Another year, another grading policy. Seemingly a caveat of the 90/10 grading policy, under a retake policy new to this year, students can retake any summative regardless of their original grade and for full credit, too. 

Since summatives have become 90% of the total grade, it only makes sense to offer more leniency. 

Last year, principal Shawn DeRose and the instructional counsel looked at grading practices, and how they specifically align with beliefs about education.

“It is supposed to help with learning and that every student may learn at different rates and times. It is not just about taking and scoring a test and moving on. It is providing the opportunity to relearn and then reassess that learning,” DeRose said.

This year, the ability to retake with very few restrictions has been wonderful, say students. It partially alleviates the stress of a summative the first time, and makes for a solid backup plan.

But while the indisputable ability to retake a summative is often a lifesaver, that is exactly the problem. It is common for students to lower their efforts on a summative because “There’s always the retake!”

Students tend to study less, procrastinate preparation, and accept mediocrity, because they know they will always have a second chance. 

Students who are struggling with a unit may not do anything to prepare for their summative because they feel they will do badly anyways, and accept that they will make it up on the retake. In this way, the current retake policy inspires a mindset of defeatism.

For most teachers, retakes regardless of the original score creates a massive amount of extra work. Grading summatives is always time consuming, but now, they must also account for the surplus of students retaking. 

The main concern with offering retakes in general is that they reinforce the belief in students that there will always be the opportunity to redo something, which is quite far from the reality outside of school. You have a job, you mess up your pitch, you will not get a chance to retry. 

Of course, in college, it is the same thing. You fail a test, though it depends on the professor, the vast majority of the time, you won’t be able to retake it. Few students straight out of high school realize this, and instead show up to college expecting to be able to retake every test they do poorly on.

DeRose says the way that AHS will judge the success of the policy is by looking at grades overall, whether they have gotten better or worse, and comparing SOL scores to previous years, among other data points. 

It is definitely beneficial for grades, but the worrying consequences seem overlooked. Only time will truly tell whether this policy needs a retake.