NC Public School Ten-Point Grading Scale

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As most of you know, the public school is transitioning their grading scale to a 10-pt scale. http://www.wral.com/nc-changes-high-school-grading-scale/14036660

In the last few weeks/months, several administrators have contacted the NCCSA to ask what the majority of schools are doing in this regards. Those familiar with higher education realize most universities have been doing this for years. At some point, the complication dealing with student-transfer, scholarships, GPA, college entrance, and other issues will possibly create some hardships for schools that do not follow a similar scale. Because of this, the NCCSA invited a small number of administrators to discuss this and we wanted to relay some of the comments below.

Questions the NCCSA asked a few administrators to consider:

  1. Do you think private schools will need to consider this transition? Why or why not?
  2. Do you think the issue of student-transfer, scholarships, college entrance, GPA, etc., will have a negative effect on schools that do not follow this scale?
  3. If you are considering this transition, when are you considering implementing this?

Statements from NCCSA Administrators:

  1. We have already made the change this past August. We changed only our high school, not elementary or middle school. We changed based on the fact that we had AP and dual credit classes that we felt we wanted on the 10 point scale to match the colleges. We also have a general track for students with disabilities that was already on the 10 point scale. So in order to not have different grading scales at the high school level, we changed to the 10 point. The only difference is we made the D=65-69 and the F 64 and below. We also had did a study on the local private high schools and found most of them at the 10 point scale already.
  2. I did not know Wake County was switching. I do like that our high school students will match for transferring in purposes.
  3. I do not believe we will change our elementary or middle school grading scale at this moment.
  4. We are making the change from 7pt. to 10pt. grading scale for grades 2-12 for 2015-2016. We determined to do all grades for consistency across the school.
  5. It maintains consistency in the grading representations of students transferring to and from North Carolina schools. Ensures that our students are not disadvantaged during college admissions.
  6. We moved to the 10 point scale a few years ago. No negatives. Since higher level institutions were already using it, we felt we would lose no credibility.
  7. _____ is going to make a change in our grading scale. We have not decided exactly what scale we will use, but it will be similar to ______. It will be a sliding scale as opposed to a strict 10-point scale.
  8. We will probably implement the same scale in middle school. Elementary is where we are not quite sure what we will do.
  9. It does put our students at a disadvantage when the same grade earned at ____ can be a letter grade higher at another school. We also offer dual credit classes, and the university that sponsors the credit actually gives the college grade according to their ten-point scale. So…a student can make an 83 (C) at _____ but it is a “B” when issued as college credit. Changing the grading scale will help us be more uniform.
  10. I agree with the general consensus. Mike’s three points reflect my thinking as well. ________ Christian is planning to implement the middle and high school guidelines adopted by our local County School Board for the 2015-16 school term. We have not finalized our plans for the elementary program.
  11. _______ is moving to the 10-point scale for the 2015-2016 school year. We feel it is in the best interest of our students who will compete for scholarships and admission to any of the state colleges and universities. Furthermore, it aligns with our dual-enrollment courses offered by the local community college.

We trust this information is helpful for you as you plan for your next school year. If you have any questions, please let us know.
NCCSA State Office