I-Team 8: Making the Grade

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - If you're about to help a teenager through college, you're no doubt learning how much that's going to cost. But what if a policy many Indiana school systems use ends up costing you in other ways; maybe keeping your child from attending the school they deserve?

What if a difference in grading scales means your child's A’s, B’s or C’s measure up differently than your neighbor's child in another district across the street?

Many Indiana schools no longer use a traditional ten point grading scale where 90% and up is a A, 80% and up is a B and so on. In some it’s much stricter. At Shelbyville Central High School if you get a 94, you're only getting a B+. Your grade point average says, "Ouch."

Sophomore Jordan Achenbach admits it seems harsh: "Yeah, sometimes, but it just gets you to work that much harder to get that A or A+," she says.

There's a big grading scale discrepancy across the state; even within counties. The difference between school systems in Hamilton County even prompted one Hamilton Southeastern High School student to build a Facebook page for students to complain about it.

In Carmel if you get a 92, that's an A. In Hamilton Southeastern a 92 is a B.

That's why some students worry colleges won't realize that when considering admissions or those hard-to-get scholarships.

"If your GPA isn't high enough you'll definitely be affected," said Patrick Reidy, a senior at Fishers High School .

A lot of his friends worry they might just miss a scholarship with high B’s in a strict scale to a student with low A’s in a more relaxed scale.

"I definitely think that if you're not in AP (Advanced Placement) or honors classes which can weigh your grades that they're at a disadvantage," Reidy says.

Cross White River into the Carmel Clay District and you’ll get a different take from Adam Leibold. Carmel High School's grading scale is the more traditional ten point scale. But he's not convinced a lower scale gives him any advantage.

"No, I don't think it does just because I think our curriculum is a lot harder at Carmel than it is at other schools," said Leibold, a senior. "So I think it kind of balances each other out."

Shelbyville Senior Abby Wood will attend Eastern Illinois on a softball scholarship.

"If you get a 94 at Shelbyville it's a B," Wood reports. "But in college, you're getting an A so it pushes you to work harder, but in the long run you'll benefit from it."

But others, like Shelbyville Senior Sam Miller said the scale has cost them already.

"Some colleges I wanted to get into I haven't been able to get into because of my GPA, but if they would have had the 10 point grading scale here I probably could have gotten into the colleges I wanted to get into," said Miller.

Colleges consider A students' SAT scores, GPA, class rank and the type of college prep courses they take when focusing on admissions or scholarships.

"We're certainly not just going to look at a GPA and say 'no' based upon that," assures Chris Foley, Director of Admissions for IUPUI .

"So we're very used to encountering how a school might judge what an A is just numerically. We do that not just between high schools. We do it with students from other states," said Foley.

Eight states have already mandated a statewide grading scale; Arkansas, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Others have been considering it. Should Indiana? The state's top boss for schools isn't convinced.

"The issue when it comes to grading may or may not be standardized grades," said Dr. Tony Bennett, Indiana's Superintendent for Public Instruction , "But how do we help develop a system of grading students that truly measures student achievement?"

Dr. Bennett believes teachers should accurately grade students' work regardless of a scale. He won't commit to looking at a statewide scale.

"We all have managed it, in one way or the other, to try to figure out how best to understand if the student is going to meet our standards and if they're going to succeed on our campus," reminds Foley.

Neither Carmel Clay nor Hamilton Southeastern has any plans to tweak their grading scales. But, the Shelbyville Central School System is now worried its students may be at a disadvantage after all. The district is surveying parents to see if they want to lower the grading scale; the school board will consider it next week. The Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation is also looking to lower its grading scale. A meeting to discuss that is March 16.