Have grading systems changed? (school)

[MM27]

My school uses numbers instead of letters.
1 below 60
2 60-69
3 70-79
4 80-89
5 90-100

It's really a district by district policy though. 100 posters would probably tell you 100 different scales that are used.

 

[englishteacha]

Our district uses standards-based grading, 1-4. 1 does not meet the standard, 4 exceeds. Everything we grade is graded on a rubric with key indicators for a specific learning result. I understand it now, but lots of our kids and families are lost!!

 

[Cool-Beans]

I grew up with the tougher scale. My kids' school used the tougher scale.

I thought the 90-80-70 scale was new.

Shows how much I know.

 

[rkwells]

The district both my kids are currently in only goes through 8th grade and this is the grading scale:
94% - 100% A
86% - 93% B
76% - 85% C
70% - 75% D
0% - 69% F

Next year the high school my daughter will go to is a district all its own with the following scale:
Grading Scale:
A = 90% -100%
B = 80% - 89%
C = 70% - 79%
D = 60% - 69%
F = 59% and
Below.
So as it stands now she will go from being a high "B" student this year to an "A" student next year.

 

[rie'smom]

We used this scale and so does my daughter's school:
94+ = A
85-93 = B
75-84 = C
65-74 = D
73 and below is failing.

 

[juligrl]

Here in Virginia, I believe this is the scale:

94+ = A
85-93 = B
75-84 = C
65-74 = D
73 and below is failing.

I'm probably "off" a point or so on the scale above. When I was in school 90-100 was an "A", 80-89 a "B" and so. It's hard for me, these days, to look at the report card and interpret it correctly.

In my son's school, they have the "A" honor roll and then the "A/B" honor roll.

Wow! Just the opposite here - I think. When I was in school it was this:
94+ = A
85-93 = B
75-84 = C
65-74 = D
64-=F

Then halfway through my junior year of HS and all through college the scale was changed to 90, 80, 70, 60. To the best of my knowledge that's what it still is. Interesting thread. Now I'm curious about our local school district.

As a side note, I was thrilled about the changed grading system when I was a not so good math and science student earning D's in trig/pre cal and chem. It was nice to see those grades go up to C's.

 

[taylor1293]

For us, it is the opposite.

When I was growing up, it was:

A = 93 - 100
B = 85 - 92
C = 76 - 84
D = 70 - 75
F = 69 or below

Now, it is:

A 90 - 100
B 80 - 89
C 70 - 79
D 60 - 69
F 59 and below

or for grades K, 1, 2

E = 90 - 100
S = 70 - 89
N = 69 and under

 

[kribit]

Our grade school doesn't even use letter/percentage grades.

We have a combination of numbers (1-5, with 1 being the being an "A" and 5 being an "F") and a letter code systed (E= exceeds expectations, S= Satisfactory, NI= Needs Improvement... or something like that.. I think there may actually be 4 or 5 different letter codes). Personally, I find it to be a bit of a pain to read.

But they also have a large space for teacher comments and, so far, DS's teachers have been really great about giving some good feedback (things to work on, strengths/weaknesses).

Ohhh - I really like this grading system.

 

[msteddom]

I teach high school, and we are not allowed to Fail students at the semester unless we note "in danger of failing" on their report card. I have been known to put that note on reports cards of students that have high Cs if I know them to be flakey.

Melissa

 

[stitchlovestink]

In our county (not sure if it is just our county or statewide ) Students do not get letter grades in K, 1st or 2nd. They have this incredibly long check list (like 75 different things) the can get an O (outstanding mastery), S (satisfactory mastery), N (understands some but needs improvement), I forget the other letter, but it's for 'they don't understand a thing when it comes to this particular concept.
In 3rd grade, they start getting letter grades. The scale stays the same all the way thru to high school.
89.5 to 100 A or 4.0
79.5 to 89.4 B or 3.0
69.5 to 79.4 C or 2.0
59.5 to 69.4 D or 1.0 below average but not considered failing
59.4 or less E or 0.0 only a E is considering failing
The teachers must round up/down accordingly. It's county policy. The school board set this practice in place as some teachers were rounding based on how well they liked a student. For example before this policy was inacted, my DD had a 79. 7 in science one quarter. The teacher did not like my daughter and basically made no bones about it. She wasn't mean to her, but from my visits to the classroom, I could tell which students she liked and those she didn't. Well, the teacher gave her a C on her report card. But another student (I knew the mom) had a 79.5 and she gave her a B. Not really fair in my book. I never brought it up to the teacher or administration b/c I really feel like in the grand scheme of life, no one asks to see a transcript of you middle school grades (w/ exception of maybe a private high school, which was irrelevant to us). Anyway, other parents complained at many schools about many teachers throughtout our county and cried "FOUL" that's not fair of the teachers. Some, NOT ALL, teachers were letting their personal likes/dislikes play into grading when it became a borderline situation. Personally, although not a huge deal in my book, I do think it was one of the more intelligent policies our school board has enacted. That way all students are on as equal of a playing field as possible. JM2C.
Regarding honor roll, there is straight A honor roll (or 4.0 for the quarter) and then there's standard honor roll which is a cumulative 3.0 or better. So technically because it's cumulative, you could have a student would rec'd a D (I don't know if they could have an E, I'd have to do the math Which I hate btw) but had enough A's to counter balance it to end up with a 3.0 average. I hope I didn't confuse anyone w/ that explanation, but that's how it works here.

 

[babytrees]

If the head of our HS's math department has his way not only would our HS be grading this way but everybody would:

E: exceeds
M:meets
R: revisions needed
F:

the only that actually is easily exchanged with a letter grade is, well, the F. Because an E COULD be an A or B, M a B or C, R a C or D.

Right now the math dept. is the only who has to use this asinine system. He has written nationally published papers on this system and says he's gotten a lot of positive feed back for it. I personally think he had a dream to torture all the kids and their parents and has acheived it!!

Supposedly the HS is going to go to this grading system exclusively...how exactly would our seniors go to a college and explain the system??

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I teach high school, and we are not allowed to Fail students at the semester unless we note "in danger of failing" on their report card. I have been known to put that note on reports cards of students that have high Cs if I know them to be flakey.

Melissa

I think that's foolish of the admin. Of course you're doing the best thing given the situation- using your professional judgment to predict, but that's not foolproof. High school students are smart enough to exploit that system. What's to stop a student from earning decent grades until progress reports come out and then doing NOTHING because they know they've "already" passed that marking period?

We are encouraged to write in danger of failing, but sometimes out of the blue a decent student might stop coming to school, or just stop doing homework or slip up with studying. This is one thing I dislike about teaching- the beaurecratic paperwork. It's not about the state tests or loopholes. It's about what these kids are learning and what they are repeatedly doing day in day out to become a more educated person.

 

[Art Vandalay]

In my district, the grading is as follows:

1.097 * 10 ^ 7 / pi and above is an A

c^2/mv^2 and above is a B

Anyone who can't understand the grading system fails

 

[horseshowmom]

Our grading system here is the same as it was when I was in school (and I'm 48 now).

A = 93-100
B = 85-92
C = 77-84
D = 70-76
F = 69 and below

 

[Paull117]

I know in grade school it was letters A: 90-100 B: 80-89 C:70-79 you get the point and in high school they used the numbers.

What was bad I was in one of those classes that excelled. I graduated with a 3.5 grade point average. Yet I was the 50% kid. We only had 46 kids in my class and I ranked 23.


Paul

 

[msteddom]

I think that's foolish of the admin. Of course you're doing the best thing given the situation- using your professional judgment to predict, but that's not foolproof. High school students are smart enough to exploit that system. What's to stop a student from earning decent grades until progress reports come out and then doing NOTHING because they know they've "already" passed that marking period?

We are encouraged to write in danger of failing, but sometimes out of the blue a decent student might stop coming to school, or just stop doing homework or slip up with studying. This is one thing I dislike about teaching- the beaurecratic paperwork. It's not about the state tests or loopholes. It's about what these kids are learning and what they are repeatedly doing day in day out to become a more educated person.

I agree completely with you. If I can show proof af adequate parent notification I can get around the "in danger of failing" rule. So far it hasn't been a problem. The 12th grade teachers had had some issues in the past though.

Melissa