citizens on the Student Performance & Achievement school board committee have elected to replace the quarter grading system with semester grades. For freshmen, this is the only system they have known, but this new system may be worse for those veteran students who have been staring at their PowerSchool screen in confusion.

In previous years teachers have input grades on a quarterly schedule; however, this year all scores will be entered on PowerSchool by the end of the semester. The semester will account for 80% of the student’s grade, with final exams still being 20% and GPA will be still calculated the same. This system has simplified the grading process for teachers with frequent deadlines that provide more structure in the grading system and has intended to gain a better understanding of student progress: quarter grades have been seen more as “snapshots” than an accurate reporting. In theory the new system sounds beneficial to both teachers and students, but in practice it has harmed students in the long run as a result of decreased exigence concerning the status of their grades until they have been reported.

Historically, as the quarter ended, students and teachers alike scrambled to get in last minute work, but semester grading has eliminated this stress and erroneously has influenced students’ work ethics. Without the deadline being “counted” at the quarter for data purposes and student reflection, it has been possible that the same students who have needed the extra motivation to bring their grades up may brush it off and adopt an “I have until the end of the semester” attitude in regards to their grades. This mentality can cause a pile up of late work and long periods of procrastination on the part of an unmotivated student, making it harder to bring up a grade.

This being said, students need to be accountable for their own grades and their own futures. High school is a time to mature into an independent person of society. So keep your heads up Glenbard South, there is only a semester and a half to go.