In early November of 2023, the Kaneland District 302 Board of Education decided that the district would transition from standards-based grading (SBG) to traditional grading starting with the 2024-25 school year. Along with the shift in grading practices also came the question about reassessment policies for students.  

The philosophy behind traditional grading does not always include reassessments, but students and teachers felt that they were a necessary part of  students’ academic success. Therefore, the district decided to not take them away. Each department looked at their existing SBG reassessment plans and adjusted from there. 

Math, English, social studies and science departments have different reassessment plans. 

 “Generally, in most classes you get two reassessments per semester, and algebra 1 is just one per semester,” math department chair Kristin Massey said. 

 The science and social studies departments did not make significant revisions to their existing plans. 

“It is fairly similar to last year for students,” social studies department chair Jessica McNally said. “They still conference with a teacher, but now we do not let students reassess on project summatives.” 

The English department has made bigger changes while still allowing for reassessments on each summative. 

“The two scores are averaged together,” English department chair Kimberly Reese said. “Last year, when you reassessed it was the most current score that replaced [the original score].” 

Each department has the goal of trying to improve students’ initial scores on summatives, but some students might still be stuck in the mindset of having unlimited reassessments like they did under the SBG policy. 

“I am looking forward to kids not being stuck in the mindset of what we call the reassessment cycle,” Massey said. “[This is] where they are reassessing every single time, and then they are behind because they are working on the previous unit while we are working on the next unit.”