Update: Frisco ISD has updated the retest policy to have a maximum score of 90 for all high schools, and there are no more minor grades.

Renowned for its high ratings and academic excellence, Frisco ISD has established itself as the seventh-highest-ranked school district in Texas. However, in recent years, it has also made a name for itself with its gift that keeps giving despite students’ wishes: grade inflation. Every year, students return to school in Frisco ISD only to realize that the grading system has once again changed in the pretense of encouraging more academic mastery.

This pattern started in 2019 when Frisco ISD announced that it would enforce nine-week grading periods rather than six-week ones. This change was not too life-altering, as nine-week grading periods are not that novel in the world of education. However, along with this, they announced the retest policy and the removal of the daily grades category, which would be the first steps Frisco ISD took to help students improve their grades even more than necessary.

The original retest policy sustained that students could retest up to 85 for major grades within five days after receiving their scores as evidence of increased mastery. Moreover, daily grades were removed from the grading system so that students could better focus on minors and majors and demonstrate their level of learning. One can summarize the aim of these changes in six words: to show more mastery through grades.

Last year, the Frisco ISD grading system introduced the concept of “waterfalling.” In short, if you get a 100 on the test, you get a 100 on the quizzes associated with it. On the slim chance, there isn’t a quiz associated with a test, you can requiz up to 90. And this year, most high schools in Frisco ISD have altered the cap of the retest policy to be 100 along with waterfalling and have four to eight grades per quarter weighted equally. One of the exceptions is Reedy High School, where retesting is “only” up to 90 (the latest grade showing mastery), and there are still minors and majors. But like last year, waterfalling is up to 100 based on most teachers’ understanding.

While this may seem like bliss to the perfectionists of the world, it is not. These changes have only prompted Frisco ISD students to be more attentive to their grades and try to get them to be as perfect as possible. After all, with so many opportunities to increase their GPAs and report card scores, it would be even more “embarrassing” if one could not reach their definition of excellence. Thus, the current Frisco ISD grading system seems to be doing more harm than good, feeding on students’ desire to be the best in their grades and inducing even more competition among kids who already have too much on their plates.

It is also hard to take grades and ranks seriously in Frisco ISD when you compare the district to others like Plano ISD, where there are no retests, waterfalling, or requizzes. Furthermore, it can confuse students, as different classes interpret the current grading system differently, creating the necessity for some changes. While we do not have to remove the policies altogether, we should tone them down and enforce them in a clear and same way across campuses in Frisco ISD. Personally, I feel that Frisco ISD should revert to having multiple minor grades and major grades per quarter with waterfalling and a maximum retest score of 85. We should also veer away from the proposed bucket grading system (which follows the College Board rubric scale and applies to all assessments outside of writing), as that could worsen the current grading situation in Frisco ISD.

At the end of the day, many Frisco ISD students, including me, appreciate the core of these policies, as they help students not get defined by a bad test/quiz day. But at the same time, while the changes within the Frisco ISD grading system have good intentions, they have started morphing into something much bigger, affecting students’ mental health and possibly future college acceptances.