On Thursday, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools central office will present its new ill-conceived grading policy to the school board. I would urge all parents to oppose this policy and voice their displeasure to the school board.

This proposal does nothing to increase student skills or increase student learning. Instead, this poorly written policy will lead to grade inflation and teacher frustration for our high schools.

This proposed policy was introduced to us during teacher appreciation week (which further demonstrates the administrations disdain for the teachers), and, although we had little or no input, we will be expected to implement this proposal.

This policy makes the following statements:

• If a student does not reach mastery of an assignment, or if a student misses an assignment, the student will receive an "I" (for incomplete). The student must "fix" the assignment until mastery is reached. Mastery was never defined.
• Teachers must accept all late work. However, the teacher can assign a punishment for work that wasn't turned in on time.
• The lowest grade a student can earn is a 61 percent. This policy will cover all exams and finals (even the EOC). If a student answers nothing on an exam, that grade is a 61 percent.

A number of concerns were not addressed in this hastily written document. For example: what is the time frame for changing the Incompletes to Fs? How long does a student have to make up the work? Does a student receive a 61 percent for cheating? How many I's make up an incomplete class? When does an incomplete class become an F? Why are students not turning in homework? Where are the resources to manage students who do not turn in their work? Does this help students learn how to be responsible?

The only thing this policy does is show the contempt that the CHCCS central office has for teachers. The administrators assume that we use homework, laboratories, tests and other assignments as tools of punishment, not for learning. In addition, the CHCCS central office cannot see the possible consequences of its actions.

A consequence of this incomplete grading policy is grade inflation, which can only decrease the school profile in the eyes of university-college admissions staffs. In fact, Jessica Hernandez, a director of admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told me that the school system is moving in the wrong direction. Her statement implies that the curriculum is getting less rigorous. In fact, she told me that this policy would reflect poorly on students who apply to UNC from our district.

Wake Forest recently removed the SAT/ACT scores from its admissions criteria, making the school profile more important. Since a vast majority (82 percent) or our students go to a four-year college after high school, this grading policy would announce to all prospective colleges that we are lowering our academic standards and would hurt our students acceptance rate. We should want to make our school better, not weaker.

On Thursday, please speak out against this proposed grading policy. Tell the school board that this policy is not educationally sound. As always, the teachers at Chapel Hill High School will fight for the education of our students.