Grading Scale: Rebuttal Against a Change

It's been a week thoroughly exploring the grading scale through the eyes of two Loudoun parents. The final word today goes to our parent advocating against a change in the current 7-point grading scale. Click here for the full rebuttal (it's brief), excerpts are below. You'll see that each parent continues to advocate for a numeric-only scale as a good compromise. When Fairfax releases its study I hope that it will address this question, and I look forward to the LCPS Administration analysis of a numeric-only option. Enjoy the holiday!

I am glad to see that despite two very differing points of view we agree that reporting numeric scores is the fairest system of reporting grades. Perhaps this is worth serious consideration as a possible solution.

I do not believe that there is any nationally accepted standard. Many grade scales exist.

The retention and graduation rate issue is not really a factor. Per the Virginia Department of Education, the state rate for on-time graduation is 81%. Loudoun County far exceeds that with a rate of 92.6%. (Fairfax County’s rate is 91.2%). Ideally the rate would be 100%, but with the rate so high anyway it is hard to imagine that it would rise dramatically with a grade scale change.

A change in grade scale may possibly raise certain student’s Grade Point Averages; however only 10% of students can be in the top 10%, only 25% can be in the top quarter, etc. A school such as UVa, which accepts mostly students from the top 10 %, will continue to do so, negating any benefit of the higher grades.