10-Point Grading Scale

  • The North Carolina State Board of Education has approved a standard 10-point grading scale that will go into effect for the 2015-16 school year for all students in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. Local school districts are required to follow the new scale at the high school level (grades 9-12) and have the option to apply it in the lower grades, if desired. 

    The WCPSS Board of Education has chosen to apply the new grading scale to both middle and high schools (grades 6-12).
     
    The new grading scale will be applied only to coursework completed during the 2015-16 school year and beyond; grades from prior years will not be altered to fit the new scale.

    With the new scale, letter grades and grade-point averages will be calculated as follows (NOTE: The GPA calculation applies to grades 9-12 only): 
     
    A: 90-100 = 4.0 
    B: 80-89 = 3.0 
    C: 70-79 = 2.0 
    D: 60-69 = 1.0 
    F: < 59 = 0.0 
     
    These grades will be reported on the student transcript as numeric grades, rather than letter grades as have been reported in prior years.

    In addition to the grade scale change, new standards for quality points will take effect for students entering high school for the first time in the 2015-16 school year and thereafter.  This change will not affect students who entered high school prior to the 2015-16 school year.

    The new quality points standard will provide an additional 0.5 quality point to Honors courses and one (1) additional quality point to Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses, community colleges courses or four-year university or college courses taken in high school. This new standard provides the same additional quality point to all college-level coursework.