I’d like to expand upon the recent PD article about grading in the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District (“Cotati-RP schools rethink grades,” Thursday). What may not have come through, amid all the confusion, is the reasoning behind our search for a better way to grade students. For about the past 15 years, teachers have been using electronic grading programs to keep track of grades. While there are many benefits to the programs, they have an unintended consequence: They report a simple average of scores entered rather the more intuitive method of examining students’ grade trends. This way of calculating grades...
