As of the meeting on March 10, the Gretna Public Schools Board of Education has officially decided that the grading scale for the district will officially be changed to a 10-point grading scale starting with the 2025-2026 school year. This decision comes after years and years of having the six-point grading scale for most secondary school classes in GPS.
“We looked around at all the other high schools in the area, the colleges and the universities and we compared their grading systems to our grading systems,” President of the school board, Rick Hollendieck said. “The majority of them, if not almost all of them, were on the 90, 80, 70 percent scale.”
Alongside this change to the percentages of grades, GPS will also separate from the numerical form of grading. Instead, students will receive their grades in the commonly used letter format, A through F. While this may seem like another large and sudden change to the environment of Gretna Public Schools, just like the new furniture rules implemented for next year, the idea of this change has been circulating throughout the school board for quite some time now.
“It’s just tough to change,” Hollendieck said. “Our standards are high and we want to keep them high for a reason, but we also want to be fair to all of our students when it comes to potential scholarships and opportunities. We felt that changing it down to this new grading scale would help our kids.”
Keep an eye on Gretna Media for more stories and information on the change in grading scale.
Caitlyn Cheleen contributed to this story.
