By AILEEN ROCHA, Staff
SCHUYLER, Neb. (January, 2025)—At Schuyler Central High School this year the grading scale changed for the students.
One reason for the change was based on a need, “To match up with the colleges’ 10-point grading scale. Since we offer numerous dual credit courses, we wanted to ensure that if a student gets an A on their college transcript that they’s also get an A as well on thier high school transcript,” Superintendent, Dr. Bret Schroder said.
A failing grade last school year was anything below a grade of 70% and this year it has been changed to 60%.
Another change is all classes will only have grades in two categories, Practice and Assessment, worth 30% and 70% of a semester grade respectively. “It’s so all classes assess students in a similar manner,” Schroder said.
. Schroder pointed out another reason for the grade book changes was based on student GPAs. “A lot of scholarships have a GPA requirement, this would effect the playing field for our students when going up against students from other schools while applying for scholarships,” Schroder said.
The new grade book category changes are not just happening at Schuyler Central High School. They are a current trend in Nebraska education.
Sophomore Arantza Catalan and Sophomore Jason Perez, sophmores, both agreed that the new grade scale improved their grades the first semester.
“The new grading scale change has made me try harder in classes,” Catalan said. She continued by saying that the change also helped her push herself to get her assignments done sooner.
“The new grading scale did make it easier for me,” Perez said, “It does motivate me to study and complete my assignments.” He also thinks that the change is helping him prepare for possible harder classes in college.
“The most challenging part about this change is having to study more for each test since they are worth 70% of your grade,” Catalan said.
She also said that the change has helped her understand what she needs to work on to get better in classes. “This has helped push me to study and turn assignments in on time, which is a big skill I’ll need in college,” Catalan said.
The district’s main focus behind all the changes is, “To ensure that different teachers are holding students to the same grading expectations,” Schroder said.