As the Federal Way community knows, I am and have been advocating for a plus/minus grading system over an ABCF grading system for some time now.
However, to date the ABCF grading system still remains in effect.
That said, I am now asking that each Federal Way School Board member as our elected representative comment in writing in the Federal Way Mirror answers to the following questions with facts, data and evidence (note: not one collective board answer) no later than May 1, 2018, so that the Federal Way community at large can determine whether the ABCF grading system is a superior and a more beneficial grading system for our sons and daughters as compared to a plus/minus grading system.
How does the district’s grading system support the best interests of our sons and daughters better than the traditional plus/minus grading system?
How does the district’s grading system motivate students to strive to reach a next level grade when that next level grade is unachievable because the spread between any two grades is too far apart?
For example: If a near-end semester student grade average is 3.30 (B) and the next higher grade of 3.50 (A) is not possible because there are not enough lower-tier evaluations to reach 3.5, what motivates the student to continue to achieve when that next higher grade is unachievable because the spread of points between grades is too large?
Why under the Federal Way district’s grading system should a higher achieving student receive the same grade as the lower achieving student: e.g., a 3.49 class average and a 3.0 class average both equal a 3.0 GPA (a near half point difference)?
How does the district’s grading system not overly inflate or deflate a grade? (e.g., a class grade of 3.49 receives a B like a 3.0 GPA; again, a near half difference).
How does the district’s grading system support our students who compete for entry into universities and for scholarships by awarding our students a lower grade resulting in a lower GPA for the same and sometimes higher quality of work than students that use the plus/minus system?
How does the Federal Way district’s grading system accurately represent the achievement differences between student performances?
I believe for each Federal Way School Board member that does not publish their answers to these questions, then those non-responses would speak volumes about those elected school board representatives and would be an admission by the non-answering school board members that trying to prove that the district’s grading system is more beneficial and supportive than a plus/minus system to our sons and daughters is simply indefensible, and thereby by default, the district should revert back to the plus/minus grading system.
Frank Comito, Federal Way
