Thank you, Alex Cole, for your Jan. 5 letter regarding the Federal Way School District’s new standards based grading system. It’s about time someone brought it up. It’s the “elephant in the room” that no one is talking about.

It’s common sense that “outside influences” should be a part of a student’s grade. With standards based grading, homework cannot be graded and neither can attendance be “held against” the student. What is left is how the student performs in the classroom. That is not real life experience. Upon graduation, future employers will expect good attendance. Will employers give raises based on “employee met standards?” I think not. Federal Way parents should have been in an uproar when this grading system was introduced, but as young Alex stated in the letter, it was introduced very quietly. It’s like the district was hoping no one would notice.

One of the problems with this grading system is checking students’ grades online. Parents are left cocking their heads to the side trying to figure out what the grades mean. Unless you have a Ph.D. in education, the grading system makes no sense to most parents. Parents want to see grades and they want to see percentages so they know exactly how their students are doing. They do not want to see “met standard.”

Standards based grading is not a grading system that is beneficial to students. Let’s hope it is abandoned next year while Alex is in the eighth grade.

Pat Wilson, Auburn