Persuasive Essay

I wrote this in Thompson's class.
Your principal is considering a new grading policy that replaces letter or number grades on report cards with pass or fail. What is your position concerning this issue? Write a letter to your principal stating your position and supporting it with convincing reasons. Be sure to explain your reasons in detail.


“Mom I got a 4.0;” The common statement for a kid who works hard and is responsible for his stuff. What if the grading policy got changed and it transformed into a pass of fail. Some kids would like and some wouldn’t. I don’t. If you work hard all term and get an A+ and some other kid just copies off you to “pass” the class. If you change the grading policy test scores will drop, there will be more lazy passengers just there to do nothing, and you have no idea actually how well or poorly in a certain class. There will be many bad consequences.
To start off, test scores will drop dramatically. Students will start to think that there only goal is to get a “P” for pass and that’s all they will work for. When this happens there only goal is to slide right by and do the littlest work just to pass the class. I have seen many people right now that just sit there until there grade all the sudden drops from a D- to a F, then, as if somebody fed them a gallon of caffeine they start working to get there grade back up to a D or C. This is one of the severe consequences that will pertain if you change the grading scale.
Secondly, people will do nothing but wine and cause trouble. If students aren’t actively working they will find something else to do, it might not always bring goodness to the classroom. Teenagers need something to do so they go around distracting the kids that are responsible and are trying to do the best that they can. If you change the grading scale even the kids that are trying to do the best that they can do will drop from the distractions and freak-outs that the teachers will have as a result of immature kids. Bad consequences are bound to occur with changing the grading scale.
Finally, when you get a “P” or an “F” you don’t know how exactly how well you did. As I have mention before if you get a C you can still pass the class. I have done well in school and would never know if I was still perfecting my school work. I like to look at my scores and grades and see if I need to kick it up a notch, so I could get an A. I would never know. I do not like the idea of changing the grading policy.
In conclusion, changing the grading policy will have many bad consequences. Grades for tests will drop dramatically, there will be lazy troublemakers, and kids that want to see the best for their future can’t determine whether or not if you did as well as you would have liked. Would you regret it, if your school dropped to the lowest rank in scores?