This fall, Lakeside unveiled a new approach to grades across the English and History departments. Under the new policy, core classes—including E100, H100/H110, E200, H200, as well as all 300-level English and History courses—will shift to a “Letter Grade First” framework. Because high school transcripts ultimately display letter grades, leaders of the English and History departments determined that evaluating work directly on an A-F scale offers the simplest way to show what a student has actually learned. While smaller assessments like quizzes still rely on the traditional point system, all major ones, including essays, projects, and Socratic seminars, will now be evaluated using standardized rubrics tied directly to letter grades for every assingment.
To translate these letter grades into Canvas, Lakeside has implemented a shared scale mapping every letter grade to a single, predetermined number. By establishing these fixed numbers, such as a 95 for an A or 91.5 for an A-, the policy aims to eliminate arbitrary point deductions and create grading consistency. This also balances out how the lowest grade a student can get on any given assignment is 50%, making sure an off day or poor submission doesn’t tank a student’s entire grade.
Tatler gathered student reactions to this policy through the poll, which ranges from acceptance to frustration, with a significant amount of confusion in between. A primary theme in student feedback is a lack of communication regarding the change. When asked to elaborate on their answer to if they supported the new policy, multiple students reported that their teachers never formally mentioned the policy during class, leaving them to discover it in syllabus fine print or through the grapevine. “My English and History teachers never addressed this policy in class,” one student shared, noting it was “buried in the English class’s listing.” Unsurprisingly, reactions like “Wait, what is the new grading policy??” and “I did not hear about the new grading policy” were frequent. Others noted that while the policy was explained in their class, they still didn’t understand the details.
The most unanimous annoyance is towards the fact that the highest achievable grade is a 95%. As one poll respondent explained, “A 95 simply means that it will be even harder to keep your grade up even if you have been consistently working hard…because a single bad score can tank your overall grade down.” Another added, “I need my 100% to offset my Bs or Cs.”
Other than this, while it’s difficult for a teacher to figure out whether an essay that received an A deserves a 93 or 100, some students voiced concerns that compressing performance into a single number minimizes student effort. “A 95 is different than a 98. And a 98 is different than a 93 yet these are all A’s,” Ford S ’29 said. “If you categorize them into just one 95 it doesn’t really capture the student.” Another pointed out the mismatch with rubrics: “Since we’re being graded on our ability to meet or exceed the rubric requirements, it should be possible to get above that.”
Younger students and those new to Lakeside have divided opinions on the new policy. Many teachers, including those who teach H100 and E100, already used the grading policy informally, and this could make grading more fair no matter which teacher they have. Other freshmen expressed worry that the high bar, combined with heavy workloads and extracurricular activities, leaves little room for error. Bimu B. ’30 opposes the new policy “because…the standards are too high, especially for freshmen…This could become stressful.”
Despite the large amount of pushback, a handful of students acknowledged the reasoning behind the shift. One student highlighted the “philosophy that 100% means that you have nothing to improve, so 100% ‘s are rare.” Another added some more optimism, noting that as long as the end result doesn’t hurt transcripts, “it really doesn’t seem bad and everyone seems to be pretty content with it…I can’t fail and an A’s an A.”
Lakeside’s push towards standardizing grades aligns with a growing nationwide movement to address grade inflation. Many universities are re-evaluating how grades, particularly As, are awarded. Most notably, Harvard recently voted to enact a policy capping As at 20% per class.
Similarly, many high schools across the PNW have struggled with post-pandemic grade inflation. Studies from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) highlighted that high school GPAs across Washington state rose sharply following the pandemic, even as standardized test scores varied. While Seattle Public Schools have leaned into more equitable grading, aiming to have grades reflect understanding instead of non-academic factors like participation, effort, or attendance, independent schools across Seattle face the challenge of maintaining academic standards without causing excessive stress.