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Editorial mMm
Courses and Grades | Two intriguing proposals were brought to the School Board meeting Tuesday night. Superintendent David Gangel, representing a committee set up to improve the college preparatory curriculum at the high school, proposed that the letter grades assigned to \ numerical grades at the high school be changed to permit higher letter grades With lower numerical grades. 1 At first glance that appears to be heading in the Wrong direction, less rigor in class work. In fact, it won’t really make much difference. It probably makes sense to bring Rappahannock’s assignment of letter grades to numbers in line with prevailing practice in surrounding public schools, however, many teachers have dealt with the narrow band of passing grades in the county grading system by allowing extra credit. Rather than limiting “A”s to those who get from 95 to 100, they have been expanded to apply to grades from 95 to 110, or some such. We suspect that a committee set up to improve * preparation of students for college has more significant work * to do. The second proposal was to explore the possibility of * going to “block scheduling” at the high school. As Principal John Toth explained to the School Board what this means is , extended class periods. Instead of 45 to 48 minute classes, students would be in class for 85 to 90 minutes. Under those conditions students would take fewer classes at any one time, but they could theoretically complete . more classes in a year. Taking four classes each semester, for ; example, instead of six of seven a year. There is no conceivable way to do this that will not extend the school day. If the school day is to be lengthened for high school students, the school system will obviously have to consider how that will affect elementary school students. Young children definitely will need a change of pace if their school day is to be extended. < The alternative would be separate bus schedules for elementary and high school students. Many of the school systems that are going to block scheduling in high school already have dual bus schedules. There are good reasons for trying to accommodate longer class periods. Laboratory activities are particularly cramped by the usual class period. However, the school system is wise to postpone a decision on this until all the ramifications have been explored.
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