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The way North Carolina high schools assign A’s and B’s could soon change as the state Board of Education examines the standard grading scale.
The board, meeting in Charlotte this week, is expected to vote Thursday to move the state’s high schools to a 10-point grading scale from the seven-point scale that has long been used.
In fact, the Fairfax (VA) school district, which is often used as an example of a good large, county-wide school district, changed its grading scale from a 7 point scale to a 10 point scale based on exactly what the OP pointed out. Their students were put at a disadvantage when it came to out of state college admissions and scholarships.
And Loudoun County School District (right next to Fairfax) did the same a year or two afterwards. It certainly could impact scholarships and other things that are based at least in part on a non-adjusted GPA. However, from my conversations with those who would know better than I and my observations of acceptance rates in my area, I am sure that it is not much if any issue with college acceptance and admissions. I did see a situation where being in a good school ended up (temporarily) harming a young man with college. He had a GPA well over 3.0 vs. another young man who had a GPA just over 2.5. The difference was class rank as the first young man was in the lower half of his class at a good school and the other was in the upper half of his class at a lesser school. I know both of them - no permanent issue and they still joke about it. FWIW, the second young man quit college after 3 semesters...the other still in school and making Dean's List...
Point is that that even two kids at the same school at the same time with the same grading system won't be the same even if they share the same GPA. Everyone is different and from my experience, the colleges know this and do a pretty good job at working towards the right solutions. Yes, there are issues and there probably always will be, but I believe the colleges are doing what they can to improve.
After a long dissapointment of a 7 pt scale, WCPSS has voted to change to a 10 pt scale with middle and high school starting the 2015-2016 school year.
In my mind, the use of a 7 or 10 point grade scale is of little to no importance. It serves as a performance reference point and that is all. Going from one to the other doesn't make you any smarter! Growing up in Ohio we had a 7 point system. In college it varied by class (7, 10 or curve). Seems to me this was just a solution looking for a problem!
In my mind, the use of a 7 or 10 point grade scale is of little to no importance. It serves as a performance reference point and that is all.
No, that's not all. The numeric scores are converted into letters, and those letters (and the associated grade point) are what matters. You can certainly disagree with the change, but I don't see how you can say it's of "little to no importance" when it has the potential to make some significant shifts in GPAs for some students.
It makes a huge different when a kid in VA and a kid in NC are applying to the same college and one has a higher GPA than the other because one got an A and the other got a B for the exact numerical grade in a class.
It makes a huge different when a kid in VA and a kid in NC are applying to the same college and one has a higher GPA than the other because one got an A and the other got a B for the exact numerical grade in a class.
I wish we could ditch letter grades and just use numerical ones for college admissions purposes.
I think the letter is fine for a regular report card, though.
That way, it would be totally irrelevant which grading scale had been used, because all scores would be normed anyway.
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No, that's not all. The numeric scores are converted into letters, and those letters (and the associated grade point) are what matters. You can certainly disagree with the change, but I don't see how you can say it's of "little to no importance" when it has the potential to make some significant shifts in GPAs for some students.
I don't care about the change one way or the other as it makes no difference. In my experience, those in college admissions (and I have one in the family) are pretty astute. They understand the difference between a 10 point and 7 point scale and the grade ramifications of such. As you know there are many other factors that also come into play.
I don't care about the change one way or the other as it makes no difference. In my experience, those in college admissions (and I have one in the family) are pretty astute. They understand the difference between a 10 point and 7 point scale and the grade ramifications of such.
I'm amazed that those in college admissions at hundreds of colleges across the country can keep up with which grading scale each local or county school district uses so that they are able to astutely adjust for the differences when comparing two candidates with similar GPAs from school systems using different grading scales.
You and your kids will survive. Many districts around the nation use this scale I didn't even realize that some still used the older 10 point scale any longer. This new one doesn't put anyone at a disadvantage.....do the best level work possible and go from there.
I have spoke with a few colleges and they have told me that NC were at a disadvantage. But, no worries now. WCPSS has changed to the 10 point scale.
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victory!
