Virginia Beach School Board Decides to Award Mediocrity

By: Jordan Bremus Editorial Board: Brian Foster and Vanessa Prieto

Last week the Virginia Beach school board voted to change to a 10-point grading scale, starting fall 2010. The school board hopes this new scale will benefit more students to be accepted into better colleges and over-all heighten graduation rates. To think our younger generations could not have it easy enough.

The school board says that the new scale will give students a better chance when it comes time to apply for colleges, stating the old scale prevents those on the border between letter grades or those barely passing from improving. “I don’t see how we cannot change our grading scale,” said board member Brent Mckenzie. “It is clearly harming our students.”

The school division surveyed their staff, administrators, and parents in a public hearing over the past few months and discovered that many worried that the old scale put students at a disadvantage against Northern Virginian schools.

The survey makes it appear that college admission offices only look at a student’s GPA and nothing else. If that were the case, why would students be required to take standardized tests, SATs, or ACTs in order to apply? Applications would then not have boxes to fill in for extracurricular activities, achieved awards or honors, and attached reference letters. And you can also say “good-bye” to the college essay!

Colleges rely on this information and more in their admissions decision. Some even require personal interviews if the student is applying for a scholarship. Apparently the Virginia Beach school board cannot successfully back this claim up.

Another reason behind the switch is to put Virginia Beach on an equal playing field with the majority of the U.S. schools on the 10-point scale calculation. This would make it easier for colleges to compare on a mathematical scale, however, despite what complaining parents and students believe, admission counselors know which high schools are on which scales because it is stated on high school transcripts.

Why would the Virginia Beach school system want to destroy its academic reputation by lowering its standards? In 2008 Virginia Beach made Newsweek’s list of top high schools in the United States. Newsweek compared 1400 high schools, public and private, on the basis of advanced placement and state test scores. Six Virginia Beach high schools made the list and they continue to live up to that standard.

Yes, the 10-point scale will show higher GPA numbers next fall, but are they truly earned? For an example, there are two students who score the same marks, in the same classes, but on two different scales.

Classes Jane (old scale) John (new scale)English 93 – B – 3.0 93 – A – 4.0Math 82 – C – 2.0 82 – B – 2.7

Science 77 – D – 1.0 77 – C+ – 2.3 History 89 – B – 3.0 89 – B+ – 3.3

Art 98 – A – 4.0 98 – A – 4.0P.E./Health 68 – E/F – 0.0 68 – D+ – 1.3

TOTALS= 13.0/6 = 2.16 GPA 17.6/6 = 2.93 GPA

The students’ GPA’s are obviously different, despite having similar grades in the same classes. Why should the school board reward someone for average work rather than challenge young minds to do better? It is because they want higher test scores to show rather than a student’s individual work ethic.

A point the school board and parents are ignoring is how teachers are going to grade next fall with the new scale to follow. A lot of grading decisions are based on the quality of the students’ work, rather than the quantity. For instance, if a student presents a project that his/her teacher believes deserves a high B grade, the teacher will now give the student an 89 instead of a 93. The new grading scale does not change the work load for the teachers either. It could potentially give them more. Now they have to balance between the individual student's work ethic as well as reassess the value of each assignment. GPA's could possibly not be as high as parents hoped if teachers decide to adjust their standards.

This also does not help those students who repeatedly receive straight A’s each semester. Their GPA’s will stay the same, regardless of the scale change, but now they have to compete with a broader spectrum of students when it comes to scholarships or other educational awards. They could be punished if teachers decide to grade even harder next fall, forcing already-excelling students to work even harder to keep their high standing.

Also, the school board has yet to comment on how to handle those students who balance on both grading scales. The rising Junior class will have two years of the old scale and two of the new one. Do the students have to call the colleges they are applying to and explain why their GPA went from a 2.7 to a 3.6 in one semester? Or will the admission offices have to work that out on their own?

It appears the Virginia Beach school board has rushed into this decision to please those parents and students banging on their front door asking for the easy way out. However, the Virginia Beach school system is harming those students in the end. Students now have the unfortunate opportunity to “slack-off”, present mediocre work and expect to receive high grades—and a lot of these students will get their wish and not be properly prepared for entering college.