According to Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton, the new evidence-based grading system will be based on that of Adlai Stevenson High School in Illinois, which focuses on students’ ability to improve skills over time. In the new four-point grading system, a student’s teacher determines a final course grade by reviewing the student’s assessments and considering any clear patterns of growth. Getting a score of four means that a student has exceeded mastery. Three is mastery, two is approaching mastery and one is having a fundamental understanding.

“It’s (about whether you can do) the skills to the level that we are asking,” Stratton said. “I think it’s a more transparent and straightforward system.”

The Gunn administration has formed an ad hoc committee with staff from various subjects to discuss the upcoming changes, which will occur over multiple years. According to Planning Team Lead Kathryn Catalano, Gunn will prioritize quality over speed and do everything possible to make the transition seamless. Catalano’s conservative projection is that, after a transition period, the final form will be launched in the next seven years. Specifics of the plan have yet to be discussed within the planning team.

For a smooth transition, Catalano says that support resources will be available for both teachers and students. Currently, multiple teachers are participating in a pilot program involving a few teachers from all departments to analyze the practicality of this new system.

“We’re encouraging teachers to jump into this with a teaching team rather than doing this by themselves because having a team anytime you’re trying to learn something new helps a lot,” she said.

According to Adlai Stevenson High School Principal Troy Gobble, the shift to evidence-based grading is necessary due to fundamental flaws in the status quo.

“There’s a problem with the way that we have graded for 100 years,” Gobble said in a video published by the school. “What we’ve done is forced students into a conversation that’s around collecting points. What we want to do is identify the essential learnings of the class — the fundamental standards that exist for the course.”

Catalano noted that the change at Gunn will place an emphasis on developing student autonomy and competence.

“It’s more of a philosophy shift,” Catalano said. “One of the big things with evidence-based grading and teaching is the focus on helping to develop student agency and spending time developing skills that are going to be meaningful and transcend just the high school experience. (It’s about) moving away from content retention and memorization and more towards actual skills applications.”

Computer science teacher Joshua Paley, who gave a TEDx talk in 2023 about the flaws of the current grading system, sees potential in the plan but also has some worries.

“I worry about class sizes being an issue because the teachers will have to get to know the students better, and it’s hard to do that with the class sizes as large as they are,” he said. “With that said, the concept is as promising as anything related to grades that I’ve seen in a long time … But, as long as the word ‘grades’ is involved, I’ll always be skeptical.”

Still, Catalano added that the adjustment will be a collaborative process.

“We don’t want anybody to jump into this without feeling ready to do it,” Catalano said. “(Administrators) want to make sure that we are supporting both teachers and students so that we have a transition that feel smooth and that everybody feels supported.”

At the beginning of each school year, the Student Activities Center sells parking permits, which are required for students to park their cars in the parking lot. Only juniors and seniors with driver’s licenses are able to purchase one, and those living beyond El Camino Real, Foothill Expressway, Page Mill Road or Adobe Creek are eligible to purchase permits a week earlier than other students. Students must provide their name, parents’ names, grade, driver’s license number, license plate number and car model. This identifying information is then linked to each pass. According to Assistant Principal of Facilities Dr. Mycal Hixon, as of April 8, all of the passes are sold out, but there is a waiting list for interested students.

The Palo Alto Police Department is responsible for ticketing cars without permits in the parking lot, which they try to do on a daily basis. Administrators first discovered a fake pass when ticketing officers called a student to move their car from a handicapped parking spot and found that the person who answered the phone was not the person whose information was linked to the parking pass.

One senior, who requested anonymity to protect themselves from disciplinary action, was unable to purchase a parking pass and decided to create a counterfeit.

“I was willing to buy one, and I even went and talked with them multiple times to try to get one,” they said. “(The school said they needed) to count the number of available spaces. I was like, okay, and that took them like three months to figure out. In the meantime, I figured out how to trace one to make a copy.”

The anonymous senior made a few passes for other students, and is also aware of other students who are making replicas. At first, the senior made the fake passes with polyvinyl chloride sublimation, before starting to order directly from the company that manufactures Gunn’s permits.

Administrators believe that there are currently 20 or more fake permits in circulation. Each legitimate pass has a unique ID number. Most counterfeit passes are identifiable because they repeat ID numbers, but most times they go unnoticed because ticketing officers aren’t able to closely check each pass’s ID.

According to Hixon, administrators have started looking into harder-to-fake permits for next school year, such as ones that use more laser-perforated holes or ultraviolet images for identification. Those with counterfeit permits this year may receive a parking citation or a ban from purchasing a permit in the future.

“(The security) started checking a bit, and there’s some people who had poorly made replicas,” the anonymous senior said. “For the people who I’ve seen get their fakes taken, the campus supervisor came up to them while they were in their car and asked to see it up close. Then they would ask for your name, and if the name didn’t match the one that was on the list, they would take it and not give it back.”

Senior Indira Raja, who has been on the parking pass waitlist for nine months, resorted to parking without a permit because driving is her only way to get to school.

“I know that the construction takes up a lot of the parking lot spaces, and there have been fake parking passes some of the students have been getting, so it’s been super difficult for the admin to give enough spaces for the students,” she said. “But I also just don’t want to be scared to get a parking ticket while I’m sitting in my sixth-period class.”

Gunn’s jazz bands include two courses — Jazz Band and Jazz Ensemble Honors — taught by Gunn Jazz Director Shawn McGinn and Gunn Band Director Todd Summers.

According to McGinn, the festival was an important opportunity for his students to grow musically and experience the city in which jazz music originated. 

“The festival is a chance to perform for an audience,” he said. “In that audience, there are professional players and teachers who give you feedback on your performance to help make you a better group. New Orleans is very important to the history of jazz music in particular because the original types of jazz came together in New Orleans.”

Percussionist sophomore Brandon Seow was excited when he learned that he had the opportunity to go to New Orleans.

“My initial reaction was coming to terms with the fact that we were actually going to New Orleans,” Seow said. “The place has such a mystical vibe to it, so actually being able to go to the area where jazz started was insane.”

Besides performing for hundreds of audience members, Gunn’s jazz bands were able to tour parts of the city. To McGinn, the most exciting part of the trip was experiencing the daily culture of New Orleans.

 “You’ll hear performers playing in all the large cities in the U.S., but none playing jazz music on every corner throughout like in New Orleans,” he said. “It’s very special in that way. You walk down the street and there is live music surrounding you. That’s the kind of world that I want to live (in).”

According to Seow, each day in New Orleans was packed with performances and activities.

“For me, it was an early start every single day, so it was exhausting, but in a good way,” he said. “Some of the highlights, besides being able to explore a beautiful city with my friends, included playing at Loyola University, as well as attending two concerts in Preservation Hall, a very historically rich place, where we were able to listen to and watch some of the best jazz musicians in New Orleans.”

While alto saxophonist sophomore Margaret Beery agrees that touring the city was rewarding, she also appreciated building stronger connections with bandmates.

“My favorite moments outside of performing were ones spent with my friends, whether that was hanging out at the hotel, eating meals or talking on the bus,” she said. “Generally, just getting to know my bandmates better as people.”

Still, there were some setbacks on the travel back. According to Beery, the flight plan back to California was changed due to bad weather. The bands ultimately flew from Louisiana to Orlando, Florida, and then to Las Vegas for an overnight stay before flying home the morning of March 4, a day later than planned. 

“It wasn’t very fun in the moment, but I think those little hardships that we had together bonded our group really well,” McGinn said.

According to McGinn, the most important part of the experience was gaining a new perspective both on music and the world.

“(Immersing) yourself in a culture of music that is different than your own is super important to do, because when you engage in the other you get a new perspective,” he said. “Once you understand more than just your little bubble, you see how another way to live might feel.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the jazz bands’ travel delays. The jazz bands’ flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Orlando, Florida, was delayed due to incumbent weather. The bands then flew to Las Vegas, Nevada, taking two more flights to Orange County and Oakland. Their bags, however, remained in Las Vegas and were shipped to SFO before being delivered to Gunn on March 5. 

Gunn’s Chamber Orchestra is a 26-person audition-based honors orchestra taught by Sandra Lewis and Tiffany Ou-Ponticelli.

According to Ou-Ponticelli, the Orchestra Cup attracts hundreds of high school orchestras each year — this year, competitors came from California, South Carolina and Texas, among other states. Orchestras come both to compete and to learn from experts: All adjudicators are string professors at universities or musicians in professional ensembles, and they give competitors constructive comments. This year, Gunn’s Chamber Orchestra also received a clinic with NYU professor Stephanie Baer. 

Beyond winning the Orchestra Cup, Gunn’s Chamber Orchestra won other awards and accolades in the competition, including “Most Original Selection” as well as “Best High Strings Soloist” (violinist junior Ian Cheung) and “Best Low Strings Soloist” (cellist sophomore Brandon Kang). Ou-Ponticelli believes that hard work and dedication were the driving factors behind the group’s success.

“When we plan for a trip like this, we start to plan from the beginning of the year, so some of the repertoire we had learned early in the fall so that it would have time to mature,” Ou-Ponticelli said. “(Sandra) Lewis and I were super proud of their performance and how the students came together musically to present each piece where each one was very different from the previous one, and we did a great job displaying what each composer would have wanted.”

Violinist junior Seongju Kim echoed Ou-Ponticelli’s thoughts.

“We spent a lot of time rehearsing the pieces as well as choreographing, and also Zoomed with one of the composers,” Kim said. “Even though we were competing against other schools, we still got to meet other students and talk with them.”

Although the main objective of the trip was to compete at the festival, the orchestra students also toured different parts of New York City, including Central Park, Top of the Rock and the Statue of Liberty. To Ou-Ponticelli, Kim and Kang, this exploration was one of the best parts of the entire experience.

“(There) was definitely very good food,” Kang said. “We watched ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Lion King,’ and they were truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And also, after the competition we went on a cruise with the other competitors. It was really nice to meet people from different parts of the world.”

Nevertheless, the students encountered some obstacles. Kim mentioned instances of unfriendly encounters in New York City. 

“Some of us were approached by strangers who tried to get our money, but thankfully we handled it well and were safe,” Kim said.

Despite setbacks like these, Ou-Ponticelli believed the trip went well overall.

“The true reality is, our trip was awesome,” Ou-Ponticelli said. “We did have a one-hour delay on the flight, but our students were great and extremely well behaved. It’s also always a little bit nerve-wracking to travel with our instruments, and the important part was we were able to bring all six cellos with no damage.”

The new exam will be taken on a student’s or a school-issued device, and will be partitioned into two — rather than the current three — sections: Reading and Writing, and Math. The test will also be 46 minutes shorter.

This change follows a 2021 pilot project conducted by the College Board, which showed that a digital SAT was less stressful for 80% of students in comparison to its pencil-and-paper counterpart. The current paper SAT will no longer be offered starting March 9.

The test will also be adaptive, meaning students’ performance on the first set of questions affects the difficulty of the following set. Difficult problems that are correctly answered will yield higher scores than easier questions, though the final score will still be out of 1600.

Given these changes, students who have spent time preparing for the print exam, such as sophomore Archer Jin, have had to alter their study habits.

“I’d rather do the old type because everything I’ve practiced is related to that,” Jin said.

Junior Sophia He echoed Jin’s sentiments.

“I’m not a fan of the digital SAT because I feel like I’ve already spent time preparing for the paper one, and having it suddenly switch to digital means I have to adapt to a new system,” she said.

Still, Assistant Principal of Testing Rebecca Shen-Lorenson noted that the SAT is just one of many exams going digital, and students taking the exam during their junior year will already have had practice with the digital PSAT — administered for the first time in October 2023.

“I’m hoping that moving from paper and pencil is actually going to be more effective and advantageous for students,” she said.

Because students are allowed to bring their own devices to the exam, however, some have expressed concerns about academic honesty. Shen-Lorenson doubts that cheating will be an issue, especially considering that students will receive different adaptiveq uestions. Additionally, according to the SAT Terms and Conditions on the College Board website, violation of any policies related to test security can result in a dismissal from the test center, a score cancellation or a test-taking ban, depending on the severity of the offense.

Although many students believe that their performance on the SAT will decide their future, Shen-Lorenson urges them to consider the larger picture.

“For the SAT, (students) should not put too much pressure on themselves because it is only one point of reference for universities,” she said. “Just take a deep breath. Remember that you’re trying your best and if this is your first time taking the SAT, look at it as your first experience (for) what to expect next time.”

These resignations reflect increasing turmoil in higher education. Although controversy on college campuses is nothing new, the Israel-Hamas war and the Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action have precipitated a new wave of battles for institutions. As accusations, controversies and resignations play out, the future of free speech, inclusion and academic integrity.

The Limits of Free Speech

On Dec. 5, three elite U.S. university presidents — Gay, Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth — testified before the U.S. Congress on the topic of campus antisemitism following the onset of the Israel-Hamas war. While the presidents recognized the rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia on their campuses and said they were taking steps to address the issue, their answers were widely condemned. When asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct, the presidents failed to provide clear answers, saying that it depended on context and whether the speech was reflected in conduct.

Politicians, alumni and university donors alike attacked their legalistic, ambiguous responses, leading to calls for the presidents’ resignations. Both Gay and Magill resigned within a month, with Gay’s resignation marking the shortest presidential tenure in Harvard’s history. Currently, Kornbluth retains her position as MIT’s president.

The congressional hearing had implications extending beyond the three university campuses, fueling debates over which forms of speech are protected by the First Amendment — especially at educational institutions dedicated to diversity of thought and perspective. Social studies teacher Laurel Howard highlighted the difficulties in navigating conversations about geopolitical conflicts like the Israel-Hamas war.

“We used to say when you’re talking about these polarized issues, you have to have both sides represented,” she said. “But as these kinds of conflicts come up, when you say you support one side, people immediately assume that means you want the death of another group. We jump to these extremes really quickly, and that makes it a really dangerous thing to have these open conversations even though they’re so important to be having.”

She explained that even with legal guidelines, there is not always a clear-cut answer for what constitutes free speech.

“We do have guidance in our constitution and in the Supreme Court cases about free speech that say if it’s speech that immediately leads to violence, it is not protected,” she said. “So that’s what I come back to personally. Is this speech trying to incite violence against another group? If so, we probably should not be protecting it. The larger conversation is, when are we getting to that point? At what point does my language lead directly to violence, and how do we determine that collectively?”

Gunn alumna and current UPenn sophomore Sage Leland believes that there’s an important distinction between legally sanctioned and morally permissible speech.

“I think that distinction is something that the university should try to make, where it’s not so much restricting speech but drawing the line of community-minded speech,” she said. “Even if legally you could say something, is it the right thing to say? Should you be saying it?”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Gay was Harvard’s first Black president, and her resignation fueled the on-going conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — in higher education. Since early last year, conservative lawmakers and academics have sought to undermine colleges’ DEI efforts, with anti-DEI legislation being introduced in at least 21 states since 2021, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The bills aim to ban diversity training, employment and funding for DEI offices, and the use of diversity statements and identity-based preferences in admissions and employment.

As white men continue to constitute the majority of U.S. college presidents, Howard noted the intense pressure on university officials such as Gay who come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.

“Nobody wants to be reduced to just their racial identity or just their gender identity,” she said. “It shows that the bar is so high, and there’s so much scrutiny on people who are thought to have received those positions because of their identity.”

Debates over systemic DEI are not new, but recent events have resulted in further polarization. According to social studies teacher Tara Firenzi, DEI should come naturally, and conflicts can easily be avoided.

“This question of diversity, equity and inclusion really should be a no-brainer for everybody,” she said. “It’s been manipulated in order to inspire passionate responses that often end up falling along political lines to benefit certain political actors. It goes back to a lot of the ideals of our country. We should make amends for injustices of the past in ways that are fair and equitable. These are things that most of us can agree on.”

Although Leland recognizes UPenn’s efforts to support DEI, she doesn’t always feel or see the effects as a student.

“I think meaningful diversity, equity and inclusion work that addresses all marginalized communities — not just focusing on one — and that reaches more individual students is something that is super important, instead of just pledging to do something and not actually doing it,” she said.

Academic Integrity

In addition to the controversy from the congressional hearing, Gay’s resignation resulted from an investigation of plagiarism during her academic career. The fallout was similar to that of Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation in August 2023 after he was accused of academic misconduct in and mismanagement of his past studies. More recently, former MIT professor Neri Oxman was found to have plagiarized sources such as Wikipedia in her dissertation. Oxman’s husband, billionaire and hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, was one of Gay’s most notable critics and had tried to remove Gay from Harvard’s board, according to the New York Times.

This recent pattern of events brings an underlying crisis of academic integrity to light. Yet situations like Oxman’s and Gay’s make it clear that plagiarism accusations are not entirely apolitical: They have become entangled with debates over free speech and DEI. In an interview with Politico, published on Jan. 3, conservative activist Christopher Rufo acknowledged that the plagiarism allegations against Gay were made by specific figures and news outlets to dismantle her legitimacy, especially regarding new DEI programs.

Many of these attacks stemmed from not blatant plagiarism but subtle replication of ideas with a lack of citation. Because the line be-
tween plagiarism and originality can be murky, Howard urges all of her students to be safe rather than sorry.

“It’s really common if you’re doing a lot of research to accidentally replicate something,” Howard said. “Obviously, if you’re pulling from another person’s work and if your thoughts directly match their progression, even if you use your own words, it’s really important to cite that kind of thing.”

Firenzi believes that intentionality is the key distinguisher of plagiarism.

“I think plagiarism is when you knowingly and intentionally are taking someone else’s work and representing it as your own,” Firenzi said. “And that can be verbatim or it can be in substance. I think it’s not as black-and-white as it may seem to a lot of people.”

These attacks on university leadership have brought along another wave of skepticism toward educational institutions: The percentage of young adults believing in the importance of a college degree has fallen from 74% in the early 2010s to about 40% in recent years, according to the New York Times. Still, some have questioned whether these resignations were necessary and if the backlash was too harsh.

“In all of these cases, the question of degree has been at the heart of the debate,” Firenzi said. “It really behooves everyone to be extremely careful about any time you’re using someone else’s work, and making absolutely sure that you’re giving all the credit that you can for it and not cutting corners.”

Furthermore, Firenzi highlighted the importance of understanding the nuances of these issues — from academic integrity to free speech — in Palo Alto, a highly educated community.

“These things are probably felt more prominently here than they are in a lot of other places,” she said. “That brings with it an awareness that ultimately benefits our students — that you do have to do these things in a way that puts both integrity, equity and inclusion front and center and ensures that proper credit is given for ideas and words to the authors that created them.”