The Panel:
Phyllis Bazzari is an English teacher who has been teaching for 16 years.
Shannon Wolfgang is currently the Distance Learning Facilitator and has previously worked as an admissions counselor at Duke University and the University of Michigan.
Charles Midthun is a math teacher who has been teaching high school for two years.
Tala Farah is a current sophomore.
Matt Forbes is a current junior.
At the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, Northwood High School, along with North Carolina’s other public schools, switched its grading system from the seven-point scale to the 10-point scale. As students and teachers adjust to the grading changes, a common question has arisen: How will this new grading scale affect students’ motivation in classes?
Farah: [Students] know now that they can pass with an A as a 90; I feel like [students] are slacking in their work.
Midthun: That’s an assumption that all tests are standard and exactly the same as they have been for the past number of years, and that’s a huge assumption because that’s just not real. It’s like the county bumps the EOC assessment grades. An eight out of 33 [was counted as] a 70 percent, and I teach math, and an eight out of 33 is not 70 percent… eight out of 33 will not be 70 percent anymore; it’ll be 60 percent because they’ll adjust those things too. So all of that stuff gets adjusted as it comes out. I think that the brilliant part is that it’s easier; 10 is easier. It doesn’t make it so more kids will pass… it’s just easier to use.
Wolfgang: It just makes sense…I was curious as to whether teachers are going to be grading harder because of [the new scale] and if that’s going to change how they view students’ work.
Forbes: I don’t know if they’ve actually started doing it, but some of my teachers have said things like, “If you give me A work, it’s going to be an A.” It’s not like you can get the grade easier, the scale is just easier.
Bazzari: My biggest reservation with it is that I do think, and I have overheard students saying, “Okay, I’m good with that grade because now it’s a B instead of a C,” instead of trying to up their level, just becoming more complacent. The criticism I have of it is that there’s no differentiation, while in my mind, when I’m plopping grades on, there is. You might be in that range of 90-100, but it’s not the same A. When I’m putting that grade in there, in my mind it’s still on a seven-point scale. To me, a 90 is still a B response as opposed to an A response… For those three or four assignments in college, a 10 point scale seems to make a lot more sense because each [assignment] carries a huge amount of weight.
Midthun: College actually uses a three point scale; they use an A, an A- and an A+… therefore there is a 3 point scale, not a 10 point scale… I’m with you; just go to a 1 point scale. If you got a 90, you got a 90. If you got a 95, you got a 95. Because if I am higher in authority—either in college admissions or a job or something—to me, a person who came out with a 90 is not the same as a person who came out with a 100. On paper they are, but they aren’t. This means bigger essays, which means more weight on standardized tests because that’s going to be their differentiation. It’s not going to be the “You got all A’s in the class because they’re on the 10 point scale.”
Wolfgang: Considering my years of experience in college admissions, I kind of just disagree with that.
Midthun: You disagree with that?
Wolfgang: Yes. When you’re reviewing thousands and thousands of applications that come in, the grades are just one factor, and while we recognize that the state of North Carolina has a seven-point scale, you’re getting the majority of students applying with a 10-point scale. In a way, in my experience, we have cut kids a little bit of slack who are coming in with a 92… In that respect, I think it will benefit [students]. We somewhat disregarded it, but at the same time we knew they were on a seven point scale, so that 92 for one student applying from say, Connecticut, was an A, so we checked off the A for that class. A student applying from North Carolina with a 92 got a B checked off. It could work to a disadvantage. While that wasn’t the only deciding factor, it was part of the decision-making.
Midthun: When my daughter applied to the [University of North Carolina], the average entry GPA was a 4.8, and you’re going, “Okay, this is crazy.”
Wolfgang: They look at curriculum differently than grades.
Midthun: I think that for the most part, your 98 [grade students] and your 99 [grade students] are intrinsically motivated in a lot of ways, and they’re going for the 99. They don’t stop at the A. The 99 [grade students] differentiate themselves.
Forbes: I agree; they’re going to do that regardless.
Wolfgang: And [Northwood students] have the actual percentages on your report cards while some schools report just letter grades… I think time will tell; I think that it’s still too early in the process to say how it will really affect motivation and how it affects grading; it’s too early.
Bazzari: It may be the type of thing where I’ll eventually start readjusting my grades.
This is an edited transcript of a conversation in which panelists engaged in further debate.
– By Riley Wolfgang