Public Comment on Grading Scale by Albert Leach December 3rd, 2013 Good evening board members and those in attendance from our community, my name is Albert Leach Pottsgrove resident from the Turnberry Farms development. I have come to you tonight to speak about our current grading scale. As of the 2013-2014 school year, Pottsgrove School District will continue to use the seven point grading scale with additional weight given to Honor and AP classes taken in High School. Tonight, I asking the School Board to consider changing our current 7-point Grading Scale to a 10-point Grading Scale with the plus/minus system. Two questions I would like the School Board to ask itself: Does our current Grading Scale give our seniors the best opportunity to showcase themselves for college admissions, merit aid based scholarships and acceptance into honors programs? As well as, does our grading scale provide the best method to nurture our young children into becoming college ready in the years to come? When you look at the current trends in College Applications, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the number of students expected to graduate from high school has increased to over 3.3 million in 2013 and this number is expected to rise through 2016. The number of college applications submitted per student is also steadily increasing. This combination of more students applying to colleges, compounded by the limited financial resources caused by the economic downturn, has resulted in fierce competition for admission into institutions. Moreover, merit aid scholarships and acceptance into college honor programs has also seen a great deal of increased competition. To date, the largest study done on Grading Scale was done by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia. This study was done in 2008 with the purpose of looking into the best possible grading scale to highlight its' graduating seniors for the purpose of college admissions and merit aid scholarships. Fairfax County Public Schools enrollment is over 110,000 students encompassing22high schools. Many of the numbers I will state tonight have come directly from this study. At the time of the study, Fairfax County Public Schools used a 6/10-point hybrid grading scale with a Plus system. Table 1 FCPS 6/10 -point Gradins Scale (prior 2009) VS Pottssrove 7-point Grading Scale A B c D F 93-100 85-92 77-84 69 and below A B+ B C+ c D+ D F 94-100 90-93 84-89 80-83 74-79 70-73 64-69 53 and below The questions asked of the study included but were not limited to: what is the most common grading scale used today, how did its' students GPA vs. other districts compare, how do college admission offices handle GPA from different schools and what are the most important determining factors for merit aid scholarships and honor class admissions. The Fairfax study found that the most common Grading Scale being used is the 1O-point scale. Those who are using the 10-point scale? r U.S. Department of Education's lnstitute of Education Sciences o President's Education Awards Program o The College Board o The majority of colleges and universities Another point of the study was to determine how college admissions handled applicants' GPAs from high schools using different grading scales. o 89%o of colleges surveyed stated they compare applicants to all other students in the applicant pool. o 55%o of colleges surveyed stated they DO NOT recalculate GPA for college admissions or merit based scholarships.
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Good evening board members and those in attendance from our community, my name is Albert Leach Pottsgrove
resident from the Turnberry Farms development. I have come to you tonight to speak about our current gradingscale. As of the 2013-2014 school year, Pottsgrove School District will continue to use the seven point grading scale
with additional weight given to Honor and AP classes taken in High School. Tonight, I asking the School Board to
consider changing our current 7-point Grading Scale to a 10-point Grading Scale with the plus/minus system. Two
questions I would like the School Board to ask itself: Does our current Grading Scale give our seniors the best
opportunity to showcase themselves for college admissions, merit aid based scholarships and acceptance into
honors programs? As well as, does our grading scale provide the best method to nurture our young children into
becoming college ready in the years to come?
When you look at the current trends in College Applications, according to the National Association for College
Admission Counseling, the number of students expected to graduate from high school has increased to over 3.3
million in 2013 and this number is expected to rise through 2016. The number of college applications submitted
per student is also steadily increasing. This combination of more students applying to colleges, compounded by the
limited financial resources caused by the economic downturn, has resulted in fierce competition for admission into
institutions. Moreover, merit aid scholarships and acceptance into college honor programs has also seen a great
deal of increased competition.
To date, the largest study done on Grading Scale was done by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia. This
study was done in 2008 with the purpose of looking into the best possible grading scale to highlight its' graduating
seniors for the purpose of college admissions and merit aid scholarships. Fairfax County Public Schools enrollment
is over 110,000 students encompassing22high schools. Many of the numbers I will state tonight have come
directly from this study. At the time of the study, Fairfax County Public Schools used a 6/10-point hybrid grading
scale with a Plus system.
Table 1FCPS 6/10
-pointGradins Scale (prior 2009) VS Pottssrove 7-point Grading Scale