Students and faculty gathered in the Mural Room in Paresky Commons (Commons) for an hour-long roundtable discussion centered around grading at Andover. As part of the forum last Friday evening, attendees broke into table groups to share and discuss various concerns and perspectives on grading.
In the beginning, participants were asked to describe one of their positive grading experiences and an experience that could have been improved. Attendee Alfonso Gonzalez-Cano ’27 shared his table’s perspective.
“We thought that the classes where we had good experiences [with] grading all had something in common, and that was that they gave the students a sense of agency. The students felt like they were in control. The classes were transparent about how they were doing the grading. The students felt like their grades accurately reflected the amount of effort and hard work and work in general that they put into the class,” said Gonzalez-Cano.
Each group drafted a “Grading Bill of Rights” as a collaborative exercise to build upon their discussions. Bruce Ru ‘28, another attendee, explained the thought process behind his group’s proposal, noting the importance of emphasizing clear communication with students regarding grading systems.
“One thing that stood out to us was understanding a little bit of a metacognition angle. There is a grade, and there is a system, but students should know what the rationale [is] behind this. They shouldn’t be surprised at the end of the term. That idea where the grade itself should be transparent but also the thought process that goes behind it, because students deserve a say in how they are taught,” said Ru.
Paul Murphy ’84, Instructor in Mathematics, described how grading culture has evolved since his time as an Andover student. Drawing from his experience, he highlighted the potential for such events to promote student-instructor dialogue.
“I don’t think we thought quite as much about grades as we do now. The college scene was different, so I think that is a big part of what’s changed a lot…in four years, I could count on my hand how many sixes I got. Even fives were awesome. Fours were totally fine, and I got plenty of fours in my French classes and English classes. I got a lot of fives in math, and that was fun and interesting for me. The prevalence of fives and sixes is significant now,” said Murphy.
He continued, “I really enjoy any moment where teachers and students can get together to talk about something that’s mutually important. We could do this for residential life. We could do it for sports. We could do it for what it’s like to just be a boarding student. That dialogue, if it’s kind of created in a good space and there are clear objectives, is really good to trade ideas.”
Reflecting on the discussion, Chloe Park ’27 echoed Murphy’s sentiment, noting the importance of such discussions at Andover. She emphasized the value of conversation between students and faculty.
“I do think that we need more conversations like this, because this was just when people were starting to break that bubble and hear what the faculty had to say. When faculty hear from actual students [who] are being vulnerable with the situation, it makes the pressure go down,” said Park.
Park continued, “It’s important that students take the time to go to events like this… since if we’re going to complain about grading, then we need student perspectives on this. As a new generation comes in, it’s important that each of us step up in the way we look at topics like these so that our struggles actually go into action.”
Gonzalez-Cano felt that although the event was helpful to him, it could have lasted longer. He shared that this could have helped to expand the discussion further to come up with concrete initatives.
“I would have liked it if it was able to go on for longer. The more nuanced conversation happened as we were further on to the meeting because once everyone voiced their issues, that was the point when we began to think about how we could reach a solution for them. And because of the time constraint, we weren’t really able to come up with anything super concrete that thoroughly addressed everything,” said Gonzalez-Cano.
Anny Wang ’26, who organized the event with Frank Hu ’26, reflected on the purpose and outcome of the roundtable. She explained how its success came from creating an accessible space for open dialogue.
“The whole point of this conversation was honestly not that ambitious. I wanted to open up the conversation between students and teachers because there is this tension between students and teachers, and often in grading, it seems like teachers and students are on opposite sides that are against each other… I don’t think it’s a super creative event or a groundbreaking idea. There needs to be someone to bring people together, and I’m proud that we were able to do that,” said Wang.
