For the 2025-2026 school year, Loudoun County Public School changed many aspects of their grading policy, including but not limited to, their retake expectations, formative grades, and 50% floor grades.
The LCPS grading policy from previous years gave students an 80% retake opportunity. Retakes are now only given to students who have completed all formative assignments on time and can earn up to a 70% on the reassessment. A student’s overall grade is made up of 10% formative, 30% minor summative, and 60% major summative assignments.
“I think the threshold of a 70 is a bit more fair in terms of the overall ability to take a retake,” said social studies teacher Gregory Zawistowski. “I think some of the restrictions on who has access to a retake in terms of work competition is probably good.”
The new grading policy does not give students a 50% floor grade on individual assignments, only the quarter grade. Under LCPS’s old assessment grading policy, a student would be given a 50% grade if they earned below a 50% on an assignment.
Formative grades did not affect a student’s overall grade under the old LCPS grading policy. This year formative assignments count towards 10% of a student’s grade. For example, if a student does not complete any formative assignments, they would earn no more than a 90% in the class.
“The new revisions made to the assessment grading policy provide information that is a lot clearer to our students and teachers” said principal Dr. Ryan Hitchman. “ The definition of what reasonable effort looks like is a great clarifying matter to have”.
The idea of amending the retake policy from 80% to 75% was brought by Lauren Shernoff, Leesburg District School Board Representative, during the LCPS SChool Board meeting held on April 8, 2025.
“Ms. Shernoff stated her amendment was to set ‘high expectations’ during discussion of this amendment,” said Little River District School Board Representative Dr. Sumera Rashid.
Shernoff’s amendment of the 75% retake possibility was changed to 70% by Melinda Mansfield, Dulles District School Board Chair.
While this policy will require students to put more effort into school, LCPS believes it will improve students’ academic potential.
