Grading Change from a, B, C, D, & F to "Pass" or "Fail"
Dear Principlename, I have recently received one of your letters to my parental units that stated the new school board policy regarding the letter grade change. I understand that we would not be receiving the traditional letter grades, but instead either a “pass” or a “fail.” Personally, I believe that changing the old grading system of “A, B, C, D, and F” would be preposterous and completely horrendous. I am outraged at the fact that we would have just a “pass” and “fail” mark. I believe this because students with a “C” average will most likely be considered the same as a student with an “A” average, many students will become less motivated to actually put an effort into their work, and the students will not be able to receive an average GPA. My first point is that if you change the letter grades to “pass” and “fail,” then because of the what the teacher’s standards could be, the students with a “C” average in that class would be considered the same academically as a student with an “A” average. I believe that isn’t fair to the student with the “A” average because they could work almost twice as hard as the “C” average student and still receive the same grade. The student should be able to receive a higher grade for higher work effort and quality. If a student’s assignment is to write a thousand word paper including ten to twenty vocabulary words for an “A” and one student fulfills that requirement, but another students makes the same paper but only includes six vocabulary words, the student who slacked off on the paper, would receive a “pass” mark and so would the student who met all the requirements. The students who work harder and do a better job deserve a better grade. The second point I will explain is that many students will become less motivated to actually put an effort into the work that they hand in because they can do a mediocre job on it, and still receive the same grade as another individual who puts a lot more effort into it. With