THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160493
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
The School Board voted Thursday to delay a decision on how to recognize the top high school graduates and whether to change its middle and high school grading scale, which determines the value of each letter grade.
The board will discuss the issues at its retreat later this month and reconsider them at its March meeting. Board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III said the matter was not urgent.
A proposal from a committee of educators, student representatives, parents and coaches - with a nudge from Superintendent Richard Trumble - called for the district to abandon the custom of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian in each of the district's three high schools, beginning next school year.
The brightest students would instead fall into three groups: summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude. The two students with the highest and second-highest grade-point averages traditionally are named valedictorian and salutatorian.
One of the committee's main goals was to find a way to recognize more academically talented students, administrators said.
The same proposal called for the district to change parts of its grading scale to more closely mirror those in neighboring districts. Doing so would level the playing field for scholarships and college admissions, students and parents have said.
In Portsmouth, an ``A'' is now given for scores of 95 and above, compared with a 92 in Newport News, 93 in Norfolk and a 94 in Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach, for example. by CNB