September 20, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
Students do not have to work quite as hard to get the same letter grade as last year thanks to a new state law.
The new grading system for high school students went into effect for the 2022-23 school year statewide. The change was not mandated for middle and elementary schools, but the DeKalb Board of Education last Tuesday night decided to make it apply district-wide for third through 12th grade for consistency throughout the system and amended the grading system policy (4.600) accordingly.
The new grading scale is as follows:
— An “A” is now 90 to 100 (formerly it was 93 to 100)
— A “B” is 80 to 89 (formerly 85 to 92)
— A “C” is 70 to 79 (formerly 75 to 84)
— A “D” is now 60 to 69 (formerly 70 to 74)
— An “F” is now 0 to 59 (formerly 0 to 69)
“Schools shall use the uniform grading system established by the State Board of Education. Using the uniform grading system, students’ grades shall be reported for the purposes of application for post-secondary financial assistance administered by the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation,” according to the policy.
“This grading system shall be uniform throughout the school district for each grade 3-12”.
Tennessee lawmakers said the previous grading scale presented challenges for families.
“It was brought to my attention by some constituents that Tennesseans were at an academic disadvantage relative to students from other states,” said State Representative Charlie Baum (R-Murfreesboro). “That’s because students in other states are on a 10-point grading scale and students from Tennessee had been on a seven-point grading scale.”
Tennessee’s previous grading scale meant getting a 92 in Kentucky was an ‘A’ while getting a 92 in the Volunteer State was a ‘B.’ The letter grades then negatively impacted students’ grade point averages. Every state that borders Tennessee is on a 10-point scale.
“The idea for this bill was brought to me by military families in Clarksville that have children who have transferred to Tennessee schools from another state with a 10-point grading scale, automatically causing those military students’ GPAs to go down,” stated State Senator Bill Powers (R-Clarksville). “In some instances, this has resulted in lost scholarships.”
“We don’t want our constituents and their students who are in high school to face an academic disadvantage when applying to colleges or a financial disadvantage when applying for scholarship money,” said Baum.