<p>Agree that a 90 is a B+ so rounding would have made no difference and it’s not unusual not to “round” up or down… A 90 as an A is a tad bit inflated…</p>
<p>The school should have a written grading policy. </p>
<p>“Agree that a 90 is a B+ so rounding would have made no difference and it’s not unusual not to “round” up or down… A 90 as an A is a tad bit inflated”</p>
<p>My kids went to two different high schools, one in Florida and one in California. At both schools, there were no ‘plus’ or ‘minus’ grades, just 90-100=A, 80-89=B, etc. No inflating or deflating, just how it was. Big difference between an 89.9 and a 90.0</p>
<p>I think the way to think of it is that 90 is an A-. You have to reach at least 90 to get that grade. Picture it as a line and even 89.9999 is not above the line. Conceivably anything at or above an 89.5 could be rounded up but then what would be the point of having an A- represent grades over 90? It is very frustrating. The only solution would be to have grades reported to the tenth or hundredth place. (My elementary school did that in the 50’s and the result as a lot of stress for some reason, because that denotes a hyperfocus on grades versus learning.) </p>
<p>Main point is that a kid with an 89.913 learned the material with some mastery and possibly some interest, and worked relatively hard. Best solution is to remember that grades arent the goal, learning is- in an ideal world.</p>
<p>ps my apostrophe key is not working!</p>
<p>Here’s my opinion: if the school has no rounding policy, either the teacher is a jerk or the kid is a jerk.</p>
<p>Edited to add: they could both be jerks.</p>
<p>I’m a teacher - I wouldn’t round. But for us, 93 is an A. In the era of nearly instant grade reporting, students know precisely the grade the have and calculate what they need to achieve on finals to keep a letter grade. There is a world of difference between an 89 and a 99, and you have to draw the line somewhere. The student should have been more proactive about the grade before the final grade was tabulated. JMHO.</p>
<p>Personally, I would round if there was no policy against it (and did, when I was teaching). There may be a world of difference between an 89 and a 99, but there isn’t a world of difference between an 89.9 and a 90. The world is tough enough on all of us without being so picky.</p>
<p>That’s why I like the 100 point scale. Ours is single integer. My kids both got into “desirable” (according to CC) schools, and I never worried between an 89 or a 90 or a 91. Changing the letter from a B to and A just seems to add meaningless distinction. </p>
<p>The line has to be clearly defined. If window for a B grade is 80-89%, what happens when student does better than 89 with a 89.9% grade? 89.9% exceeds B window of 80-89%, should student be awarded grade better than B because he exceeded 89% threshold? School needs to tighten things up and not have a moving target grading system that is up to whim of teacher.</p>
<p>I agree–there should either be rounding or no rounding as a matter of policy. Then there are no issues of power plays or favoritism–at least, not based on rounding disputes.</p>
<p>It’s frustrating but within the teacher’s rights. </p>
<p>If you don’t like it, do better next time. </p>
<p>I have seen on my daughter’s college syllabus things like A is > 92 to make the rounding issue very clear upfront. I never saw stuff like this on High School syllabi or in High School policies. My daughter’s HS teachers did round up - so 92.51 was a 93 - but they also used a 100 point scale. A friend did tell me about his son’s disappointment with the only B on his report card (I don’t think they had + or -) which was a 89.something that was not rounded up.</p>
<p>I’d like to see the expression on student’s face when professor tells student with 92% final grade he is not getting an A because you need >92 per syllabus! What might seem very clear might not be. :)</p>
<p>In my (college) classes I consider every student who is on/near a grade border individually. Did they have one low exam but all others were high? Did they attend all/most classes? Did they have assignments missing altogether? If I feel like they deserve rounding up, I will. Otherwise not so much.</p>
<p>I hate it whe those B++++'s turn into B’s on report cards! Our school system has A=90-100, but all grades are reported on the report card as numbers 1-100. The GPA is calculated to a million decimal points which gives all the scientists in our house a laugh since everyone knows you can’t have more decimals in the answer than were in the original data. </p>
<p>I think the kid is out of luck if there is no policy. Presumably the teacher didn’t think the kid was doing A work.</p>
<p>Life does not round up. Your get hired or promoted because you are outstanding, not because you are inching toward the standards. In football you break the plane of the goal line, the ref doesn’t care if you got .999 of the way.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the big deal is. If this is the only or just one of few B’s, I doubt anyone will care. And if some scholarship or something does want all A’s, then they probably wouldn’t want someone who got mostly 90’s or 91’s.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessary to have a rounding policy unless all teachers make all tests and assignments the exact same difficulty year after year. The average grade isn’t going to change as much from a change in the rounding policy as it probably does from teachers have some tests some years be harder than tests in other years. Not sure if that makes sense or not.</p>
<p>Also, depending on how you interpret GPA, I think does make sense to add more significant digits than what was in the original data. It’s different than plugging in data into other formulas.</p>
<p>As someone said earlier, it is irrelevant whether they round up or not. </p>
<p>Eventually there will be a grade that is .00001 below the arbitrary cutoff that becomes the lower grade.</p>
<p>The teacher may also feel that he or she has already “cushioned” the averages by giving points for homework or an extra credit assignment. If there are some easy points in there, a student whose grade comes to a 89.91 probably has a pretty convincing B + on tests and quizzes. The rationale there would be that the homework grade already raises the kids who are borderline on tests a half grade, but if you can’t quite get to that threshold even with some points for effort, it is because your performance wasn’t actually borderline at all. </p>
<p>In any case, as others have said, you have to draw a line somewhere. If you round up an 89.91, then the student with the 89.84 just missed the cut. If you round at an 89.5, we have the same question with the 89.45. </p>