The Pros And Cons Of Weighted Grading System

Michael Thomsen argues against the A-F grading system in his essay “The Case Against Grades.” Thomsen even goes as far to say that the A-F grading system is to blame for the difficulty in reforming American education (1). He supports his conclusion with a few thought-provoking studies and statistics, but overall there are holes in his argument and he does not offer a realistic alternative. Thus, I disagree with Thomsen’s conclusion as I think that the A-F grading system is currently the best method for the United States to use.

The AACPS guidelines on grading states that “Grades shall be weighted differently according to the nature and complexity of the assignment, assessment, or activity,” meaning that based on the type and difficulty of the assignment it will affect the student's grade more or less. When developing curriculum it is important to follow this rule. Giving assignments false weights can cause the students to

Some universities wanted to use the Johnson plan of calculating grade point average differently than before, but this plan would make student’s academic careers much more complicated. Staples exclaims “Valen Johnson, a Duke University statistics professor, came under heavy fire when he proposed recalculating the grade point average to give rigorously graded courses greater weight” (412). Johnson proposed this plan thinking that it would help students be more successful, but all it would do was make everything very worse. Under this plan all courses would be given the same equal weight, but this plan would have many drawbacks. Depending on what major a student had, that student would be required to take certain courses

A lot of things need to be changed in the world of education, but the grading system is definitely not one of them. Some schools are tossing around the idea of changing the grading system from the standard A – F scale to a pass or fail scale. This is not a good idea because of several reasons. First of all, this would completely abolish the idea of a GPA which would, in turn, make it impossible for schools to pick a valedictorian or for students to have a rank in their class. Students love to know where they are ranked in their class. Another significant reason as to why we need to keep the grading scale the same is scholarship selection. How would colleges possibly select a student for their scholarships if there are no GPA’s or class rankings?

The grading system actually affects how students do in school. The current grading system can confuse students and parents. Most students get stressed out with the current grading system. I agree with Mr. Delaney that the grading system needs to be changed to a pass or fail system.

Schools like KHS with grading scales at 94-100 is an A, gives us students disadvantages for college. Typically, to get into a good college they look at your GPA. Most colleges won’t notice that our grading scale is different. Knowing that we could have that A and we could have a 4.0 if we went to a different school,

As of now, 72% of high schools use a weighted GPA system according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s 2013 State of College Admission Report (Dennis). However, this means that 28% of high schools still calculate unweighted GPAs. One of the first issues that arises from this GPA system is the fact that it leads to an unreasonable amount of valedictorians. Sure, superficially, it seems that rewarding those students who achieve straight A’s throughout their high school careers is pleasant, but pair that up with the fact that a student can take the easiest classes available just to receive such a title, and the term “valedictorian” becomes nothing but a worthless label. In those instances, these students appear identical

Practical and theoretical values in using statistics to predicting academic success. Grades, test scores, and GPA are used as criterion across all grades and ages for predicting success. These statistics are used to allocate resources to education. High school grades, GPA, ACT scores, SAT scores, and essays are the criterion needed from universities to evaluate whether the student is a good candidate. These factors alone determine the acceptance into a college. Administrators think these scores are efficient enough to decide whether the student will attend and whether the student will achieve success as a college student. The process of getting into a university or obtaining a higher education degree is a high stakes situation. The reliability and validity of using GPA and grades can be questioned. Grade inflation is not considered when making these high stakes decisions. Grade inflation is high grades given for the same performance at different levels of study or at different time periods (Poropat, 2009; Trapmann et al., 2007). An A Becky earned in English in California is the equivalent of the A Susan earned in English in a small-town school in

My school calculates GPA's depending on whether or not you take AP classes. If you take AP classes then your GPA is out of a 5 and if not then your GPA is out of a 4. It is the weighted and unweighted GPA

Imagine you are a high school student sitting in the middle of the big final for your hardest class. You look around and everyone has different sized tests because you’re all graded on different scales. How fair is that really? This is just one of the many scenarios that could happen if we change the grading system we have in place at this point in time. Although there are other similar systems that work, none of them are quite as easily understood as the percentage-based A-F grading system.

The grading policy at my high school was altered my junior year. In the new grading policy, assignments in the summative category are weighted heavier than those in the formative. Thus, summative points have a greater impact on one’s overall grade than formative points. So, being

Most schools use a traditional grading system that focuses on homework, class work, tests, and quizzes. Some schools have used alternate systems in which the students are to do a long-term assignment to show what they have learned. The marvelous idea of a long-term assignment would be very efficient. The logic behind forcing students to do graded work is unfathomable, because those grades will only matter for a given amount of time. Schools should more openly consider switching from a traditional grading system to a long-term project grading system. The idea of a long-term assignment is more logical given the fact that stress levels would be lower, creativity would flow, and students could acquire more skills. Adding a grade to every piece of paper is overall a waste of time.

Many colleges, including community colleges, do not often recognize the immense difference between advanced placement classes (AP) in public high schools and honors classes. While AP classes are suitable for some students, more highly advanced students find themselves bored; this is why schools decided to offer honors classes. While these classes are a better substitute than the option of having nothing for the more advanced students, schools should design programs for each individual student, providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to progress through high school and college, leaving them well equipped for the journey of life. However, not only do schools not offer this tool, just recently they have instituted “Common Core Standards”. This horrible

We need to keep the grading system because it helps colleges find hardworking and exceptional students who will accomplish all their work and assignment rather than accepting someone into their college who won’t do anything but slack off the

The new grading system overlooks the real potential of a student. For example – a student has got 45 marks while another student has got 49 marks, they both will be falling in the same category of A1 grade which is a very big conflict of hard work and luck.