WOODBURY– As of 2025, Nonnewaug High School has added back quarter grades–and I couldn’t be happier.
When I first heard about this change, it was like half of the stress of this school year was lifted off me. Now rolling grades, I didn’t hate them but certainly didn’t like them. I loathe the feeling of my mistakes haunting me into the next quarter. Even though I’ve gotten mostly good grades, I was constantly stressed out knowing that one slip-up could bring my grades all the way down, never to see the light again. It happened with my environmental science class. I did horrible on unit test three and I couldn’t get my grade back in the 90s for the rest of the year. I felt like trash– still feel like trash, and I’m still salty about it.
When I first came to this school sophomore year, rolling grades were a completely new thing for me. It’s a cumulative grading system where assignments and their points from previous quarters are included in the overall grade, unlike traditional quarterly grading which resets each grading period. For the most part, I couldn’t help but think of them negatively. There’s the potential for a poor early performance to heavily drag down a student’s final grade and the difficulty of raising said grade once it has fallen.
“What I heard from kids is that with rolling grades, they felt as if they never got a fresh start,” said Stephanie Gutierrez, a counselor at NHS. “Let’s say they had a bad summative, those grades would always be present.”
This system can make students feel discouraged as each new assignment’s impact is diluted by a larger number of previous grades.
It’s like your effort becomes less and less impactful as the year progresses.
“We believe the quarter model is best,” said Declan Curtin, assistant principal at NHS. “It gives kids a beginning and an end, a constant new start. It gives them deadlines that are expected in the real world.”
Who doesn’t like the idea of a fresh start? Knowing that grades are updated more frequently can motivate students to stay on track throughout the entire academic year, especially senior year with college applications according to Strategic Admissions Advice.
Whatever mistakes made last quarter is erased and you have new blank paper to start over and improve.
“I think it’s good that students can have a beginning and end point while setting goals for themselves as they go through a marking period,” said Curtin. “It also gives students a more defined deadline like what’s expected in the real world. With shorter marking periods you also get instant gratification.”
Another upside to quarter grades, I didn’t think about until recently, is how it can provide a more complete and accurate picture of a student’s academic journey, like if a student shows a strong upward trend despite early struggles according to The Claw Campolindo High School of Moraga, California.
I believe it’s obvious which grading system works best. However, there are also downsides to quarter grades unfortunately. Sometimes, especially near the end of the quarter, my workload tends to get intense, fast paced, and just over increase my stress levels.
“We get feedback that the end of the marking period is stressful since several teachers have long term assignments due,” said Curtin. “In that case, we step in since it’s important we worry about the social emotional health of students and make sure coming to school is enjoyable where working hard is a reward. We don’t want grades to be such a stress in people’s lives.”
This is the opinion of Chief Advocate reporter Kaylie Haughton.
