The sixth letter of the alphabet has garnered a certain dread in students for as long as there have been grades, but recently the letter “F” took a brief leave of absence from the grading scale of West Potomac High School.
Instead of allowing the failing grade to present itself on fall report cards, school officials chose to replace it with an “I,” for incomplete.
Additionally, the school changed its disciplinary policy on students caught cheating. Rather than giving a zero to cheaters, the West Potomac administration would simply allow a retake of the test. The idea was not to institute academic penalties on a disciplinary matter, students would still face the full consequences of academic dishonesty but their grades would remain intact.
Peter Noonan, a Fairfax County assistant superintendent, told The Washington Post that the concept behind the change was to make sure all students were not penalized on the same scale because some had a more difficult time learning the material.
The reaction to the change was almost universally negative. Students, parents, and especially teachers from West Potomac and throughout the county believed the measure would not adequately prepare students to face real world consequences.
“In college, if [the students] don’t do their work, they will fail, but if they aren’t given any ‘F’s, then they don’t need to do their work. So West Potomac is preparing them to fail,” said junior Claire Cuddihy.
Teachers also felt the policies were unfair to themselves as well as the students, and were meant to encourage teachers to give better grades, allowing for students who put in less-than-satisfactory effort to pass.
“I was so angry, I wrote a letter to the editor of The Washington Post,” said English teacher Marilyn Harriman.
Five days after the changes were announced in an article in The Washington Post, West Potomac withdrew its new policies on failure and cheating, and reinstated their old grading scale. School officials cited the swath of negative reactions by parents and teachers as the main reason for the switch back.
The measure is defeated for now, however, the aspects of artificially raising grades have been creeping up in the school system for years. Fairfax county lowered the intensity of its grading scale last year, albeit to conform to the standards of schools around the country. Grade inflation has also been attributed to rising college acceptance standards, with many students now applying with straight “A”s. The extra point added to grade point averages by Advanced Placement classes has also lead to ambiguity in deciding the Valedictorian; many schools are simply having 10 or 12 of them rather than picking just one.
Grade inflation is still advancing, but the catastrophe that ensued will likely keep the F around for now. The ill fate of the measure was nicely summed up by US History teacher Brian Heintz.
“An odious bargain with sin.” Heintz said.
