Grading System Bust?
October 23, 2017
School across the country and world have different grading systems. Students here at Cabell Midland discuss and explain why our current grading scale needs changed.
Junior student, Emily Ash believes that Cabell County Schools need to change the grading scale to match those of colleges.
“The scale we have now affects some students grade point average when they are doing well in their college course,” said Ash. “Other countries have a grading scale similar to the one used by American colleges, and it is successful.”
Junior, Jordan Armstrong thinks that changing the grade scale would help all students.
“If the grading scale were to be changed, more students would benefit from using the current college grading scale,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong highlights that the current county-wide grading scale has not personally impacted him,
“It has not really impacted me, my grades meet and exceed that average standards, that is all I could hope for,” said Armstrong.
Junior, Brady Adkins thinks that the likelihood of changing the existing grading scale is highly unlikely.
“Whether high schools apply the ten-point grading scale to all classes or only the college courses does not matter,” said Adkins. “It would take too much work for the scale to be changed, therefore, this will most likely not happen.”
Junior student, Sydney Adkins believes that all schools in the United States should be required to have the same grading scale.
“The current grading scale is completely unfair to the students taking college courses,” said Adkins. “Sometimes, you can’t get your grade up to the 93. Then, your G.P.A. is lower on your high school grade card, even though you have an ‘A’ on your college transcript. It is unfair for me to have to compete with students from other schools when they have the advantage of going by the ten-point scale, giving them a higher G.P.A.”
David Templeton • May 13, 2018 at 4:28 am
Cabell County Schools used to have a 10 point grading scale until the 1983-1984 school year when they instituted a 6 point grading scale during the middle of the 1st six week grading period in late September or October of 1983. Many of us students at the time was unpleasantly surprised, and so we’re many teachers caught by surprise as well.
I see that at some point in time that Cabell County Schools had since switched to a slightly more forgiving 7 point scale, but unfortunately is still off-standard from the 10 point scale that colleges and universities use, as well as what most American public school systems appear to use.
Since the Powers that Be in the Cabell County Board of Education are arrogant about this issue, and nearly 35 years have passed indicates that change back to the 10 point scale is highly unlikely. So, what I think needs to be done is for the parents and students as well as former students negatively affected by the former 6 point scale and the current 7 point grading scale to take legal action. Class action lawsuit to force the Cabell County Board of Education to change back to the 10 point scale, and to readjust all negatively affected letter grades from the 6 or 7 point scale to the 10 point scale. This would mean that if you averaged 91 percent and got a B grade in English during your Junior year during the 2000-2001 school year, your grade for that course would be readjusted to an A retroactively.
It is unfair to the students of Cabell County to be saddled with dealing with the 7 point grading scale when many of other students elsewhere enjoy the ten point grading scale. In the light of this, parents and current students as well as former students affected should turn to taking legal action and use the court system to force the change. In short, why should students of Cabell County have more difficulty in forging paths to good colleges and life due to grades negatively affected by higher percentage requirements that many students elsewhere don’t have to deal with?
Good luck,
David Templeton