By Zachary Burd ‘19, Editor-in-Chief

Newark Academy considers itself to be an academically demanding school, and on the surface, our community seems to be overwhelmed with work. It has gotten to the point where students are flocking to yoga sessions and teachers are bringing in therapy dogs to assuage stress about classes.

But at the end of the day, the majority of students receive favorable grades, atypical of the challenging classes that we take. Is it the fault of overly generous teachers? Is it because of the format of our grading system? Or is it simply due to the hard work of the students?

According to last year’s grade distribution for juniors published in the Newark Academy Profile, the mean, median, and mode of grades from all academic departments are solidly an A-. And in all departments, the most common grade was either an A or an A-. Only about 7% of all grades received were below a B, the midpoint of the grade range, while 64% were an A or A-.

And data from the 2013-2014 profile (the only other readily available data) indicates that grade inflation has increased of late. The average grade then was a B+ and 10% fewer of grades were an A or A-.

However, it is important to note that each set of data only includes the grades of one class of students for one academic year, and that older students tend to get higher grades at NA.

All of this is not to disparage the blood, sweat, and tears that many students pour into their classes. Undeniably, NA students have strong work ethics—all-night study sessions may be the only activity everyone shares—that manifest in widespread success in nationally recognized programs like the Scholastic writing competition and the National Merit Scholarship.

And many students and teachers don’t see everyone getting top grades as an issue. Humanities teacher Mr. Hawk does not believe grade inflation needs to be solved. He says, “There is no broad agreement, either among schools, teachers, or students, as to grading practices. If you look at what is graded, how it is graded, and who is doing the grading, there is almost no agreement about what is appropriate. If you cannot agree on even the scale you intend to use, it is pretty pointless to start making fine comparisons or to claim grades are somehow inflated. Thus, while grades are a pretty terrific measure of achievement within one of my classes, it is pretty darn hard to use them for measures outside of my classes.”

But the problem with the glut of A’s is not that they make grades too high, but that they make them too similar. Grades, irrespective of whether they are A’s or C’s, lose their value if everyone gets them; a college admissions officer looking at our school’s grade distribution will likely not be impressed with a transcript with an A- average.

Part of this problem is that NA students are not being properly motivated to strive for the highest levels of success. Many students, with an eye on crafting a photogenic transcript, only work hard enough to get an A- for the year. The current grading system acts as their accomplice in this tactic, allowing someone with an 83 (B) in the fall and a 93 (A) in the spring to escape with an A- year grade. These students have no incentive to work harder, as someone with a 99 (A) in the fall and a 92 (A-) in the spring receives the same end grade. Meanwhile, someone with a B+ in the fall has no motivation to try for an A as opposed to an A- in the spring, as they will end up at an A- nonetheless.

The student handbook says in defense of the system, “The grade for the spring semester—due to its greater length and recency—will serve as the tie-breaker.” But there is something inherently wrong about our grading structure when both of these hypothetical students, with very different sets of grades, end up at the same place. It is clear that the current grading system needs immediate and comprehensive reform.

One proposal is to transition to a jointly number and letter based system, where the weighted numerical average (based on the number of days in each term) is taken of the fall and spring grades, before being converted into a letter to go on the student’s transcript. This proposed system would make grades a better reflection of students’ true work in a class. But it is not without administrative and ideological problems, and it would not address the majority of the grade inflation issue. However, it would solve the motivational problem by rewarding the students who get a higher numerical grade within the range of each letter grade.

The most obvious solution to grade inflation is forced grade deflation, a draconian measure where only a certain number of students can get an A per class. This would be unpopular and difficult to implement, though, as many fear such a system would turn the academic atmosphere into a cutthroat one, where students are uber-focused on every decimal point of their grades.

As Mr. Hawk argues, “The greatest danger in pursuing [a solution to] ‘grade inflation’ is that it tends to suggest that grades are what matters most in a high school experience . . . If we were to revise our grades to increase the academic competition within our walls, we would be making it harder for ambitious students to focus on being excellent athletes, artists, engineers, scientists, politicians, debaters, entrepreneurs, innovators, and all of the other amazing things they do.”

Another option is to add the A+ to the current grading system, which would fight grade inflation without artificially lowering some students’ grades. Benefits of this proposal include better recognition for the top students in a class, as a 99 and a 93 average for the year reflect a vast disparity in academic success, but are represented by the same grade under the current system. It doesn’t make sense for a student to be hurt by falling below the A threshold of 93 but not able to benefit by greatly exceeding it, especially considering we already have both pluses and minuses for B’s and C’s. “I think it would be a good idea to implement A-pluses at Newark Academy,” student council Vice President David You ’19 says, “as it would incentivize students to work harder for the higher grade and it would also help them stand out for college admissions.”

The administration’s absolute commitment to the current letter-based grading system is problematic in this time of grade inflation. The NA community needs immediate, open discussion on this pressing issue, regardless of whatever solution is decided upon.