Caddo's New Grading Scale: The Easier A

Posted by Vulnadia on Aug 06, 2009 at 12:15 PM With the new school year, comes a new grading policy. How do you feel about this? Caddo's Superintendent has lowered the grading scale to a 10-point scale, making an A now 90-100 instead of the old way. Why? The supposed purpose is to make children feel better about themselves by making it easier to get a good grade. In a world of "No child left behind" where schools have implemented & are now preaching a remediation policy and plan, which literally has bored good students into becoming behavioral problems, is this such a good idea? What sort of messages are we sending our children by allowing this sort of rational to stand? To me, it appears to be saying "It's okay NOT to try harder, honey. Here, let me make it even easier on you to "Succeed." Are we setting our kids up for "Success" by redefining our standards? Or are we setting society up for failure? Are we taking the easy, lazy & apathetic way out of academics by passing them when they should be getting the message that something is wrong and they need to do better? Sure, it's only a few points difference from the old scale, but fact is, that tiny bit could quickly add up to be a mountain in an already apathetic world. We've implemented the Exit exam to try and make sure our kids at least know the basics, and let me tell you what a sham that exam really is. I was in the first class to have to take that Exit/Graduation Exam in High School and out of all of us, only one did not pass & the reasons were purely medical at the time. It was soo simple, that we all not only passed, but were making 100% on all parts of it. This is supposed to keep our kids from going out into the world without the tools needed for success? Now that it's easier to get an A and harder to Fail, how are we supposed to ensure as parents that our kids are getting the right messages and a good education? As parents we need to speak up and let our voices be heard if we disagree with this policy. This year, my eldest heads to high school. Yesterday, I received a copy of his classes and Placement for this next year. He has all Enriched classes per his Placement Exams. This means that his GPA will be on a 5 point scale as opposed to the usual 4 point. His classes will be harder because of this, not easier to make a higher GPA. I have yet to see any similar standards set in to place to accomodate for the new grading scale in Caddo. Do you think getting an easier A will help or hurt your child? the info came from a back to school meeting my father attended today- where they basically were shown a video from the superintendent outlining the new policy & the why of it. they also had to sign for the handbook & such that also included this. he feels that this is a sham after being subjected to the stringent remediation curriculum that he noticed at the elementary school my nieces attended/attend. (it was in place when my own son went to the same school, but he didnt really understand the full scope until he saw my eldest niece literally repeat the 4th grade under the guise of calling it the 5th grade...she could basically sleep thru an entire year of class because of it. yes i completely understand my own child's class system- i went there myself & nothing has changed in that respect. their gpa scale has always been that way whether anyone stopped to notice it or not- the only reason i brought it up was to show how the academic standards havent been altered to match the new policy. ie you now have to learn less to achieve an A. sure its used in colleges & other places, BUT the fact is its being altered to make the poor achievers feel better about themselves & supposedly reduce the dropout rate? getting an easy A...its easy to sit back & just accept it until you really take a good look at the huge differences of what is being taught now & what we learned in the same grades...& its not that the kids are being taught more, its actually far less & at a much slower pace-ie they wont cover a lot of the information we ourselves learned in class- there just isnt time when you are focusing on an exit exam & standardized tests that dictate funding & ratings & such- should our kids get easy A's? what's a grade worth to you? sure they may feel great that they can get their chuck e cheese tokens with more A's, but did they really learn what they needed to learn? Do you care more about that A or about the content learned to achieve it? this change doesnt affect how the gpa is calculated- point is, we are in a state where the school system is soo very poor to begin with, not to mention our parish & instead of amping up what is taught, just would rather make it easier on the kids- the no child left behind b/s has become a system to get funding by "remediating" the smart kids & them doing outstanding on tests that ultimately get more $$$...why not focus on fixing the actual problem & actually TEACHING the kids instead of just easing up on them? got my bluebook today- oh joy & that video is something, let me tell ya... so you agree that putting funds towards remediating the smart kids is the right thing to do instead of putting it towards the kids who need it/got them the funding in the first place? issue is that i know of a particular school who landed extra teachers & funding due to some inner city children getting transferred to the school for whatever reason- they took those extra teachers$$ that should have gone to the underachieving kids & put it instead towards tutoring the smart kids to overachieve & get back funding that was cut in another area...is this right? the gpa is still on a 4 point scale standard as opposed to the higher ones we get at magnet by having the enriched/honors course offerings over the general which get the standard 4pt scale i just see the underachieving kids that need the actual help getting left furthur & further behind & given an ego boost that is a false sense of security in the real world another interesting variation is counselor failures to inform parents on college entry requirements from the beginning of highschool- went thru that oen with my niece at huntington a few years back-they had no idea when to test for this/that &what she needed for application processes ~mimi so we should sit by & not say anything??? heck its almost embaressing that i wrote this before it broke in the paper...or at least online in the paper...cause after folks started questioning i looked & couldnt find it in print- even though i have been to my meeting now since i wrote this & now have my own copy- dont even get me started on the video they had us watch that came from the school board- its awful & difficult to understand at time due to poor use of grammar & english (my typing/spelling aside)... i know its all about money, but fact is, we can speak out about, raise awareness & make folks think about it & maybe they will care in the future when similar things come to light & we have choices-elections-proposals & meetings where we can try to make a difference at magnet our general classes are worth 4pts for A's, 3 for B's 2 for C's & so forth as usual BUT if on your placement exams you place in the enriched courses or Honors courses, your Enriched/Honors classes are on a 5 pt scale instead where they are worth 5 pts for A's, 4pts for B's 3 pts for C's & so forth...ie instead of a 4pt gpa scale it becomes possible to have higher than a 4.0 on your GPA & its not uncommon for an A student to have a 5.O gpa as an A average as opposed to a student who has a possible 4.0 as an A GPA. On our transcripts, nothing is bumped down to a 4pt scale, our college application transcripts reflect that same pt system. Your total possible GPA becomes based on how many of those Enriched/Honors Courses you actually take. In my child's case, all of his classes are Enriched for this next year. It's a different set-up basically & each child's A goal can differ because of it. ie one child's highest GPA may be a 4..0 while the next may have a possible 4.5 or even 5 as the highest they can score. I still think that the course/teaching method/quality should be adjusted if they are concerned about how well a child can do, not lowering the grading scale to make it easier to get that A or D (passing basically.) I feel it defeats that whole purpose in defining what a child should know before getting out of school. Sure its only a few points difference per grade, BUT they add up fast. yes he could, BUT the thing is, it will differ for every child at the school, & it basically makes graduation ranking nul & void for the most part when colleges look to see what % you graduated with/in the rankings of your class...but his 3.8 on his transcripts wouldnt be the same as a student who the same GPA at a school who doesnt do that sort of system. both have decent grades, but on a letter grade translation it is a different grade but this school is a college prep school so we are doing college prep & have been for a year now- ie choosing classes, have the entire school plan mapped out & ready to go & everything-scholarship apps & deadlines & requirement are a regular part of the school newsletter that the pta sends out- the counselors regularly hold meetings for students/parents to stay on this schedule & make sure we all have our testing dates & deadlines together... it sounds like we wouldnt get admitted to some schools because of our % ranking issues, but that wasnt the case for any of us- & this is going from before tops ever came about...but by the time our junior year rolled around we had a portfolio of college entry essays, our forms were ready to go & we were applying already-& had the info, taken tours & everything... its not like this at every highschool though- which since i didnt know til later, was a shock to me that even byrd didnt do things like that... i know the magnet kids will all be fine, in fact it wont really affect them much at all- its the kids in the district schools that run the highest risk of being shafted in the name of good grades with no content to back it up... just trying to keep the thread going because this is news that not everyone will receive until back to school night- my father had a rather lengthy conversation with our school board rep who was furious that parents had already been given this information from our schools- they were planning on springing this on us then, after everyone was back in school & grades had already been being affected by it. I just think it's important enough that everyone should have been privy to the very motion that passed to allow this happen & we werent- it was kept quiet so I blogged about it. ~mimi