Why did Mercy Change Grading for 7-12 Graders?

Administrators and faculty engage in an ongoing process to continuously improve our educational program at Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women. As an important part of this process, we routinely analyze our policies and practices to make certain they align with our mission and best practices research. When we identify a gap between what we believe or have learned and what we practice, we make changes to narrow this gap. For the past four years, the faculty and administration have engaged in a comprehensive study and discussion of the current research on grading and reporting. As a result of our work, beginning in fall 2017, we made changes in the way we report students’ grades on both progress reports and report cards.

• We have shifted the way we report grades from numbers to letters. By limiting the number of grade categories, teachers can offer more honest and reliable evaluations of student performance. In addition, this shift in reporting student performance using letters aligns to the way colleges report grades.
• We have revised the comments on progress reports and report cards. It is of crucial importance in the learning process to provide useful feedback to students to help them improve their academic performance. You will see that our revised comments provide feedback that is specific, actionable and growth-producing. In addition, we have added comments that articulate your daughter’s strengths. Current research is clear that articulating students’ strengths helps them build on them to increase their overall academic achievement.

These revisions in our reporting processes are a result of our deliberate focus on providing the very best educational program for our students.