The Anne Arundel County school district has adopted new guidelines it hopes will increase “student responsibility” and allow more time for teacher instruction.

The updated grading regulations will be less lenient on when students can turn in work late and will reduce the number of assignments students can redo.

Joanna Bache Tobin, District 6 school board member and its past president, said the board considered new guidelines after feedback from teachers and some parents that the academic bar was not high enough for students.

“It was partially because during the COVID process, when we had such upheaval in schools, we had rolled back a few things to make sure that everything was as equitable as it could be,” Tobin said. “But as we came out of that, we realized that we needed to ensure that the standards were maintained as they needed to be.”

School district superintendent Mark Bedell said students have a responsibility to get their work done on time.

“Just as our teachers have a responsibility to deliver quality instruction, our students have a responsibility to get their work done on time,” Bedell said in a statement. “Our school system granted a great deal of leniency during the pandemic, but the pandemic is over, and we need to strengthen the regulations and allow teachers to focus on instruction and not as many re-dos of student work.”

The Anne Arundel County Parent Teacher association supports the grading update.

“The Anne Arundel County Council of PTAs Board supports and appreciates the effort that AACPS is making to improve the quality of our student education and the support for teachers to provide them the framework to improve outcomes,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Most of the updates apply to high school students. The number of allowed assignments that students can redo per class per marking period is reduced from three to two and must be listed as “assessments” in gradebooks. The school district defines assessments as “an evaluation of student knowledge or skills, including tests and quizzes.”

Late work is accepted with increasing penalties for each day late, but is not eligible to be redone. Limiting late work will help teachers focus more on instruction and not grading late assignments, the board believes.

“By limiting the timing as to when students can turn in late work, there’s less likely to be a lot of stuff hanging out there that suddenly, at the end of the session, the teachers have to have to grade in addition to the standard grading that would occur,” Tobin said.

Students with chronic absences may have course credit withheld, regardless of their grade. This will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

“I think the premise there is that if you miss that many days, you have probably missed enough that you’re not going to be in a position to pass that course and sort of have a meaningful understanding of what was taught,” Tobin said.

At both the middle and high school levels, the grading scale defines an E, or unsatisfactory, as 50% to 59%.

Students enrolled in advanced placement or international baccalaureate courses can opt out of the fourth marking period assessment if they are taking the AP or IB exam for that course.

This story will be updated.