Charles students may have a slightly easier time getting an “A” in the future.
The Charles County Board of Education met on Aug. 13 to discuss new grading scales that will be implemented, with some scales varying on what grade level a child is in.
Kevin Lowndes, the chief of teaching and learning for the school system, gave a presentation that discussed adding elementary school guidance to the grading policy, grading scales and weighting.
The new suggested grading scale for prekindergarten to second grade would make it so that 84.5% to 100% would be classified as meeting expectations, 69.5% to 84.4% would be considered progressing and 69.4% and below would mean that the student needs improvement.
Third through 12th grade would adopt a new grading scale if the changes come to fruition.
An 89.5% in a subject would be considered an “A” with the changes, while under current policy, the cut-off sits at 90%. The minimum a student would have to achieve for a “B” would be 79.5%, 69.5% for a “C” and 59.5% for a “D.”
The school system also seeks to add a minimum grade of 50% if a student shows “good faith effort,” per the recommendation of the grading committee.
Without a 50% rule, board members explained that it would be near impossible to bring up an extremely low grade, even with efforts to get caught up.
“It’s helping the student recover,” school board member Samichie Thomas said.
“I don’t want to overlook the cons of it, because it’s grade inflation. People could think that,” Dottery Butler-Washington, board member, said. “I don’t want to lose what we’ve built so far … just making sure we’re taking all of this in.”
“There’s other options between giving the grade the student earned and giving the 50%. I’d like the board to consider that as we move forward. … There is an opportunity for students to game the system a little bit,” school board member Michael Lukas said.
The board seeks to have an actionable item on the new policies by their October meeting.
In other news from the meeting, Charles County’s early college enrollment is projected to be up from last year, with 145 students expected to be in the program as opposed to 137 last year.
In the 2023-2024 school year, students in the county took a total of 2,741 Advanced Placement tests, up a staggering 1,125 from the 1,516 taken last year.
From the 2021-2022 to the 2022-23 school year, there was only an increase of 117 additional AP tests taken.
The amount of passing Advanced Placement test scores dropped slightly with all the additional tests, going from 52% in the 2022-2023 school year to 49% in the 2023-2024 school year.
Additional comments submitted on renaming school
The school board reviewed two additional emails on renaming General Smallwood Middle School as a part of its ongoing process to gauge community sentiment.
William Smallwood, once Maryland’s governor, owned slaves in the 1700s, prompting some to call for the school name to be changed.
One of the emails reviewed read, “What if we educate our children on the history of the person and what was good and bad? History is history, do we wipe it away and act as it never happened? To spend any amount of money on this is a real waste when our teachers are underpaid, the buildings need work, the students need mentoring and mental health services. I have an idea, rename all the schools to just numbers then maybe no one will be offered! Let’s move on and quit trying to satisfy a few, you have bigger issues to deal with!”
The other said, “As a taxpayer in Charles County and the mom of a student who attended Smallwood Middle School for three years from ‘95 to ‘98, I vote to leave the name as is. The money can be spent on so many other important needs of our county schools. A name change is unnecessary and a waste of money.”
The cost of changing the school’s name could span anywhere from $64,500 to $124,500, with most of the variance coming from the type of outside sign the school chooses, according to a school system presentation. A traditional sign would cost about $10,000, while an LED digital sign would cost upward of $70,000.
Other potential costs include $35,000 for exterior school lettering, $3,000 for school graphic window film, $10,000 for school plaques, $1,000 for school banners and $5,500 for athletic uniforms.
The board expects to make a decision on the issue soon and is still accepting comments.
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