Fairfax Co. Closer to Changing Grading Scale

Students now must get 94 percent for A

In Virginia's Fairfax County Public School District, a students must get a 94 percent or better in a class to get an A, anything below is a B, and there are no pluses or minuses.

Some parents and students say that's unfair. Late Thursday night, the School Board took a step toward changing the system.

The hundreds of parents that filled the seats of the Luther Jackson Middle School auditorium were overwhelmingly proponents of changing the district's grading system to a so-called ten-point system, with pluses and minuses.

Anytime a school board member so much as hinted doubts on that point of view, the crowd voiced its displeasure.

Partly thanks to interruptions like that, it took nearly three hours for the board to reach what turned out to be a unanimous vote in favor of directing the Superintendent to return to the Board with recommendations on the ten-point scale by March -- for implementation next school year.

Jonathan Wilson explains...

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