Who would have thought that the grading system you use to award little Johnny an A, B, or C could cause such headaches for a school district?
But that’s exactly what’s happening these days in two school districts-Pittsburgh, Pa., and Fairfax County, Va.
The irony is each district faces complaints for exactly opposite reasons: Pittsburgh officials are accused of watering down their academic standards by mandating that no student receive less than a 50 percent grade for their homework, test scores, or grading period.
In Fairfax County, on the other hand, parents complain that the grading system is too tough-demanding a score of 64 percent for a passing grade and 94 percent for an A.
Officials in Pittsburgh have logic for their policy. Mathematically, students with a few bad test scores cannot hope to bring their grades back up to passing, and that gives scores of 0-50 more “weight” than higher grades.
Officials say the 50-percent minimum gives students a chance to save themselves academically and may serve as an incentive to stay in school, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A passing grade still remains 60 percent.
This logic hasn’t swayed critics. “The district was skewered on radio shows and blogs, and backlash from teachers prompted the district and union to form a committee to consider modifications,” the paper reports.
Some accused Pittsburgh officials of a system that could lead to “grade inflation,” but that’s exactly the danger that school officials in Fairfax County raised to defend their tough grading policy.
But, notes the Washington Post, “a growing army of parents, fueled by increased competition for entrance to colleges and mounting pressures on family finances, are resisting the 30-year-old system. More than 8,000 people have signed a petition to switch to a 10-point scale and give students more credit for harder classes.”
A 10-point scale is the most common grading system nationwide-where a 90-percent score earns an A, an 80 percent earns a B, and so on.
Some parents have worried that the tougher standard-which makes it harder for students to earn A’s and B’s on their academic transcripts-”hurts students” chances of gaining admission to college or honors programs or earn scholarships,” the Post reports.
A district study found no evidence that students aren’t getting into their colleges of choice, but agreed that parents’ other concerns might be valid. As a result, school officials are looking to tweak the system to provide a weighted grade for more academically demanding courses.
So what can we learn from all of this? In a nutshell, these policy debates further support my contention that there’s no issue in education-no matter how innocuous-that can’t be turned into a donnybrook.
Del Stover, Senior Editor
