A+ Grading Scale

By Student Reporter Michael O’Donnell

The talk around the water bubbler in the Cedar Grove-Belgium school district consists of an interesting yet controversial topic. This topic is whether or not to give our A+ grading scale the boot and lower it to a mediocre A grading scale.

So what does this exactly entail? The concept is exactly as it seems. Instead of students being able to achieve a 4.34 for an A+, the highest one could get would be a 4.0 for an A. Simple enough.

Many students are not thrilled with this change. “Students want to strive for an A+ rather than a plain A because it makes report cards look better,” states senior Leyla Berlik. James O’Donnell, a junior, says, “It’s dumb. What is going to make people want to work hard for just an A?” The A+ thought process makes sense to the students of CG-B High. It seems many students feel hard work deserves a sufficient reward, and rightly so.

Several departments at CG-B High are already making efforts to create a more distinguished line between an A and A+ in an attempt to keep A+s a reality for students.

Physical Education teachers, for example, have instituted a new form of grading into gym class. This new grading system takes form in Heart Rate Monitors.

Heart rate monitors are monitoring the pulse of a touchy subject in the world of Physical Education at Cedar Grove High school. As of this year, students in gym class are required to wear a heart rate monitor to, well, monitor their hearts. These monitors consist of a strap that is positioned right in the center of the chest with a wrist watch that computes the beats of the heart.

The monitors are used by the gym teachers to keep an eye on the students, making sure they are working out hard enough during class. Although it may seem like a good idea, a lot of the student body is not fond of them. Many students say that they are more of an inconvenience then a help. “It makes no sense” says Nicole Kluck a sophomore “They’re uncomfortable and pointless.” Others, like Ashley Turnquist, indicate that wearing heart rate monitors is a small price to pay if it keeps A+s in the mix.

What is it that makes these monitors so hated? Just the fact they are uncomfortable? Or is it that students actually have to work to get that ever so elusive A+ in Physical education? All in all, what’s done is done. No student can change the new way of grading with a heart monitor.

The feeling that students have toward this whole change is outwardly visible. The new forms of grading at CG-B are not warmly welcomed. The students do not seem to have the drive to back this up. The thing is, the students have little to say in the overall decision, so it’s left to the big guys in suits and ties to decide the fate of upcoming school years.