NC might switch all students to 10 point grading scale in fall

by T. Keung Hui, News and Observer, January 4, 2015.

Amid lobbying from superintendents and families, state education leaders will consider allowing current high school students to take advantage of a new grading scale that will make it easier to get higher grades.

The decision would represent a reversal of the state’s decision to phase the system in during a period of several years.

The State Board of Education voted in October to begin the 10-point grading scale – in which scores between 90 and 100 earn an A – with the 2015-16 school year’s freshmen class.

But the State Board will discuss Wednesday whether to start it this fall for all high school students. Critics argued it was unfair to keep existing students on the seven-point scale – in which scores between 93 and 100 earn an A.

With many classes having students at multiple grade levels, opponents of phasing the change in cited the possibility that classmates with the same numerical score could get a different letter grade, which could also affect athletic eligibility.

“In deference to the superintendents and to parents and others who asked that we make the 10-point scale effective for all students in ’15-’16, we decided to put it back on the State Board of Education agenda for reconsideration,” State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson said Friday.

Jack Hoke, executive director of the N.C. School Superintendents Association, said all 90 superintendents who attended the group’s December conference supported switching all high school students to the 10-point scale this fall. There are 115 superintendents in the state.

“The superintendents felt that by implementing it over one year, it would be better for parents, teachers and students so that everyone would be on the same level,” he said.

It’s a decision that will affect the way grade-point averages, or GPAs, are calculated for transcripts and class rank. North Carolina is one of a few states where the state sets guidelines for high school grading scales and transcripts.

One of the reasons for dropping the seven-point scale is that it would level the playing field in college applications, parents and school districts said. North Carolina students could have found themselves at a disadvantage against college applicants who are graded on a 10-point scale.

Atkinson said there are advantages and disadvantages to making the change for all students in the same year. She noted that a student who gets a 90 in biology this school year, earning a B, would suffer in class rank compared with a student whose 90 in biology next year would merit an A.

But Atkinson said critics contended it would be more unfair to have students in the same class, but in different class years, earn different grades while making the same numerical score.

Because students must pass a majority of classes to be eligible for athletics, two students could have received the same numeric score, but one would pass and the other would fail. For instance, the phase-in, unless reversed, means freshmen this fall with a 60 would pass with a D while upperclassmen would need a 70 to avoid an F.

“In having discussions with the superintendents, they felt the advantages outweighed the disadvantages for changing to the 10-point scale for all students in ’15-’16,” she said.

Atkinson said the Department of Public Instruction would need the State Board to decide by February whether to use the 10-point scale for all high school students this fall. She said that will give enough time to update the state’s PowerSchool information system and to give notice to families.

Adam Geringer, 16, a junior at Broughton High School in Raleigh, helped initiate the adoption of the 10-point scale with his lobbying efforts to state and local leaders last year.

But Geringer said he has mixed feelings about applying the 10-point scale to students like himself who will graduate in 2016. Unless transcripts retroactively apply the new scale, he said, colleges may not realize that members of the Class of 2016 were on the seven-point scale through their junior year.

“This whole thing has gotten convoluted,” he said.

DPI is not asking the State Board to reconsider its decision to reduce the credit for taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and honors courses. That grading change will start only with freshmen this fall.