Neillsville School Board Approves Making Transition to Laude Grading System
Thursday, April 18th, 2019 -- 7:40 AM
-The Neillsville School Board approved to transition to the Laude Grading System at their meeting on Monday.Discussion on the switch began around 4 or 5 years ago after some of the district staff and administration attended a grading seminar in the Green Bay/Appleton area. There are many other districts around the state that use this system. Under this new system, it would eliminate class rank, there would no longer be a valedictorian or salutatorian and there would only be honor students. Under the Laude System, a matrix is created that provides points to students depending on the course the student takes. The point range would be from .5 to 1.5. An example of a .5 class/activity is taking 1st place at the State Forensics Competition while enrolled in a College English Course. An example of a 1 point class would be capstone, Algebra II, Physics, Chemistry and more. An example of a 1.5 class would be college courses or AP courses. Students’ points would be cumulative and they would continue to add to them during their entire high school career.
Again, the valedictorian and salutatorian would be eliminated and students could graduate Cum Laude (a score of 16-31.99), Magna Cum Laude (a score of 32-49.99) or Summa Cum Laude (a score of 50 or more.) The graduation determination is based on using the chart with the students’ points and their grade point average. For instance, a student that received 14 points and has a GPA of 3.7 would receive a score of 51.8, meaning they would graduate Summa Cum Laude. It was mentioned at the board meeting that even though the valedictorian designation would be eliminated, the scholarship would still exist and be awarded using this new system.
So, why is the district looking at making this change? Simply because no two students are equal and many students just aren’t challenging themselves. Administration and teachers have found that high school students with high GPA’s aren’t challenging themselves with more rigorous courses because they’re afraid it will hurt their GPA and the may lose the valedictorian scholarship if they’re at the top of the class. The district hopes that student will be more willing to challenge themselves with this new system. Also, this will help students as they decide on what career path they plan to take. For example, a student who plans on entering the work force or joining the military will be graded more efficiently based the courses he/she takes as opposed to a student that plans on attending a tech school or college.
The district has also said they’ve had parents and students ask for this new system and the research and data support it. As for now, the earliest this new system would be implemented would be the 2020-2021 school year.
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