Those of you that know me personally have probably heard me rant about differentiation at some point, and the effort to de-track the school system (that is, having all students mixed together in the classroom, as opposed to separating them into Advanced, General, AP, etc.). But now I’ve come to rant about the school’s grading system in particular. Now entering my sixth semester in high school, the grades I’m about to earn will be the most influential in determining what college I can get into. So first, an overview of the Charlottesville City Schools’ grading system:

On the right, I’ve highlighted my current AP US History grade (”C”). On the left, I’ve highlighted the grade I would likely get were I to switch down a level in history. Now, the basic principle behind the weighted-GPA (making higher level classes worth more points) is to encourage people to challenge themselves and take more difficult courses. Their reward: a higher GPA. Yet for me, this system has become the only reason I’d ever consider not taking an AP class. As you can see, the difference between these two highlighted grades is 1.25 points, yet it’s virtually the same student putting in the same effort to get these two different numbers.

In short, I’ve done what the school wants me to do: challenge myself - and now the school’s punishing me for that with a lower GPA.

Normally, I’d say, “Who cares about my GPA - I’m learning more in the AP class, so I’m sticking with that” (And that’s still technically my stance). But my parents have become worried that a C in history is going to hurt me getting into the college of my choice. So, the situation I’m in directly concerns my GPA. I find it very difficult to justify spending an hour more per day on history (sacrificing the fact that I’ve been more happy this past quarter, not worrying about grades as much, than I can ever remember being), when I could raise my GPA even higher by simply switching into Advanced US History, without any change in effort.

This leads me to something my parents always say to me. I’m always told that they don’t judge me based on what other kids are doing, just on my work alone. Theoretically, if I’m getting a C in history right now, I’d be getting it no matter who else was in my class. Unfortunately, grades are like Capitalism - they’ll stabilize things out on their own, but it often has unwanted side effects for certain parties.

To put it bluntly, half the kids in my class cheat. Whether it’s looking at their siblings’ corrected quizzes beforehand or simple plagiarism, a large proportion of the class has an unfair advantage over me. Now, if suddenly all the quizzes changed and no one could cheat anymore, there would be a whole lot more C’s and D’s in my class. Suddenly, I’d be in the top half, not the bottom. Either through curves or changes in test difficulty, I wouldn’t have a 75 any more - probably closer to a low B [For a more extreme example: if the highest grade in a class is a 72, the teacher's going to make than into an A, no matter how strict they are - it's just a simple fact of the school system].

Thus, if you try to use my grade or GPA to compare me “just to me,” it’s virtually impossible to do so. Any grade a student receives is always related to the rest of the class - and in most cases, the cheating that occurs there.

And I’m sorry to say that, I don’t have a solution for this. There’s no academic movement for this type of thing, since no one’s thought up a better system. We’re stuck with it, unless we want to turn the education system upside down. Good luck…