Changing the Rules to Make the Grade

A recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article concerning public school grade scales seems to support the idea that creating a state-wide scale may be the way to go. The issue with grading scale isn’t really the problem that people are attempting to deal with. The real problem, the ultimate problem, is how the grading scale enhances or dis-enhances the students’ chances to get into a school of their choosing.

Whether a 93 constitutes an A or a 90 constitutes an A is really irrelevant. Many years ago, when I expressed my concern about what I felt was an out-of-whack grading scale at Colonial Heights Schools, where you have to have a 93 to earn an A, Les Fryar, a long time Colonial Heights principal and retired school board member, told me it really didn’t matter to him. If they dumbed down the grade scale, Fryar said he would simply make his tests that much harder with the result being no appreciable change.

The real point people like Chesterfield mom Jamie Stewart is trying to make is that the seeming disparity between grading scales gives those with the lower scale a better advantage when applying to college.  Her comments, in a Richmond Times-Dispatch article by Jeremy Slayton, imply that if the scale were the same, or similar, across the state then all the students applying to colleges throughout the state would have the same opportunity.

To some extent that is true, but again, what really counts is the student’s grade point average (GPA).  The difference between a 3.9 and a 4.0 may seem inconsequential to a parent or grandparent, but when the grades arrive in the great combine that is the college entry process, one tenth of a point can easily be the difference between getting in and being left out.

An even bigger farce perpetrated on high school students is the misconceived idea that taking AP courses, in which you are given degree of difficulty points toward your GPA, is somehow better for you than taking a lower level, and therefore easier, course and earning an “easy” A. The argument that is often presented is that colleges look at the kinds of courses the students take when assessing who gets in or who does not.

Hogwash!

The number of students applying for college forces the institutions to run the applications through their version of the combine. What comes out on the other end is a raft of applications which meet certain, prescribed criteria. So, we want students who have 4.0 GPAs, etc. So the student who earns a B in an AP course and doesn’t get a 4.0 is on the outs, while the one who took the baby course and earned an A gets accepted.

Voila! There you have college selection 101.

Don’t think that’s so? Ask a college registrar about the process. GPA is a key indicator in every college acceptance combine ever created. Really, what is better? It’s different if the student scores an A in an AP course, because they then get the benefit of the degree of difficulty assessment. That’s how students can graduate with 4.6 and higher GPAs, on a 4.0 scale.

But I have had many AP teachers and students say that a B in an AP class is as good as an A in a lower level course. That isn’t true, unless somehow you pass the combine where the colleges attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff in large numbers. Even some wheat goes by the wayside and some chaff gets in with the good stuff. Colleges don’t take any class difficulty into consideration until it comes time to award scholarships or whatever, in which case a B in an AP class may in fact be worth more than an A in a regular class.

Nothing really beats getting the grade anyway. Whether the target is 94, 93, or 90, there will still be students who just miss making the grade. Will the change benefit some students? Probably, but I think we are talking extremely small numbers. Enhanced, if that’s the right term, grade scales won’t really change much. There are a finite number of students who will be accepted to this school or that school and in the end you may juggle a few of the marginal ones, but overall the process will remain the same.

So change the scale or leave it as is. No difference to me and none I am sure for the colleges. In the end, the students will enter their GPAs into the gaping maw of the College Entrance Combine and hope and pray they have enough credentials to get where they want to go. To me, there is no difference.