Grading Change Delayed By Central Valley District

Sat., Jan. 9, 1999

By Carol MacPherson carolm@spokesman.com

Change always has its pluses and minuses.

At Central Valley School District’s two high schools, a change in the grading system has been postponed until fall. Originally, the switch was scheduled to take place at the start of the third trimester in March.

The new differentiated system will translate pluses and minuses on letter grades into specific grade points for students at Central Valley and University high schools.

The delay is due to the continuing upgrade of the district’s computer software, said Jay Walter, curriculum director for the school district.

The software for the grading system would probably be ready to go this spring as scheduled, he said, but it is being put off so computer staff can concentrate on fixing the Y2K problem.

“We have to debug the system … and test it this summer,” Walter said. “It’s (the grading system) one of the things we can delay without causing problems in other areas.”

In the current system, both an A and an A-minus are worth 4.0 points on the grading scale. In the new system, an A-minus will be worth 3.7 points on the scale to determine grade-point averages.

East Valley and West Valley high schools have both used a differentiated system for some time.

The state school board in August adopted a position statement urging districts to use the differentiated system. The system is used at most college and universities as well as on the statewide high school transcripts.

A brief report on the status of the grading system will be made at the Central Valley school board’s meeting at 6 p.m. Monday.

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