![The 2025-2026 Editorial Board Alex Grainger, Cameron Cowen, Helen Manolis, Emory Scofield, Ahmed Ibrahim, Rebekah Buchman, Marley Hoffman, Hayley Gottesman, Pragna Pothakamuri and Natalie Pak (Chase Dolan not pictured) respond to the new MCPS grading policy. “When something that used to be easy suddenly becomes harder, it can turn [students’] mindset negative, whereas making something easier usually has a better impact. I think that’s where a lot of the pushback comes from. But if you put emotions aside, I do think this change could help build stronger work ethic,” Ibrahim said.](https://woottoncommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/fqr5bskTXpn0LRQMmKErLuNKdQYBlL726cFXBaWF-1200x900.jpg)
In previous years, MCPS middle school and high school students would receive the higher letter grade between the first and second quarters as their semester grade. Aimed at increasing rigor and accuracy, students will now receive the average numerical grade between both semesters.
This initiative comes with required district assessments for certain courses, counting for 10% of students’ grades during the second and fourth quarters. Additionally, late work will only be accepted up to 10 days after the original due date.
The Editorial Board is split on the new grading policy, but generally favors the new policy with six of 11 agreeing with it.
With an Editorial Board consisting only of seniors, Editorial Board members against the new grading policy advocated for it to be grandfathered in, applying to only freshmen this first year. “My greatest concern is that [it will] severely affect GPAs and that will affect current seniors, specifically due to college’s previous assessment of MCPS grading,” Editor-in-Chief Emory Scofield said.
A concern raised about this idea is that having both grading policies could be confusing for teachers where the class is composed of multiple grade levels.
Editorial Board members in favor of the new grading policy believe it is a necessary catalyst for students to improve their work ethic. GPAs mean more with the new grading policy and show MCPS to be rigorous when applying for college. “I am hopeful, though, that people will adjust to this grading system by improving their work ethic so they can take away as much of their high school education as they can since they will need to work harder with this transition,” Editor-in-Chief Helen Manolis said.
The new grading policy may impact students’ mentality toward academics differently based on their grade level.“I think that the seniors are the least affected by the new grading policy because they only have one more semester that they need to report to colleges. However, juniors, sophomores and freshmen still have a long way to go before they’re submitting their grades to colleges so I think this transition will be much harder for them, especially the sophomores and juniors who are used to the old grading system,” Manolis said.
MCPS could have approached this issue differently by taking the average numerical grade from all four semesters. For example, if a student performed noticeably worse one quarter, they would have three other quarters to average it with. This would mitigate student stress levels by combatting the pressure of only one other quarter to average it with, while challenging students to put forth their best effort throughout the year.
For now, students should embrace the new grading policy, because ultimately it is there to push students to do the best they can. “I think we’re going to see more responsibility put on students and people will start caring more about their academic classes than they did last year,” Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Ibrahim said.
