Gabriela Cassar

Miss Hammitt
Journalism
Dear Michelle Phillips,
After reading your article A new standard of grading on page five in 2014s October
issue print edition of the BHHS Hawkeye, I became eager to write you this letter because Im a
fan of this new grading scale. Your article did a fantastic job explaining Standards-Based
Grading (SBG) by explaining the positives of this new grading scale and getting teachers
opinions.
As a BHHS Junior Im often assessed by my teachers using this system and at first I
wasnt a huge fan of it but Ive grown to like SBG compared to the traditional percentage
grading scale. You described SBG as a new system of grading that focuses on a students
individual improvement throughout the system rather than focusing on specific test scores that
represent a number percentage. Your definition perfectly describes the positives of SBG
because it says how one test score doesnt ruin students grade as a whole.
Also, I think this grading scale gives teachers the time to get to know their students skills
and see what they need to improve on. When teachers are grading a student using Scantron tests
and traditional grading theyre not looking at what the student needs help with in class theyre
just getting a percentage. We all know is that everyone makes mistakes and what I love with this
grading is that mistakes can be made and fixed without ruining students semester grade. In the
future I hope to see more teachers accessing their students using SBG at BHHS.