Rockingham County is thinking about something that will make students at Harrisonburg City Schools green with envy. They want to start using the 10 point grading scale. I loved the 10-point scale (if you went to college the you know what I’m talking about). Nothing beats getting a passing grade of 60 on a term paper that you started writing an hour before class.

I have no problem with the new grading system— only a quote by John Meyers, chair of the board.

“People think that we need to do it to kind of have a level playing field for our students to help them apply and get into colleges.”

Doesn’t it seem like he is implying that students in Rockingham County aren’t smart enough to compete with students in other districts with the regular (94 is an A) scale?

In his defense he went on to say that the board was considering it because other districts have already changed their scales. So perhaps keeping the regular scale is putting students at a disadvantage. Though the disadvantage is certainly much less than restricting learning by forcing teachers to teach only the material that is on SOL tests. That puts kids’ futures at risk than any grading scale ever could. Can we all agree that standardized testing for third graders is a bit much. I am a firm believer in making learning interesting and these tests put so much pressure on students from all sides (if schools average is too low they can loose accreditation).

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