Fairfax grading system unfair
Printer-Friendly
Email this Letter
Post a Comment (0)
I sat in on a presentation at Centreville High School regarding the grading structure in Fairfax County. Without a doubt, our kids are being penalized for living here.
The short and simple of it all is this: A Fairfax County student achieving B+ grades would be an A student in Arlington, Falls Church, Loudoun and pretty much the rest of the country. A student with a C+ average in Fairfax would be a B student in those same communities. This affects their ability to get into more difficult schools and their opportunity to receive scholarship money.
We have had two of our kids graduate Centreville High School. While we were looking at Virginia colleges, we heard the recruiters proudly spew out the average SAT score, the average GPA score, and the number of applications they receive and the number of spaces they have for incoming freshmen (do the math on the number of kids they turn down). These are the standards they apply when accepting or rejecting applicants.
To these universities, an A is better than a B. Good luck convincing them that a Fairfax B+ is the same as an Arlington A.
Sure, when the college recruiters come to our schools, they tell us that they take into consideration that Fairfax does not grade like most of the other school systems. But I have never heard one of them say that the average GPA of incoming freshmen is a 3.2 because Fairfax holds our kids to a different standard.
We have students graduate every year from our county schools who are forced to attend their “fall-back” school because of this policy. I can understand this to some degree, as not everyone can get into Ivy League schools, either. But I have seen firsthand how kids from other communities have managed to get into James Madison University, who otherwise would not have been considered if they attended a school system with the same grading structure as Fairfax.
So why is it that our children are being held to a different standard? Ask Dr. Dale, the superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, or someone in his office, and you won’t get an answer. They deflect the question to the School Board. Ask the School Board that same question, and they deflect it back to the superintendent’s office.
In the words of Flavor Flav, “WOW!”
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in getting our children into institutions of higher learning. No, the greatest concern is making sure that they pass the SOL tests. I guess once they achieve that glorious goal, our kids are SOL.
If you are the least bit concerned with this issue, you need to let the “decision-makers” know how you feel. Contact your School Board representative, your PTSA president or better yet, let the superintendent of schools, Dr. Jack Dale, know how you feel.
Dennis T. Legendre
Little Rocky Run
You must be logged in to post a comment.