At the June 13 meeting of the Lyons Township High School District 204 board, parents spoke out about the need for teachers to be afforded more participation in creating a grading policy.
"Teachers need to have more thought, more participation of what the grading should be going forward," said parent Tina Happel. "I don't believe there's a perception they are being listened to, and we need to put back those motivation factors that so many students, teachers, and parents are stating are not working, which is – as we've all heard – attendance matters, homework matters."
"Currently, students' academic behaviors are not prioritized, and many students have become disengaged. The learning process consists of gaming the system and achieving the highest possible grades, and summatives, if not the first time, the second time," said parent Sheila Jursich. "They have heard loud and clear that homework and attendance is not a priority of the administration, nor is it a priority for the Board of Education. And this has resulted in significant numbers of students not engaging in the day-to-day activities of learning. As a parent and a high school educator, I understand that formative work, such as homework and quizzes, are the building block of mastery of concepts. Formative data tells teachers what students understand and what they need to reteach. This is essential in the educational process, and formative assessment and student behaviors such as completing homework and taking quizzes should be a grading priority at LT."
The school board shared that from its grade book audit of the 2022-23 school year, many members felt having summatives in the grade book was better as students enjoyed being able to showcase their learning through various assessments, instead of just one. The board also said it had two goals for the grade book: increasing summative assessments and increasing the variety of assessments.
The Lyons Township district has a page on its website highlighting various aspects of its grading policies. Some include having all teachers in the same class/subject use the same grade book, practices and practice grades not being included in the grade book, attendance not being included in the academic grade, students receiving only individual grades for projects done in groups, and extra credit is not given.
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