Should it be easier to get an A?
By Brian Kirwin | Monday, June 1st, 2009 | PolicyFairfax did it, so everyone should, right? It’s a hot issue in Virginia Beach Schools, and some are pushing to vote on it and soon.
Fairfax changed from a 6-point grading scale to a 10-point scale. That means students who used to need a 94 to get an A now only need to get a 90.
A B used to require an 86. In Fairfax, now all you need is an 80.
Petersburg voted to change to the easier grading scale this month.
Now some in Virginia Beach wants to be like Petersburg.
“It is really about serious money,” says Catherine Lorenze, campaign manager & communications strategist for the group who pushed for lower grade standards in Fairfax. See, students with lower grades can look better to colleges if their lower scores can be an A or B rather than a C. That’s more scholarship money and college acceptance letters if only we could make the bar to good grades a little lower.
Del. David Poisson’s bill, HB 1603, would have forced the 10-point grading scale on all Virginia Middle and High Schools. It died a quick death in committee.
But city by city is getting the pressure to make it easier to pass, make it easier to get an A, and to inflate the GPAs of students without having them do anything radical …. like improve their actual performance.
So I ask you. 6-point grading scale or 10? Should schools lower the threshold for higher grades?
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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13 Responses to "Should it be easier to get an A?"
This isn’t about lower thresholds… this is about fair competition on the college level. When our kids’ transcripts are sent over for application to a university they look at a kid from Maryland who scores a 90 in Science and gets an A as a better student than a kid from Virginia who gets an 92 and a B+.
In short, we seriously handicap Virginians going to college with the higher threshhold.
I agree with the above poster’s point about the need for uniformity. If you are getting thousands of applications, there is no way you are reading everyone’s explanatory statements on how their school system’s grading works. Or maybe you do? I don’t have a good grasp on how college admissions operations really work. I would assume that they feed all the applications into a scanner and a computer sorts them using some predetermined algorithm. Then what’s left is reviewed by admission office staff. Then I guess if they have the time and resources, they interview the candidates as a final screening. But if your application was kicked out by the computer, then you never get to steps 2 and 3 where you might be able to explain the more rigorous grading system.
But I can also see how this is dumbing down the system just to comply with some admissions process at the college level.
The 10 point scale is also standard in Virginia college and universities. There are many courses available to High School seniors for college credit, but if they are held to the 6 point scale then they’re at a disadvantage for trying to get ahead.
It’s not about making it easier to make higher grades, it’s about using the same scale for everyone. I’ve written on this discussion going on in Loudoun. ( http://www.hoodathunkblog.com/2008/08/making-the-grade-are-we-being-fair/ …and … http://www.hoodathunkblog.com/2009/01/fairgrade-issue-also-being-raised-in-fairfax/ ) Since the 10-point scale is in wide use, it’s easiest to settle on that as a standard. If we could get everyone to switch to the 6-point scale that would also work but I think you’d run into resistance from those schools that have been using a 10-point scale for decades.
It’s just important that we use the same scale across the board.
Justin is dead on. But so is tx2vadem. Dumbing down is not the answer.
I don’t believe it is dumbing down either. At both VCU (undergrad) and ODU (graduate school), the grading system was a 10 point scale. If it is good enough for our public colleges and universities, then it should be good enough for Virginia Beach Public Schools.
I was at a breakfast meeting where school board member Patrick Salyer was the speaker and spoke on this issue. He stated that the colleges that responded to a survey sent out by the board (to gain understanding of college admissions processes), that for the most part a student’s GPA was the 4th or 5th thing considered in the application process. A students SAT/ACT score, what type of classes were taken (trig vs. gym) and what grades were gotten in the more rigerous courses (an “A” in Trig would be viewed differently than an “A” in gym class), eventhough each grade impacts a students GPA equally. carried more significance in the admission process than a students GPA.
84 for a “B” in Fairfax. Technically, 83.5 is a “B” because of rounding up.
a grading scale doesn’t really make sense to me. grades should be on a curve because a teacher who wanted to boost his/her class’s grades can just make their tests easier. grade the class on a curve to say only the top 10% get an A, the next 20% get a B, the following 40% get a C …
Amit, unless teachers make their tests harder along with that change, that may run a huge risk of further lowering the standards. Kids are not dumb; they will figure out the system and put in less work as a result. This may not be true of the best students, but if a 45% will still be enough to get a C, why try at all?
CR UVa, I assume you’re a wahoo as well so you understand how the curved grading scale works. I’m not hung up on the exact numbers of A’s versus B’s, etc. to me the purpose of a grading scale is to compare you to your peers so it doesn’t make sense to me that if everyone scores above 90 on a test that everyone is an A quality student. those who get a 100 should get an A and those who get 91 should get a D. we spend so much time trying to inject artificial fairness in our society that we actually make it worse for everyone.
It’s already been said, but I’ll add my 2-cents. It’s about fairness. Many colleges don’t take the scale into consideration when looking at the GPA of students.
We are dealing with same issue in Missouri. Ours is a private school who still uses the 94-100 grade scale. I advocate for the 90-100 scale to be able to compete not only for admission, but for scholarship monies which are usually based on ACT or SAT plus grade point. Under one grade scale my son has a 3.5. Using the 90-100 he would have a 3.9. That equates to $2500 a year at the school he is looking to attend….that is alot of money. Rigorous should be defined as the course load he takes not an artificial grade. Grade should be the same across the board so when he is compared for admission and monies he is not at a disadvantage.
Long time viewer / 1st time poster. Really enjoy reading the blog, keep up the good work. Will most definitely start posting more in the future.
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