Lower School

The clarity of the grading system at Madison Country Day School is beneficial to students, teachers, and parents. The grading system provides vital and easily understood feedback to the students and parents on each student's progress and achievements. Grading begins in the first grade and is on a simple 0 -100 percent scale. Written assessments accompany formal grades each grading period. The grading system is a signal to students that their efforts are valued and that progress matters.

Middle School

Per the founding principles of Madison Country Day School, “Student performance shall be assessed clearly and consistently. Grades shall be used to measure performance for all students. Grade reports shall be divided into three components: achievement, effort, and behavior. Achievement grades shall be given on a percentage basis, with the average score at or near 75%."

In evaluating a student’s performance at Madison Country Day School, there are two key points to keep in mind:

The first point is that the student’s mastery grade in each course solely measures their academic achievement. In order to determine a student’s effort and behavior, close attention should be paid to the comments on report cards, but the numerical grade indicates the student’s ability to master the content in a given course.

The second point is that teachers strive to maintain a 75% average in their class. Thus, a student gaining a score of 75% should be seen as having achieved a satisfactory grade in the course. A student earning around 85% should be seen as having performed very well and a student achieving around 95% should be seen to have truly excelled in the course.

Upper School

In order to accurately report student achievement, the Upper School grading scheme differs from the rest of the school in two main ways:

Students are evaluated on a 0-100% scale. Achieving a score of 85% is considered to be a satisfactory grade in the course while a 95% average demonstrates excellence.

The second difference is that Upper School percentages are then translated into letter grades in order to compute a Grade Point Average. MCDS students are evaluated on the following scale: