Back in November of last year, the district sent out a notice to Oakwood families that, “Board of Education members will consider making changes to Oakwood High School’s system of evaluating and recognizing student achievement.” Fast forward to today, and students are encountering their first year of high school with the new 10-point grading system chosen, according to the board, for its “increased accuracy” and positive impact on students’ college admissions. 

Two different recommendations to the school board were made, developed by the Academic Profile Advisory Committee (APAC), which is made up of about 20 Oakwood City Schools staff and Oakwood community members. With a goal of evaluating the possible disadvantage to students in regards to college admissions and merit-based awards due to the current 8-point scale, the APAC soon recommended the school-wide implementation of a 10-point grading system. Following a vote from the Oakwood Board of Education, the decision was finalized and the scale was changed indefinitely. 

Surely such a change should be evaluated by the impact it has on those it affects — the students and teachers. According to a poll conducted by AxMedia of the student body (~100 responses from grades 9-12), more than 90% of respondents were either in favor of or indifferent to the changes made after nearly a month in practice. Furthermore, nearly 80% of respondents indicated that should they choose to apply, the change made will positively impact their college admissions. 

“Personally, I’m all for the new grading scale, Oakwood is a very esteemed school in the academic world for colleges to see, and if you take hard classes that little lowering of expectations helps a lot.”  Liam McCarty (11) said.”I don’t think that it is a loosening of expectations, I think that it rewards those who would normally receive an A but used to receive an A-.”

The most-noticeable change to students will simply be that them and their peers will receive more A’s and B’s at the conclusion of a grading period.

“I think the 10-point grading scale will be beneficial this year and when applying to college, because it allows grades of 90 and up to count as an ‘A,’Isabel Rubin-Alvarez (12) said. ” Overall, most students seem to have a positive attitude towards the change and the benefits it may provide.”

But as they have the most influence on our grades in the end, the viewpoint of a teacher may be of greater importance. One teacher, who chose to remain anonymous, had a much more indifferent view when asked about the scale change as a whole. 

“As a teacher, I will roll with it. I personally did not see a reason for a change. I don’t recall a time in my classes where a student who had earned an A did not receive one. However, now that the decision is made it is time to move on. It’s policy now, and it doesn’t really change a great deal on my end.”

Some students may wonder if the changes to the scale would cause their teachers to alter their grading process of level of strictness.  The same teacher had an assuring position on the matter.

“I wouldn’t call it more strict, but I have made a few small changes to the weights of my grades and some grading policies to try to maintain the integrity of my grades. I won’t necessarily be doing away with all of my extra credit – there are some awesome things students have done for it in the past, and I like that as a motivator.”

Thankfully, it seems that the grading scale change has gone through with little controversy or majority dislike from students and teachers alike. In his final email on the matter to OHS parents, Kyle Ramey assured them that the positive benefits were numerous.

“I believe, when combined with the changes we made last summer to adopt a Latin Honors system and to provide an add-on for our honors courses, the 10-point scale and continued study and professional development on fair and accurate grading will be what is best for our students.”