The N.C. Board of Education voted Thursday to change North Carolina’s grading scale from a seven-point grading scale to a 10-point grading scale — affecting all current public high school students.
In North Carolina public school, a 93-100 used to mean that the student would receive an A, while a 90 was a B. But the new changes being ushered in will allow students receiving anywhere from a 90 to a 100 to receive an A.
The board voted to change the scale in October, but the change would have been phased in and only affected incoming high school students in fall 2015.
Halee Morris, a junior at UNC, said these changes should have come sooner.
“It was completely unfair that many of the other states in the nation were already on a 10-point grading scale. They had 10 chances to get an A and I only had seven.”
This difference between the grading scales could have led to a disadvantage when it came to college applications or any other sort of competition between students of other states, she said.
“The grading scale meant that I could have all 92s in my classes and have a lower GPA than a student with all 90s from a state with a 19-point scale,” Morris said.
This change is being ushered in for the 2015-2016 school year — but teachers hope that this new scale can change all of the grades of the high schoolers currently in school, according to the (Raleigh) News and Observer.
“The seven-point grading scale never really bothered me since I grew up with it, but it was the transfer students who pointed out the problems with the scale,” said Haleigh Prysock, a UNC freshman from Alamance County.
“Now being on a 10-point grading scale in college, I really wish in high school we could’ve had the 10-point scale, it would've boosted everyone's GPA,” she said.
Current North Carolina seniors in high school have pointed out some problems with this switch. Unless applications can be resent with corrected grades, seniors will have their grades submitted to potential colleges on a seven-point scale — even though colleges might consider North Carolina to be on a 10-point scale.
Kayla Aves, a freshman at UNC, said she's frustrated that the changes were so late in coming.
“It took years for these changes to be put into place. The board of educators should have sped up the process since we are one of the few states who are still stuck in the seven-point system,” she said.
“Hopefully this gives the current high schoolers in North Carolina a chance to improve their national ranking,” Prysock added.
state@dailytarheel.com
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