Prince George's County Considers Changing High School Grading System

The recommended change would mean students could not earn a grade lower than 50 percent

What to Know

  • If the changes are approved, high school students would no longer receive grades lower than 50 percent for the first three quarters.
  • Teachers would not be allowed to factor a student's behavior into their grade under the proposed change.
  • The county is also considering adding another parent-teacher conference day to the calendar.

Prince George's County public high school students could see significant changes to the grading system in August.

The county school board is considering raising grades so that the lowest grade a student could earn in the first three quarters would be 50 percent. Students can currently earn zero to 59 percent, which counts as a failing E grade.

Assignments would be graded on the same scale and teachers could not give grades any lower than 50 as long as the student shows effort.

A similar grading policy already exists for elementary and middle schools in the county.

High school teachers would also not be allowed to factor a student's behavior when determining their grades.

Supporters of the recommendation said the change would prevent students from giving up on a class mid-semester. They said it would also reduce "inequity" in the grades students earn.

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However, the Prince George's County Education Association protested the idea at a school board meeting on Thursday.

"Our teachers are professional educators and each educator has a class system for late work. Is your name on a paper good faith? How is this making students college and career ready when we are not teaching the basic skills of being timely with your work?," said Theresa Dudley, president of PGCEA.

Officials are also considering adding an additional parent-teacher conference day to the school calendar to help increase parent engagement and feedback.

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