We, the under signed, think that the grading system at Souhegan High School should be changed. We do not think that the Expectations grades should be converted into percentages or letter grades. Report cards and progress reports should only include narrative grades.

                  According to Merry Yue Cai, a professor at Columbia University, grades are “over-emphasized.” Because of letter grades, students learn to the test. They are too worried about grades to be inquisitive and test out their own theories.

                  The advantage of this new system is that students would be able to see what areas they needed to improve on. Students would be graded on whether or not they learned a skill rather than just getting bad grades for not understanding something.

Also, as stated by an article on News Herald, “… individual competition for grades may be out of place, interfering with teacher efforts to meet student learning needs and counter-productive in preparing students for post-school employment.” Students learn better without letter or percentage grade. They would focus on what they were learning rather than the grades they were getting. Students will also be better prepared for their jobs because employers give feedback, not grades, to their employees.