Emily Goodnight’s acceptance into Utah State University this December was bittersweet.

The school is Goodnight’s top choice, but the Marshall High School senior was frustrated the university did not grant her admission into its business school.

Goodnight’s standardized test scores were more than adequate, but Utah State requires at least a 3.5 grade point average (GPA) for admission to its business program. The Vienna resident, an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma candidate, has a 3.3 GPA.

ACCORDING TO GOODNIGHT, Fairfax County’s grading policies are partly responsible for her rejection. If she attended school in Arlington., Goodnight would probably have earned a high enough GPA to be automatically accepted into the business program, she said.

Instead of the more widely used 10-point grading scale, Fairfax County Public Schools operates on a six-point grading scale, requiring students to earn a 94 percent, instead of 90 percent, to acquire an A in a class.

The Fairfax school system also only awards a half-point weight on the GPA scale for Advanced Placement and IB courses while many other comparable school systems, like Arlington and Montgomery County, award a full point.

Fairfax County gives no additional weight to honors courses. Again, many school systems allot a half or full-point bump in the GPA scale for an honors class.

"On a 10-point scale with a one-point weight for my IB classes, I have more than the 3.5 required for admission to business school," said Goodnight.

THE STUDENT’S father, Chuck, added that Fairfax County’s grading scale could cost his family $48,000 if Utah State decides not to reconfigure his daughter’s GPA for a merit-based scholarship.

The university automatically awards the money for students with 3.4 GPA, a standard Goodnight would meet if her grades are calculated on a 10-point grading scale with the heavier weights for advanced coursework.

"I am considering moving to Montgomery County if they don’t do something. Staying in Fairfax County costs me money," said Chuck Goodnight, who has son entering high school next year.

SCHOOL BOARD members are leaning toward adopting new policies that reflect national trends in grading scales and weights following a year of intense lobbying from the citizen advocacy group, FAIRGRADE.

Over the past several months, FAIRGRADE has called for the school system to adopt a 10-point grading scale and adding points for honors, IB and AP classes to more adequately reflect the policies of other school districts. Parents and students argued that Fairfax County graduates have been missing out on scholarship opportunities, admission to honors programs and overall college acceptance because their GPAs were artificially deflated when compared to students from other areas.

During a work session Jan. 12, the School Board indicated it would mostly likely vote to increase weighting for Advanced Placement (AP) and IB courses from a half-point to a full-point on the GPA scale at its next meeting Jan. 22. The change would apply retroactively to students already enrolled in AP/IB courses this year.

"In hindsight, there is a price that may have been overlooked. … Our kids may not be on a level playing field in terms of merit scholarships and honor programs," said Superintendent Jack Dale, who recommended the change.

THE SCHOOL BOARD also seemed to be in favor of increasing weights for honors courses.

Dale said the school system would have to review which classes the extra weight would apply to and probably could not make the change until the start of the next school year. Some classes should probably carry the extra weight but are not explicitly considered "honors" courses currently, according to the superintendent.

"In addition to honors, we have ‘pre-IB’ and ‘ pre-AP’ courses. … We have some courses at [Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology] that don’t fall under any of those categories but that should probably carry the weight," said Dale, who was in favor of adding the honors weight.

BUT the superintendent and a few School Board members pushed back on converting from a six-point to a 10-point grading scale.

Dale said no conclusive evidence was available that the six-point grading scale hurt Fairfax County students during the college and university admissions process.

Most School Board members appeared to be leaning toward changing the grading scale anyway, particularly after more than 800 members of FAIRGRADE showed up to the Jan. 8 School Board meeting to advocate for the change. Dale also did not articulate clear reasons for keeping the six-point scale and so several School Board members said they felt as if there was "no harm" in changing it.

"There seems to be little to lose? Little downside?" said School Board member Brad Center (Lee) at the work session.

Board members will review various permutations of the 10-point scale, like those that do and do not include letter grades with pluses and minuses, and indicated that they would probably adopt a new scale for the start of next school year.

SOME SCHOOL BOARD members had been concerned about the School Board adopting extra weighting for advanced courses like AP, IB and honors without changing the grading scale as Dale had suggested.

They said they were concerned such a move would only help high-achieving students without providing relief to those on the lower end of the grade spectrum.

"If we were only to change the weighting system and not the grading scale, the bell curve would further widen. We would be separating higher achieving students from lower achieving students even more," said student School Board member Arvin Ahmadi, a Thomas Jefferson junior.

Others members mentioned that some evidence shows that a 10-point grading scale improves drop out rates among African American and Latino students when compared to a six-point grading scale.

Some were also concerned, due to public outcry over the issue, the parents had lost confidence in the county’s six-point grading scale.