Changing Grade Scale

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) - The North Carolina General Assembly is considering changing the grading scale used in state public schools.

Right now, anything less than a 60-percent mark is a failing grade. The new scale would change that to anything less than 40 percent.

The new scale would be:

A: 100 to 85 percent
B: 84 to 70 percent
C: 69 to 55 percent
D: 54 to 40 percent
F: Anything below 40 percent
School report cards from the 2017 school year have results for individual schools and counties. Wake County schools have just a 0.6 percent failure rate. Cumberland County has a 1.2 percent failure rate. Durham County has an 18 percent failure rate.

This seems insane to me. A 70 at my DD’s high school was a D. In this scale it would be a B.

Thank goodness schools are required to send in their grading scales with the school report to colleges.

With potential shifts like this, it is still surprising to me that the trend is moving away from requiring SAT/ACT for college admission. With such a wide variety of grading scales, it would seem to me that standardized testing helps compare apples to apples.

Here’s the link (but I cut and paste): https://www.wjbf.com/news/u-s-world-news/-f-grade-could-be-set-at-39-percent-in-north-carolina/1814199140?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WJBF_NewsChannel_6&fbclid=IwAR3u86XzeF46La8NLC3Ij4hkbMBrfz5zG-CykQUIn5wc3nV1I3qnuCdN2ls

What on earth? Who in the heck would that be benefiting?

That’s a new type of grade inflation I hadn’t seen before.

Whatever makes their kids look smarter, I guess.

Our teachers set their own scale.

In theory, they can make harder tests and assignments, rather than load them up with easier C/D student questions.

But if they just use the same old tests and assignments, it will just be grade inflation.

Pathetic. Sounds like their goal is to just get the kids out of school with a piece of paper, not actually make sure they’re educated, effective adults. Our school already has 82% of seniors on the “Honor Roll” - maybe they can adopt this and push for 100% :frowning:

WHOA!!! This would thrill my 11 yr old to pieces! He was happy to be going from a 93-100 A school to a 90-100 A school next year. He has issues with his give-a-bleep already so I think he would see this as an opportunity to slack off even more.

I wonder if this might hurt students with some colleges if they recalculate the grades (I.e., a NC B = a C elsewhere). Does anyone know the rationale for the change?

Here’s a question though… (I can’t get the link to work, so I haven’t read the article. My apologies if it’s answered in the article.)
Is the grade percentage still on the report card? S19 heard from several of the colleges he toured that they recalculate applicants’ GPA. So if a transcript says something like 85 A, 70 B-… colleges could adjust to their own scale during the application process. So in the end, it still wouldn’t help anyone.

The article doesn’t specify @ChaosParent23 but that’s a good point! I cut and paste the entire article in my initial post. I provided the link to verify it was from a local news source.

DD’s HS had the opposite kind of grading scale where an A was a 93.5 - 100 and we were happy that there were percentages on her report card since a 93.4 was a B at her school.

I’ve never understood why some systems choose to have their own grading systems. It doesn’t seem likely to change the percentage of kids getting the same letter grades, as teachers can just adjust the rigor of their tests. It seems to make more sense to have general guidelines as to the bell curve expected for the class.

Excellent case for standardized testing.

Interestingly I once read an article about schools that changed their grading scales like this (well actually usually in the other direction). What happened? Teachers just changed their tests or how they evaluated essays so that exactly the same percentage were getting A’s as before.

If you go to the link and follow the next link to the actual bill, it says it’s for the school performance grading scale. It does not mention grading kids or a GPA at all.

Here’s another story that also says it’s for grading schools, not kids within the school. https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/bill-aims-to-create-15-point-grading-scale-set-f-at-39-or-lower

The schools my kids and I went to both used numbers only. So your GPA was a number on a “100” scale. Made it tricky to compute GPAs on a 4.0 scale for apps! I had to show my kids how to do it. And an A was 93-100. I wish things could be standardized.

Well, I can see why NC would want to get school reports to lower the number of failing schools. Just think of the amount of “improvement” in school grades will appear next year.

As someone currently researching NC public schools pending a possible move, yes I can definitely see how this would benefit the school districts. There are plenty of very lovely places to live in NC with struggling schools. It’s disheartening to see.

@Luanne…That makes soooooo much more sense!!! A friend of mine who is a school teacher in NC posted this and said it was for student grades. So sorry for the confusion!!!

My kids are beyond college.

But I’m so glad this topic came up. I never looked at “school grading”. Because I decided to short circuit the system by way of private school.
But I’m beginning to understand the importance for students and parents the more I research.

Locally it’s been “school 1 got an A and school 2 got a D” as an example,

Here’s what happens–“BTW, we’re discarding all state testing standards because they aren’t working”.

Let’s get rid of that program.
Why? Cause students can’t learn? (need to work on that). Or you can’t teach? (we’ll work on that too.)

My “mom” mission was to save my kids from some educational disaster. I didn’t have time to make changes within the system because those kid hours are short.
But now I do have some time. And the more I know the better.

This goes on all the time. When NCLB came into being, states were allowed to set their own standards. What happened quickly was LOTS of kids failed to meet the standards. So rather than increasing the quality of the education, state lawmakers simply lowered the standards. Unfortunately, this is how politics works in the US.