VIRGINIA BEACH
The idea of widening the "A" grade range in the city's public schools received a boost Wednesday night, but whether a change will be made was far from clear.
The School Board agreed to endorse a grading-scale plan - even if it's the same as the current one - and take it to a public hearing in coming months.
And in a step that could resolve a years-long impasse, the administration offered a plan to replace the aging elementary and middle schools for the gifted on a single site.
On the grading issue, Superintendent Jim Merrill said the board will have to make a final decision by approximately mid-January if it wants changes for next fall.
The idea of modifying the scale has ignited passionate feelings. Board members have varied feelings about the current grading scale, which has no pluses or minuses and awards A's (and a 4.0 grade point) to scores of 94 and above.
Board member Bill Brunke, who has two school-age daughters, worried that approving a broader A would be "allowing kids not to push themselves as hard." He wondered if it would impose a burden on colleges by sending them more unprepared students.
But board member Brent Mc-kenzie, a Norfolk teacher, said: "Our grading scale may be holding some of our children back. They may not be taking a harder class because they're afraid it may hurt their GPA."
Board member Todd Davidson continued to express concerns about any change that could be perceived as lowering standards.
"Whatever the scale is, someone is going to fall just below," he said.
The board aims to endorse a single plan at its next meeting in two weeks.
Meanwhile, advocates for Old Donation Center and Kemps Landing Magnet School, the system's two schools for the gifted, heard the division's building staff recommend a 198,000-square-foot school that would replace both, to be built on the Ferry Plantation Road site of Old Donation Center at a cost of about $63 million.
Construction wouldn't begin until at least 2015.
The news brought relief to parents and staff at the schools. The schools have languished since 2005, when the School Board abandoned a plan to merge Kemps Landing with Virginia Beach Middle School.
"If it needs to be a shared campus, so be it," said Jill Campbell, president-elect of the Old Donation Center PTA.
The two schools for the gifted hold a combined 1,100 students. Last year, nearly 1,800 students applied for 400 entrance-level spots.
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
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My daughter is
currently filling out college applications. All of them ask for the grading scale used by her school, and it is printed on her transcript as well. I suspect that college admissions officers can figure it out.
Too much $ for too few students
400 places each year for nearly 1,800 applicants? And with a questionable selection process? And there are other schools that need to be modernized that serve many more students? I think this $63 million project needs to be rethought. I think VBCPS could find better uses for this kind of money.
The gifted-only schools are like publicly-funded private schools. Why should the favored gifteds get more than anyone else? It would be nice to have 600-student middle schools for ALL students.
I don't want my taxpayer dollars supporting this nonsense.
The Commonwealth should mandate the ten-point
grading system. Period. Why? Because that's what's used by most of the colleges across the United States. We need to put our kids on a level admissions playing field. Never forget, that the ten-point grading system WAS the norm throughout our Country, before the ivory-tower people developed the current arbitrary and convoluted system, that leaves many of our kids at a disadvantage at college admissions time. In fact, the majority of high schools continue to use the ten-point scale.
As to "gifted" schools, I'm ambivalent. A part of me thinks that each and every child is "gifted" in some way, so who decides what type of "gifted" deserves a virtually private education? Another part of me thinks that "gifted" is terribly misused these days. In another era, "gifted" referred to IQ...brainpower...bandwidth. No one with an IQ of under 140 to 150 need apply. These days, it's virtually ignored. If a kid has a 100 IQ, but is gifted in dance, music, art, debating, cooking or whatever, and does not rock the boat, he can get in. I reject that approach.
IQ
Academically gifted persons have an IQ of 125+, Genius is considered above 145. Before you start spewing off IQ qualifications for giftedness, please educate yourself about what it all means.
On that note, yes there are other gifted programs in the area that don't require a high IQ, and many of those children would not have other opportunities to develop those skills. They still have to maintain acceptable grades and cover the same material, plus the additional work in their art. They are gifted in their own right.
Educate myself?
Your comment that "gifted begins at the 125 IQ level merely confirms my point that: "In another era, "gifted" referred to IQ...brainpower...bandwidth. No one with an IQ of under 140 to 150 need apply." I guess they've been "lowering the bar" again.
I don't think ANYONE should be allowed to enter a gifted program, unless they have a genius level IQ...above 145.
Anything less is "feel-good pap", and I don't want my taxes to pay for it.
grading
It doesn't matter what the grading scale is, except for creating clarity with a universal scale. All colleges I've seen (and some high schools) have grade cut-offs on the 10's (A>=90,90>B>=80, etc., also allowing for + and -'s). Using the same scale just removes some potential for error in communicating scores.
The only thing that really matters is matching the material to the grading scale. If anything, a wider scale allows teachers to push their students a little more with challenging questions to see who is really excelling. If you have a 20 question test with answers being awarded 5 points each, the old scale would only allow students to miss 1 question to maintain an A. Of course, not all questions need to be weighted the same, and the results of any class will have groups that do better and those that do worse. You can make the scale and cut-off wherever you want and map the results back to any other grading scale.
Not "dumbing down"
With a grading scale of 94% or above being an "A" is expecting perfection (in some cases) from the kids. My kids are on the higher grading scale in Suffolk, and in many cases my son's quizzes are only 10 question quizzes, there for if he even misses one it is a B. That in my opinion is expecting perfection, and leaving no room for any mistakes. In my opinion expanding the grading scale is not dumbing down, but allowing for the fact that we are not perfect.
No ... to a $63M Gifted School
While GPA is important, I do believe that some universities choose by a percentage formula. Furthermore, they also look at what classes you take, as well as participation in extra-curricular activities. It would be interesting to hear from an college admission's rep.
Couple this argument with the one about the gifted schools and somehow I find it ironic that VBCPS is proposing a new $63M school for gifted at the same time they are discussing lowering grading standards.
Furthermore, I don't want my tax dollars to pay for a new "private" public school for gifted students. They can go to their home schools, and if needed, segregated. To integrate students of various levels of academic profiencies is beneficial to ALL students.
I have heard the argument that their kids are bullied and ridiculed in regular schools. I have news for these people, all kids are bullied and ridiculed by their peers. Get over it. And gifted kids ridicule others just as much as lower socio-economic kids...because they think they are superior.
make the playing field equal
I just don’t understand the problem and why people think if we change the grading system you are GIVING out a grade. If a college looks at my kid's and they have all B’s (92) and this other kid has A’s (92) and everything else is even who gets in?? The kid with the A gets in. And both kids on paper have the same grades, but our 92 is a B. Don’t tell me oh they should have studied harder for that A because really a 92 isn’t a bad grade. You need to make the playing field equal and your not. It isn’t giving out an A, they still earned it just like the other kids from other schools. Or here is a better idea; if Virginia Beach can’t get it together get rid of the letter grades and just use numbers! That way we all have a fair shot getting into a good college.
Like previous people have
Like previous people have posted, GPA is only a piece to the pie. One has to be well rounded in other activties, clubs, etc. Most schools would take a person wit a 3.5 and different/clubs community involvement than a 4.0 student on paper. This is the problem with many people. When adversity occurs or there isn't an equal playing field, people tend to make excuses and change the rules. With childrens education, it is important to push them to the limit and maximize potential.
23 year old fomer vbcps student
In my opinion this is
In my opinion this is another case of the dumbing down of kids in america. We teach them to be ahead of the curve, not the curve itself. As parents and young adults, we must tell kids to work harder and not worry about what people are doing in schools everywhere else. Do your work and the grades will show. If you take shortcuts now, it will show later in college, or even after that. Do not bring the bar up if your child can't limbo. Teach them to go lower and adapt!
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/DDDoA.sml.pdf
Never trust "Trained" educators to be on the school board. Ever wonder what they've been trained in.
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/DDDoA.sml.pdf
Think about this quote:
In 100 years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching Remedial English in college.
~ Joseph Sobran
To the Virginia Beach School Board - Don't dumb our children down to the level of the state. Ask the state to raise their standards.
It's not a matter of lowering the standards
It's not a matter of lowering the standards within the city. It is a matter of leveling the playing field when it comes to college entrance. GPA is calculated based on letter grades, not percentage points earned in class. Henceforth, a two students in different cities who have earned the same percentage score in any given class will be given different letter grades and therefore credited with differing GPAs. It's great that Va. Beach has always adhered to strict standards in their effort to be ahead of the curve, but at what expense to struggling students who want to go to college? There should be one grading scale for all students. It doesn't matter so much what the scale is, but all students should be measured with the same measuring stick...
See today's editorial
"Reasons for hope amid dropout news."
Change It
The grading policy needs to be changed, not for the lower end but for the upper end, a score 93% in VA Beach is a B, where other school districts you don't get a B until you get a 89%. Re-read the below quoted text.
"The idea of modifying the scale has ignited passionate feelings. Board members have varied feelings about the current grading scale, which has no pluses or minuses and awards A's (and a 4.0 grade point) to scores of 94 and above".
No School Age Children
All my kids are now graduated from or in college, but I still live in Va Beach.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't an F, or failing grade, applied at a score of 70 or below? If that is still the case, that means there are 30 percentage points across which the four passing grades D through A are applied. Simple math shows that if each grade was applied evenly across the scale, each would cover 7.5 points; thus an A could be justified for a score of 92.5 or higher.
I do not think there is much reason to be concerned about this. A teacher overly concerned about students' GPA results could just as easily inflate the results by giving easy quizzes and tests. As long as we have standards of learning testing we will always have a yardstick available to hold the school board and our teachers accountable.
They Have to be Kidding
So, people can't meet the standard so you lower it? This is like giving a trophy to a sports team because they tried. This is nuts.