As the first quarter came to a close at Scarsdale High School, students and parents who analyzed report cards have experienced the effects of the shift in the grading system. For the past few years, the high school has transitioned away from a more traditional quarterly grading system towards a rolling gradebook system, which this year, has shifted online and is now accessible through an app called Infinite Campus. 

A Shift in Grade Assessment Philosophy

Under the traditional quarterly system, a student’s final grade was an average of four distinct quarter grades. Each quarter was its own bubble, where a bad grade in October only affected the Quarter 1 report. The rolling gradebook changed that completely. 

“In a rolling gradebook, every quarter grade reflects all the work you’ve done from September until that point in time,” SHS Principal Kenneth Bonamo explained. “So it’s cumulative throughout the year.”

According to Bonamo, the primary driver behind this change was to foster a healthier mindset regarding student performance and to emphasize continuous learning over short-term fluctuations and outcomes.

“We wanted to help students see that the course is a journey for a year,” Bonamo stated. “With a quarterly system, if you have one bad grade, it’s more likely to result in a much lower quarter grade, giving you the impression that one bad performance can really sink you. We wanted to convey that that’s not the case.”

The View from the Classroom

For Sally Liu ’29, the shift from middle school, which used quarterly grading, to SHS, demanded an adjustment in thinking.  

“I think the main difference is the rolling gradebook is out of a point system. If one quarter has more total points than another, then that quarter will count more heavily towards your final grade,” Liu noted.

She used to have to worry about the situation where she did well on many assignments in one quarter, but didn’t do well in the next quarter which had much less assignments, which would make her grade drop disproportionately. While this can create pressure, Liu notes that it also offers comfort over time. When asked if a bad grade early on still has an impact, she said, “The impact of a bad grade does lessen over time because as more total points are accumulated, the amount of points that you lost make less of an impact. It fades a little, but it’s still there.” 

Addressing “Grade Locking” Concerns

While the system is designed to reduce anxiety, students acknowledged potential drawbacks. A common concern is that as the year progresses and the total amount of points grows, it becomes harder to move the overall average significantly, a phenomenon that has become known as “grade locking.” 

Principal Bonamo addressed this directly, noting that the system mutes extreme swings in both directions. “Just as the rolling gradebook might lower the impact of a low grade, it can have the same impact on a high grade,” Bonamo explained. He gave the scenario of a student who is maintaining a B average but achieves an A- on assessments during a specific period in the second semester. “In the quarterly system, they would see that A- reported for the third quarter. But in the rolling gradebook, because it would be averaging with the rest of the year, it probably would remain a B or maybe only become a B plus.” 

While students may feel denied validation for short-term improvement, Bonamo argues that the quarterly system often produced artificial swings.

Transparency and Moving Forward

Alongside the rolling gradebook, the high school instituted an online gradebook via Infinite Campus, giving students real-time access to their scores.

For Liu, this transparency has made studying more productive. “I get the certainty of knowing what my grade is, which lets me set better goals, and I don’t have to spend my studying time trying to guess what grade I have.” However, she urged for even more transparency regarding how specific quarter grades are calculated and weighted. When asked how the grading system could be improved, she mentioned, “Honestly, I wish teachers could explain more about why they give the grades they give…they could also explain how exactly our quarter grades are calculated.”

As for advice for fellow students navigating the first quarter results, Liu summarizes her new mindset. “Instead of thinking about it as four quarter grades, think about it as one big course grade. Just focus on the total points.” 

Looking Ahead

As SHS continues to refine its assessment methods, the rolling gradebook stands as a commitment to valuing a student’s full body of work over isolated snapshot moments. While it requires a shift in how students and parents interpret and approach grades, especially closer to the end of the school year, the goal of the rolling gradebook remains focused on reducing pressure and encouraging a long term view of academic growth instead of students just looking at the numbers themselves. It is important to see the journey and reflect on the obstacles too, instead of focusing solely on the end result!