The Northeast Dubois School Board held their monthly board meeting last night.
Outside of usual business, Northeast Dubois Junior-Senior High School Principal Dr. Tara Rasche made a presentation on possibly changing the grading system that is currently in place.
Rasche proposed using a weighted grading system. Rasche explains that the weighted grading system not only rewards academic achievement but also rigor.
“Our AP and most of our dual credit courses carry extra weight which means there’s a possibility of getting over a 4.0 in a certain class. So technically a student could graduate with a 5.0 or a 4.6. It’s still on a 4.0 scale but what it does is reward the rigor of the academic program and academic success. Not just one or the other. I think a lot of times class rank would honor the academic success and not pay much attention to the academic rigor. The weighted grading system does both.”
Rasche says that this grading system will help all students achieve academic success without fear of losing something like a scholarship.
“A student needs to think about his or her career pathway. Are they gonna go to college or are they going to enter a certain career that needs a certain course? A lot of times, a student might need physics or might need calculus or might need a certain science or psychology, but they’re afraid to take it because they don’t want to damage or hurt their GPA and class rank.
“That could technically hurt their chances of getting certain scholarships so they might shy away from those where this way with the new system hopefully will encourage them to take the classes they actually need. Not just the ones to say their GPA.”
The board said that they would look more into this system and they would return to discuss it at the next meeting. If this new system would go through, it would affect the class of 2023 first.
An update on Winter Events Attendance was approved.
On Senior Night, Senior’s grandparents will be allowed to be present in the crowd. Also, Cheerleaders are allowed to cheer at home games.
