Opinion: MCPS Changed Its Grading System. But Were Students Given Enough Time to Adjust?

By Ahana Samantray. An opinion submission reflecting the author’s views.

After years of criticism over heavy grade inflation, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has adjusted their policies, in an effort to give a more accurate representation of students’ academic abilities in the classroom. Although MCPS says that the policy is more representative of a student’s ability to learn content, what happens to the students who have spent years learning and adapting to the existing system?

For years, MCPS students have learned to navigate a grading system with its own set of rules. Students know what assignments matter, how their semester grades are calculated, what happens when they miss work, and how different assessments affect their final grades. But now, those rules are changing.

MCPS may have needed to change its grading system. But students also needed time to change with it.

What Exactly Changed?

Under the previous system, students’ semester grades were calculated through the semester grade formula. Students who received an A first quarter, and a B the following quarter, would have a semester grade of an A. To put into perspective, a student who received a 79.5% the first quarter and 89.5% the following quarter, would receive the same letter grade as someone who received 100% in both quarters.

Under the new system, semester-long courses are calculated by averaging the two numerical marking-period grades. For yearlong courses, all four marking period grades are averaged to determine the final letter grade.

The difference is significant. Under the old system, a combination of letter grades could produce a higher final grade than a simple numerical average would. Under the new system, the numerical grades themselves are used to calculate the final grade.

For some students, the change has had a direct effect on their final grades. A junior at Richard Montgomery High School said, “I’m honestly very upset because I was taking an AP course. I got an A the first quarter, a 92.5 but then a B the second quarter, 85% and I ended up getting a semester B.”

Under the new system, averaging the two marking-period grades produces a final percentage below the A threshold, resulting in a B.

Not every student views the new system itself negatively. A junior at Montgomery Blair High School said the new system was “more fair,” but said they were “definitely not prepared for it.” The student said teachers did not clearly explain how grading would change and that the lack of flexibility during the transition made the adjustment more difficult.

“I think the system is honestly more fair for sure, but I definitely was not prepared for it,” the student said. “The teachers did not tell us how things were going to change.”

The change was part of a larger overhaul of secondary grading and reporting. MCPS also changed policies surrounding reassessments, due dates, late work, feedback, and districtwide assessments. Under the new policy, for example, students are to receive at least two reassessment opportunities per marking period for eligible work.

MCPS says the broader changes are meant to align grades more closely with demonstrated mastery of content standards, communicate student performance more clearly, promote student responsibility, and reduce inconsistencies between schools.

Implementation

The change did not happen without warning, but the timeline was relatively compressed for students who had already spent years under the previous system.

On April 10, 2025, the MCPS Board of Education held a meeting that included discussion of the grading and reporting changes.

MCPS formally communicated the upcoming changes to families on June 12, 2025, announcing that the revised grading system would begin during the 2025-2026 school year. The revised Grading and Reporting Regulation, IKARA, was then made available on July 3, 2025, ahead of the new school year.

By August, MCPS was publicly reminding families that the changes would take effect that school year.

For a student entering sixth or ninth grade in 2025, the new system was simply the system they learned. For a student entering their junior or senior year, however, it was different.

Students Had to Learn New Rules

Students do not experience grading policies as regulations written on a district website. They experience them through their report cards, GPAs, course choices and academic goals. By the time students reach high school, many have already developed strategies around the grading system they know. They understand how individual assignments affect their averages and what they need to do to reach a particular letter grade.

Was the Transition Too Fast?

The difficulty of changing a grading system is not only understanding the new rules; it also means adjusting expectations students have already built around their academics.

Students had made decisions based on the system they knew. They chose courses, developed study habits and set academic goals without necessarily knowing the way the system would impact their grades. A junior at Montgomery Blair High School said, “I had gotten used to the old system, so when I came into school I knew about the new system, but I didn’t know how to work with the new system.”

“I mean I have been working with the old grading system for the past 2 years, so a change in my junior year was honestly very hard. Especially because it’s such a hard year, with so much more to do outside of just school,” said a senior at Walter Johnson High School.

The student also questioned why the change was applied to students who had already spent years under the previous system, saying, “The students before us got to finish high school with the grading system they were used to, but we are the ones who have to suffer.”

These students are not alone, in fact many MCPS students feel the challenge was not simply learning what had changed, but actually adjusting to how those changes affected a system they had already learned to navigate.

The issue then, is not whether MCPS should have changed its grading system. If the goal was to make grades more accurately reflect student learning, there is a reasonable argument for reform.

The question is whether students were given enough time to understand and adapt to those reforms before they began affecting their academic records.

For students, especially those already partway through high school, changing the rules without a substantial transition period can mean having to adapt to a system they did not choose.

The transition to a new grading system did not need to be avoided, but students needed enough time and information to understand how it would affect them.

What MCPS Should Do

MCPS should continue evaluating whether its grading system accurately reflects student performance. If the new system provides a clearer picture of what students know, that is a change worth making.

But future changes should not catch students by surprise.

Appropriate adjustment periods should be given, especially to students who have been navigating the system for a long time. When a policy directly affects students’ grades, MCPS should provide clear communication, advance notice, and sufficient transition time. Students should be informed not only about what is changing, but also how the change will affect them and what they need to do to prepare.

Changing an established system will always create some uncertainty. That does not mean change should be avoided.

If MCPS wants its grading system to accurately measure student achievement, it should also make sure students have a fair opportunity to understand the system measuring them.

Graphics by Ahana Samantray.

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