At the end of last school year, The Beacon’s “Graph of the Month” writers wondered why students’ grade point average (GPA) jumped 0.7 points for the class of 2018 between their freshman and sophomore years. Most likely, the increase is due to the imposition of an inauthentic grading system which dropped the value of assessments from 75 to 40 percent.

As DCPS strives to increase graduation rates and help students get into college, it has massively inflated students’ grades. DCPS does students a huge disservice by causing us to not be conditioned for college, where students’ test scores account for a vast majority of overall grades.

In the 2015-16 school year, DCPS started using an inauthentic grading system. With this grading system, assessments account for 40 percent, practice and application account for 50 percent, and participation accounts for 10 percent of the final grade. Before this huge inflation, the grades were much more authentic. Assessments counted for 75 percent (almost double what it currently is), homework counted for 10 percent, and classwork 15 percent. This meant that even if you did all of your work, you would still have to average at least a 90 percent on your assessments in order to get an A.

Now, if you average a 100 percent for both practice & application and participation categories, which account for 60 percent of each advisory grade, but you only average a 55 percent for your assessments, you get a total of 84 percent. Because of this enormous grade inflation, the class of 2018 was able to boost their GPAs. Now, getting an A or a B is really just like completing a checklist.

Several teachers have indicated multiple times that this new grading system should be redesigned or even changed back to the original grading system of assessments being worth 75 percent of your grade. Math teachers have particularly emphasized that the main reason that students are unmotivated to study for exams is that they know at the back of their mind that they will get a decent grade as long as they show up for class and complete all of their homework on time.

If DCPS continues to inflate grades like this, its students will not be mentally prepared for the academic rigor of college. Your assessments, especially your final exam in college courses, account for a vast majority of your overall grade. For example, the Math 1021 College Algebra course at Louisiana State University (LSU) uses the following grading system: 10 percent Participation (5 percent for class participation and 5 percent for lab participation), 10 percent Homework, 10 percent Quizzes, 70 percent tests and exams. Additionally, the Math 1108 course at the University of New Haven has the following grading system: 55 percent for five exams (100 pts each) and 20 percent for the Final Exam (all exams are 100 pts each) and 25 percent for Certification of lessons achieved through the certify section. Given that these types of grading systems are used in college, it is worth considering modifying the current DCPS grading system.