At its final meeting of 2024, the Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved a policy revision that it hopes will lead to more consistent grading policies countywide.
The measure represents “a huge improvement from what was there before,” according to Mason District School Board Representative Ricardy Anderson.
“Grading and how it’s reported is paramount to students and their families,” Anderson said before the vote last Thursday (Dec. 19). “It has to be comprehensive, it has to be very clear and it has to be consistent.”
Following months of development, the revised policy is intended to address the “vastly different grading environments” that students experience from one school to another, Mount Vernon District board member Mateo Dunne said.
The differences in how individual schools and teachers approach grading make comparisons “almost impossible,” according to Dunne.
“Even within departments within the same school, there can be differences,” he said. “We need to make sure we are consistent.”
The approved policy will now go to the Fairfax County Public Schools grading committee, which will develop specific implementation proposals, and Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid, who will oversee its rollout across the division.
“This is just the first step, but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Board Chair Karl Frisch, who represents the Providence District.
The board unanimously adopted a series of amendments to the draft policy proposed by its governance committee, including a requirement that parents receive a mailed copy of all report cards unless they opt out. Those opting out will receive the reports electronically.
The original wording proposed the reverse: parents would receive report cards in the mail only if they specifically requested them.
Most county schools currently mail out report cards to parents. Citing equity concerns, several board members pressed to retain mailings as the primary tool for conveying report cards.
“We cannot have this solely be electronic,” Hunter Mill District Representative Melanie Meren said. “Overcommunicating the academic information is the way to go.”
Broadening the discussion beyond report cards, Dunne said there needs to be a return of more old-school approaches in other areas, such as textbooks.
“We’ve gotten a little too excited about bringing lots of electronic systems into our schools,” he said.
With the revisions, FCPS has eliminated D-minus from a new grading schedule that, like the rest of the policy, will go into effect on Aug. 1, 2025 for the 2025-26 school year:
- A: a final grade of 93 to 100
- A-: 90 to 92
- B+: 87 to 89
- B: 83 to 86
- B-: 80 to 82
- C+: 77 to 79
- C: 73 to 76
- C-: 70 to 72
- D+: 67 to 69
- D: 60 to 66
- F: 50 to 59
Board members also voted to require additional information on secondary students’ transcripts that differentiates whether classes were taken at the student’s base school, at an FCPS academy or online.
Other changes in the new policy include the standardization of an option for one redo of any “summative” assessment, which is defined as a final exam, project, presentation or other assignment that demonstrates mastery as opposed to ones for monitoring progress and getting feedback.
A section on “academic integrity” has been added that explicitly bars any “unauthorized” use of artificial intelligence technology, along with cheating, plagiarism and other forms of “academic dishonesty.”
FCPS began looking at policies governing the use of AI technologies, such as the image and text generators DALL-E and ChatGPT, in November 2023. Reid reported in May that the school system had created an AI steering committee, begun training staff on AI tools and blocked access to AI tools on student computers.
