Grundy Reporter

The Minooka District 201 Board of Education discussed changes to the grading system for students in grades three through eight, and also voted to buy new Chromebooks for students to use in class during the board's Jan. 24 meeting.

The idea to change the grading system has been discussed in recent months, and officials examined grade scales and practices of neighboring school districts before discussing the options with the district's education committee. All of the local districts and their feeder district of Minooka High School use a 10-point grading scale, in which 100-90% is A, 80-89 is B, 70-79 is C, 60-69 is D, and 59 or below is an F. During the discussion, the anxiety brought about by the grade scale was a concern.

"Some of the points brought up were that, you know, typically, parents will voice concerns about the current scale, that it is the high expectations that students are feeling anxiety and stress in order to meet that level," Kathleen Cheshareck, director of curriculum, told the board. "In order to have, for example, an A in a class that they're working extremely hard and they're not finding success or that they're just missing by a matter of less than a point, their emotional well-being is a concern. So those concerns come up, I would say, regularly."

Cheshareck said the education committee had not looked at the grading scale since 2016, and after doing so they gave a unanimous recommendation to move to the 10-point scale. After Cheshareck's presentation, the board adopted the new scale for 2023-24.

In other business, the board also approved buying new Chromebook laptops for its second through fifth graders to be used in the classroom. Funding for the laptops will be provided entirely by the district's digital equity formula grant.