Fulton County releases a new grading and attendance policy for the second semester

Juliette Salah, Staff Writer & Brandon Tung, Staff Writer

The pandemic has taken a toll on everyone and everything. As people continue to persevere through these times, the county needs to implement changes to help the community adapt to the new environment. One such change that directly affects high schools in Fulton County is the new grading and attendance policy. After a series of trial and error in the first semester, the county has finally decided on a new, more adaptable, and flexible set of policies for this semester. 

In terms of attendance, over winter break the county changed who has control over attendance. In the first semester, the county was in charge of attendance for the majority of the semester, and teachers did not have the complete authority to modify student attendance. 

“Students were adamant on getting their attendance fixed, but as a teacher, my hands are tied. I can’t change anything, it was all the county,” Stephanie Zavlanos, a social studies teacher, said. 

The new attendance policy allows teachers to handle the attendance for all their students, regardless of whether the student is virtually or physically in class. Many teachers have shifted from marking students present simply for being on the call to marking students present only if they participate. 

“In the remote setting, it’s very hard to track if a kid is really engaged in class, on any level. [Students] have probably all experienced it,” Principal Brian Downey said. “So that’s been our challenge that the district has recognized. That’s what inspired that change.”

While it was county administrators that made the decision, it remained up to individual schools to see how they could implement this new policy to best benefit their students.

“As a school, the leadership team decided to keep it as simple as possible. For attendance in the remote setting, we’re just using ‘did you log in’,” Downey said. “If they’re dealing with a kid who’s either not logging in or who is logging in but not participating, then there are some next steps that our teachers should be taking.”

Although learning about the new attendance policy will disappoint some students, there are also students that appreciate the fool-proof method the county has put in place.

“What I like about the attendance policy is that I guess now there's no way for students to finesse their way out of missing the call,” Akhil Swarna, a junior, said.

Along with a new attendance policy, the county also implemented changes to the grading guidelines. 

“I like it better, specifically the new retake policy. The new retake policy makes it so students can only score up to a 79, which leads to less grade inflation,” Zavlanos said. “The previous grading policing, which was retakes could go to 89, was not the norm in a normal school year. The new grading policy also adds formatives, which gives flexibility for teachers to give their students more accountability.”

However, the new grading and attendance policies have caused mixed reactions among Northview’s students. For freshmen, in particular, the reoccurring changes in policies can be particularly challenging, especially during these trying times. 

“It has been kind of weird because now I have to get used to it, at the very beginning of the year I was so worried about all of this, all the homework because I thought it was going to be what it is now,” Julia Pearson, a freshman, said. “It's really hard to try and adjust your brain to switching back and forth.” 

Graphic by Grace Peng, Managing Online & Social Media Editor

For many, high school can get overwhelming very fast. Between grades and the abundance of assignments that one has to keep up with, at times, it seems that if one assignment or grade goes missing, the entire jigsaw falls apart. 

“For the grading policy, homework and formative grades now count,” Pearson said. “That's more pressure for you to make sure that you get everything done and [done] correctly.”

Not all students favor the new grading policy, however, some students view the change as an opportunity to reflect on themselves.

“I know when they mentioned last semester that they’d only be counting summatives, that's something that they do in college, and I thought that that was a really cool thing,” Swarna said. “That's almost like preparing us for college. You know who are your initiative-taking students, then [those] who are kind of laid back who do the minimum to pass the class, and that's when the students kind of realized who they are themselves.”

For now, the new attendance and grading policy changes are just settling in and people are adapting to it. Both students and staff members alike may agree or disagree with the policy changes, and many are curious to see if these policies will become permanent or if they revert to the same situation as first semester.