 | Derrick Grass is a 16-year old Sophomore at Wichita Northwest High School. He is active in writing sports stories for the Northwest Explorer newspaper and is a letterman on the swimming and diving team. Derrick lives at 13th St. and Tyler with his mother, father and younger brother. In his spare time he enjoys playing guitar and reading. |
Young adults' forum
2006-03-30 14:20:00
Does ‘weighted grading’ really make a difference?
All too often, views and opinions of the young adults who will lead us tomorrow are not taken into consideration before issues are decided and policies adopted. This column is but one small attempt to hear what they have to say. We look forward to featuring the views and opinions of many other high school
students over the coming months. If you are a student or teacher and are interested in finding out more about this program, please e-mail
mailto:editor@thequandatimes.com.)%20Question Question: What is ‘weighted grading’?
ANSWER: It is time for Wichita schools to make an important decision. One that could give Valedictorians a run for their money. The decision will be whether or not Wichita schools integrate weighted grading into their grading system.Weighted grading is a system that adds one extra grade point onto any A, B or C grade earned in any honors or Advanced Placement class. For example, earning an A in any regular class would give the student four grade points. Earning an A in any honors or AP class would give the student another half point or another full point, as a bonus.The integration of weighted grading into Wichita schools would make GPAs and class rankings much more precise and it would encourage students to take more challenging classes. By using a weighted grades system, class rankings and GPAs would become more precise. Students scoring all As in honors and AP classes would be ranked higher than students scoring all As in regular classes. The extra point would be a way of rewarding the students who score high grades in more challenging classes.There could be less Valedictorians because of this change in grading. A Valedictorian is defined as a “student or students, typically having the highest academic achievements of the class,” but if weighted grading was added seniors taking art and music classes might not get a spot when other seniors are taking additional AP or honors classes.In a study made by Gail C. Downs in 2000, it was found that half of the nation’s schools weight grades in some way. By this system of grading being added to Wichita schools, students would be pushed to take honors and AP classes that would challenge them for a better education.Some would say that by using weighted grading the self-esteem of students taking regular classes would be lowered, but by using weighted grading the students taking regular classes would only strive to take more rigorous classes, which in turn would only benefit them in the future.In preparing for the future and being challenged for better grades, students enrolled in regular, honors and AP classes would only benefit from weighted grades. They would be pushed to take more challenging classes and finally class rankings and GPAs would become more accurate.
