By Morgan Buerke and Kelsy Goodwin, Reporters
The rumors are confirmed: Kaneland is considering switching to a 10-point grading scale.
Does that mean classes be easier to pass?
“[Switching would be a] good thing,” junior Tyler Fabrizius said. “Kids now working for that 93 can work for a 90. Everyone’s GPA will be higher.”
Yet Assistant Principal Diane McFarlin said that it’s false that classes will be easier–they may actually be harder.
She said that while students may perceive a new scale as making classes easier, teachers are currently working on developing new curriculum and techniques that will make classes more rigorous. Grading has already begun shifting to put more focus on summative, rather than formative, assessments.
Summative assessments, such as tests and essays, are designed to measure student learning. Formative assessments include things like daily homework and tend to measure student effort.
One goal is to make sure that grades better represent students’ mastery of the material, rather than how hard they tried.
“It’s what you teach and how kids learn that matters,” said McFarlin.
“The key is instruction.”
Whether the high school will switch grading scales depends on what is decided by the curriculum committee, which is doing research to determine whether the 10-point or 7-point scale is better for Kaneland.
Thus far, McFarlin said, the committee has found no specific reason to choose one scale over the other.