Tolly Gershberg ‘27
How do you feel about middle and high school students getting graded on something other than their academics? At St. Andrew’s, making the honor roll is about more than just academic achievement.
The honor roll consists of two different components, the effort and academic honor roll.In each class every trimester, students receive an effort grade of exceeding expectations, (E) meeting expectations, (M) or approaching expectations (A). Weighting an E as a 4.0, an M as a 3.0, and an A as a 2.0, the effort GPA must be over 3.2 for effort honor roll and over 3.7 for effort high honor roll.
The academic honor roll is awarded to students with a 3.2 unweighted GPA or above and the high academic honor is awarded to students who average a 3.7 unweighted GPA or above for that trimester.
Freshman Ava Scafide said that effort grades are a positive adjustment to the grading style. “I think effort grades are important because students who don’t do as well in terms of regular grades but still try really hard should be appreciated,” she said. “Even if their grades aren’t the best, effort grades give students a reason to try really hard.”
Making the honor or high honor roll despite not having a specific GPA, which is not completely in your control, can make people feel more valued.
On the other hand, freshman Simón Machado thinks that “Effort grades can make me feel invalid at times. Like I know I’m trying hard in some of my classes, but when you have all M’s, even though you feel like you should be getting an E in that class, it makes you feel like the teachers aren’t valuing my hard work.”
The school does provide students with an effort rubric, but some students said that they were still not sure how to achieve an “E” in certain classes.
Of course, not everything is this black and white, and some students have more mixed opinions. Freshman Audrey Driscoll said that effort grades are “a great way to motivate people to work on self-advocacy and put more effort into school, but I think that there isn’t a good way of measuring a student’s effort. I’ll work really hard in some classes but still get an M, but how do teachers know I’m working that hard to begin with?” Audrey understands why there are effort grades, but she also thinks they are unnecessary and often inaccurate because teachers do not fully understand how much effort you put in at home.
Teachers present another significant perspective on effort grades. Ms. Anderson, an upper school history teacher, believes that “Effort grades are an important way of recognizing student achievement that is not always captured in letter grades. The effort grades allow students to understand that there is more to the academic experience than a number result.”
Effort is a crucial aspect of learning, but whether it should be measured is a debated question among students.