I’m sitting here trying to de-code my sister’s fifth grade report card, and I have no idea what these letters stand for. There’s a convienent legend on the back of the report card, but of course it hasn’t been updated to include the new letters. I went to this same elementary school a decade ago, and A-D, F and O, N, S and U worked just fine then, so why change it? Does your child’s school use the traditional letters or have they chosen a different grading system?
FTR, she has some V’s M’s and G’s (this stands for Good right?) along with more “normal” letters.
The school I currently go to uses this system. I think it’s… moronic, to say the least. E.g., I aced nearly every test and assignment in my Statistics course, but received the same grade as a student who did only fairly well (89.5 average). It makes kids work only hard enough to get the 89.5. I see it as just another example of the school administration bowing to the wills of the parents of underachieving students–everybody in my town is ‘above average,’ as they say around here :rolleyes:
Note I said: “A, B,C, D, F with numerical specific for academics”
While the report card shows a letter grade, it also shows a specific numerical grade for the class. Typically these are weighted averages of the grades earned on daily work (30-40%) and tests (60-70%). GPA and Class rank are calculated based on the numerical specific grade rather than the letter grade with additional weights for honors classes, ap classes and dual (college) credit classes.
So if you really aced every test and someone squeaked by with an 89.5 they would fall below you in class rank and GPA, as long as you are not taking easier classes than they are. (It is possible to make say a B (say an 89.4) in an honors class and an A (say a 92) in an onlevel class and (all other things equal) the honors student have a higher GPA and Class Rank.
In the district in which I teach, grades 1-6 use the following system:
4 = exceeds standards
3 = meets the standards
2 = partially meets the standards
1 = does not meet the standards
The “standards” are the specific curriculum objectives presented during that quarter.
Each subject is broken down into subcategories (writing has 6 subcategories) and students get a number for each one in addition to A, B, C, D or F in the overall subject. I also may use a + or - with each number (though no + or - allowed on the overall letter).
This fucked up (and hard to use) system is the bastard child of a two-year struggle among the assistant superintendant, the school board and parents. It sucks. I hate marking report cards, I hate using most of my allotted conference time with parents explaining the damn system, I hate that it was intended to make student progress clear and, in fact, achieves the opposite. I love parents who sit down, push the report card to one side and say, “talk to me about how my child is doing.”
The middle / high did not have +/- grading, and until a couple years ago, neither did the university. As it stands now, the +/- on the letters is more or less at the instructor’s discretion. One of my professors made an A+ for 95-100, and A for 91-94, and an A- for 90. Another doesn’t give +/- at all.
That’s pretty much the scale my school used. Except 65 was a D-. When I was very young, K-1, we had U, S and NI, but we also had check, check plus and check minus grades too.
When I was a kid, it was similar to (well, probably the same as) the traditional US system of A to whatever, with qualifying plusses and minuses. Plain and simple with no bullshit.
But not now. Oh no…
H, C, D and N. WTF?
High Achievement Competent Developing Needs Assistance
What bloody rot!
Of course, the school has also succumbed to the dreaded Everyone’s a Winner disease. As a child, if I got an answer right, I’d get a tick, and if I screwed up I’d get a big fat red cross, like nature intended. If a kid did exceptionally well, he or she would get a “Smiley Stamp”, which was just one of those red happy faces printed onto the page from a handheld stamp, and let me tell you those things were rare and prized. A “Merit Card” signed by the teacher and principal would be a once or twice in a school career event, and you’d damn near want to frame the bugger.
But not for my son. Oh no. With the Everyone’s a Winner mindset, he just has to do some work competently (simply getting the answers right, more or less), and the teacher plasters the page with high quality glossy stickers saying “WAY TO GO”, “EXCELLENT WORK” and “AWESOME!!”. If he gets it slightly wrong, there is still a tick. If he’s obviously fucked up, there’s just … nothing. My son has never seen a red cross on any of his work. Every week, he gets all sorts of bloody award cards to stick on the fridge. I mean, he’s my son and I love him, but geez… he’s no angel.
I don’t know if the teachers are scared of the parents or what, but this here dad would PREFER if his son got a dose of bloody reality. Everyone’s a Winner doesn’t apply in the outside world (outside of 70s disco music, that is).
For secular studies, my kids’ schools use the standard A-D & F with +/- for academic subjects (English, Math, Social Studies, etc), and E, S, NI, U (Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, Unsastisfactory) for Conduct, Effort, etc.
For Hebrew subjects, the schools use Aleph, Bet, Gimmel and Daled (fail) with +/-.