Looking through my 10th grade son's grades recently, I started wondering (again) about this...He has an 82% right now in one of his classes. In our school district, that's considered a C+. When I was in school, a 82% was a B-. When did this change? Is this normal for all schools these days? In our district the breakdown is as follows: A 92 - 100, B+ 89 - 91, B 83 - 88, C+ 80 - 82, C 74 - 79, D+ 71 - 73, D 65 - 70, F below 65. So if a kid scores a 91.8% on a test, that's a B+, not an A. Similarly, if his overall grade in the class is a 91.8% (they don't round it up), it's still a B+, not an A. Is this just our school district that grades like this or does yours, too?
I've been curious about this for YEARS - all the hours I've been on this site and it took me THIS long to finally ask!
How interesting that the grading systems seem to be all over the place.
My location says Denver, CO, but we're actually in PA (I really should change that). My kids go to the local public middle and high schools, which are excellent schools, so overall I'm thrilled with the education they're getting. And I'm not super concerned about their grades as long as they're trying their best.
Last week, however, my 7th grader had a math test and studied like crazy saying "I REALLY want to get an A on this test!" Math is hard for her, so I was happy to see her motivated like that and I really hoped she would pull off the A for her own sake. Well, she got a 91%. I was proud of her (because that's a fantastic grade for her) as was she, but she was also a bit bummed because she came SO CLOSE. I guess in many school districts, that WOULD have been an A. I should tell her that.
I've seen both scales, so it's not uncommon. My high school was traditional (90-100 a, so on). When I first started college, the grading scale was the same as the one you mention. They changed it to traditional grading in my third semester.
Is your son in private or public school?
Is the school based on an I.B. system or not? (International Baccalaureate school system).
Or common core standards in a state's Dept. of Education system?
In some schools, grades are derived from "summative" or "formative" grades. Mostly summative. Summative are test scores. Not daily homework or assignments etc. And, grades are not, averaged. And the standards on which grades are derived, is different... than say, when I was in school. It is no longer like how when I was in school.
Your best bet is, asking the school administration, or teacher, about their, grading scale and why.
AND ask them, HOW grades and grading, is derived.
It isn't that it has changed it is just that it is different at every school/district. When I was in school we had A B C D and E. No F. No plus or minus. 93-100 was an A. 92-83 was a B. 82-78 was a C. 77-66 was a D. Anything below a 65 was an E. Our local high school uses plus/minus but I'm not sure what the grade scale is. But the district is slowly implementing a new grading system that eliminates A B C D F. The elementary school no longer uses letter grades and it will be phased out during the next three years at the higher levels. No idea how they are going to address GPAs and college applications. Rely on SAT and ACT scores?
Sounds wacky to me. In my kids' high school, the A's start at 90, B's start at 80, etc. I teach test prep at several high schools and those are the grading systems there as well.
Every district is different. Throw in school districts where high school students can also take college level classes and it gets even crazier! Some districts that have advanced placement classes even "weight" their grades. A 93% in the advanced placement scale might be a B, but that 93% in a non advanced placement class might be an A.
When I was in HS (20+ years ago) our grading scale was similar to your son's. An A was 93% and up. A B was 89% A C was 79%. A D was 69%. I have taught in several different school districts and I think all but one of them had a grading scale similar to that. I think the college I went to had a similar scale which was then converted to the typical 4.0 scale. I believe the traditional scale is based on the infamous Bell Curve.
Grading can be very subjective. Have three English teachers grade the same piece of student writing and you will have three different grades. Each teacher will focus on something different or notice something different. It also depends on if they are using a criterion based evaluation or norm-referenced evaluation. Very confusing! College profs are the same. I once took a college course that was team taught by a sociology prof and a history prof. I took it as a history credit and got a C in the class because I "didn't speak out enough in class." A couple of years later in a conversation with the sociology professor, he told me that he would have probably given me at least a B. He had been impressed with my writing skills (which he had also seen in an honors class I had with him) and impressed that I was a freshmen taking a jr/sr level course. I always wished I had taken that class as a sociology credit!
Elementary school for K - maybe 2nd grade was E (excellent), S (satisfactory), and N (needs improvement). This was in Georgia and Virginia. I think it changed to letter grades in either 2nd or 3rd grade, but I don't remember the grading scales. That was in both Virginia and Tennessee.
My middle school did A, B, C, D, F, no +/-. A = 100-94, B = 93-86, C = 85-78, D = 77-70, F = 69 or below. .5 rounded the grade up. This was in Tennessee.
My high school did A, B, C, D, F, no +/-. A = 100-90, B = 89-80, C = 79-70, D = 69-60, F = 59 or below. .5 rounded the grade up. AP classes were graded the same way, but you got one more point for the GPA based on what grade you got. This was in Arkansas.
My college also followed the same grades as my high school. College was in Arkansas as well.
My son's school in OK for K did M (Mastered), P (Progressing), and N (Needs Improvement). Now my son is in 1st grade in TX and he hasn't even gotten a report card and I'm not sure when they will start getting on.
My children go to private school and the grading scale is similar
A 100-97
A- 94-96
B+ 92-93
b 88-91
B- 85-87
C+ 82-84
C 75-81
C- 70-74
And then 69 and below is a D and 59 and below is a F
Kind of sucks for my son who averages 82 through 84 on most of his work, in most schools he would be a B student in our school he is a C student.
many blessings
My son's elementary school grades on a E, M and B scale -- Exceeds teacher expectations, Meets teacher expectations, and Below expectations. The M can also be an M- or M+. It gets away from the letter grade, but I always wonder about just how subjective it is? Like if your kid is an exceptional reader or whatever, they still only get Ms because the teacher knows he or she is capable of the work, thus meeting the expectations. The grading our school uses does allow for teacher comments though, and fortunately ours is very good at filling those out. I can't remember what our grades were when I was in elementary school, probably A through F, but in junior and senior high school, it was all numerical grades, with 65 as the number for failing.
I have never heard of that kind of grading system - crazy. What stinks is that 71-73 is considered a D+ while they are in high school. However, it doesn't matter how the school declares the number grades because colleges will look at them as the traditional scores you are used too.
I don't remember the exact breakdown, but at my high school 70% was passing. Below 70% was failing. This was true for all classes except math. Math classes were 60% and above is passing. Our school didn't have +'s at all. It as A, A-, B, B-, C, C-, D, D-, F.
I think there really are a variety of ways schools do grades. I always figured that was one of the reasons colleges look at GPA, ACT/SAT scores and Class Rank. When you combine these three "scores," they paint a more complete picture of the quality of a student.
When I was a student, my school used the system you described. And I do remember the +/- as well.
My sons school uses the 90, 80, 70, etc. scale. No +/-.
No clue as to why though.
For secondary students, my district MCPS uses A=89.5 and above (and yes, the kid with 89.4 is going to lobby hard for you to round up), B= 79.5-89.4, etc. An E (failing grade) is below 59.4. There is no plus or minus.
My own HS required anything below 70 to be failing. An A was 95 and above. Beyond that I don't recall.
