PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — Administrators got the green light to form a grading committee and begin the process of creating a new grading policy for Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS).
CCPS Director of System and Instructional Performance Scott McComb highlighted ongoing inequities in Calvert’s current grading policy, such as lower or failing grades carrying higher weights than A’s and B’s, which can damage a student’s overall average or final grade in a class. Board members also called out that the current grading procedure has a 50% “floor,” meaning that 50% is the lowest grade a student can get on an assignment.
McComb has already begun gathering information on grading procedures and asked the Board of Education to authorize a grading committee at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year to fully evaluate grading policies and make recommendations.
Selections for the committee will begin once staff returns for the new school year. The chief academic officer will appoint principals to the committee, and office directors will appoint members. Then, the committee will invite teachers to apply and select them using a lottery system. Roughly 60% of the committee will be teachers and 40% will be administrators.
Once the committee is in place, it will begin a baseline review of current procedures and evaluate alternatives in other districts. McComb says he hopes to have a draft of revisions by December or January and bring the new policy up for board approval in March 2026. On this timeline, the new grading policy will be ready for implementation for the 2026-27 school year.
The committee plans to look at research from 2015 to 2025 and will consider districts outside of Maryland as well.
“It’s important to know that this is a fair, open, honest and transparent process,” McComb said. “We want the best answers. We’re not looking for research that just says what we want it to say so we can continue doing what we’re doing. We know we have things we can do to improve it.”
The board advocated for having the committee look into the “50% floor” policy in particular and praised McComb’s open-minded, equity-focused plan.
The committee is set to form and begin work as soon as the 2025-26 school year begins.
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