As the end of the school year approaches, eighth graders are starting to prepare for upper school, with the different grading system, the middle school with the EMWN and the upper school with the ABCDF system, being one concern.
“I think it would be a surprising change, but not huge,” eighth grader Jasper Freno said. “It would take a bit to get used to, but I don’t think it would necessarily be harder.”
On the other hand, Freno also thinks that the middle school system is not perfect.
“It’s not a super great representation of your true understanding and learning,” Freno said. “It’s good for improvement, but not for showing true mastery.”
The EMWN system is a progress-based system and is less defined than letter grades or percentages, meaning the score ranges can vary quite a lot.
“I think too much effort is put into making everyone happy, like hand waving everything from 90% to 75% as an M,” eighth grader Terence Wu said. “It’s important to get used to high school expectations because it’s also used in college.”
Director of Middle School Brian Johnson explains the reason behind the middle school system.
“I think in middle school it’s important that students have a better understanding of how they’re performing on specific skills,” Johnson said.
However, change could be possible.
“I could see in the future, UPrep falling into more of that category where some of the classes do receive a summative grade,” Johnson said. “There’s no immediate plans. This is not something I’m thinking about next year because it takes a lot of time to make that transition.”
The middle school system has endured for more than five years. It seems to have worked well, and it is unlikely that it will change in the near future.