AI to present talent show • Arts for Individuals will present the annual talent show on Feb. 19. The show will begin at 7 p.m. in the auditorium and the admission will be $5.
NHS inducts 33 members • The Nancy Gail Moore chapter of the National Honor Society recently inducted 33 new members. Student leaders Maggie King, Mali Khan, Olivia Slagle and Amy Turlington, all seniors, and faculty members Anne Hafer, Angela Perry and Brenda Gorsuch conducted the ceremony. The new members include senior Heather Bradley and juniors Hannah Astin, Samantha Byrd, Samantha Creech, Isabelle Denman, Leah Dorn, LeighAnn Devore, Madison Duran, Kaitlyn Farina, Kendall Guilliam, Julianna Goode, Olivia Hogan, Evan Langsdorf, Nadine Langsdorf, Hannah Grace Lemacks, Natalya Lundsford, Kealey McDaniels, Alexis Morse, Rebecca Olson, Tatianna Olson, Isabella Perron, Stephen Perron, Kayla Petri, Rachel Raasch Ari Sen, Savannah Smith, Samantha Stanley, Emily Turpin, Caroline Ward, Justin White, Alexis Whiteside, MaryKent Wolff and Kiersten Woodring
Mock Trial team competes
• The Mock Trial team, sponsored by social studies teacher Brian Brewer and local attourney James W. Gorsuch, traveled to a regional competition on Feb. 7 to compete against Hickory Christian School and Hendersonville High School. Juniors Leah Dorn and Ari Sen received Star Attorney awards and junior Ethan Stepp received two Star Witness awards and a Best Witness award.
Club members visit school • FCCLA members visited Mills River Elementary School on Jan. 22 to participate in an after-school program. The club read to students at Mills River and worked on crafts with them.
Musical presented at West • The drama department will present the annual spring musical, The Boyfriend, March 26-28 in the auditorium. Tickets, $8 for adults and $5 for students, will be sold at school the week before the show and at the door before the show begins at 6:30 p.m.
Make the grade
State board approves 10-point grading scale for next year
by | Josh Conner
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or decades high school students in North Carolina have received course grades based on a seven-point scale, but starting next fall, B’s could be A’s and C’s could be B’s. The State Board of Education has voted to implement a 10-point grading scale for all high school students beginning with the 20152016 school year. Originally, the board approved the change for freshmen entering high school next fall, but school superintendents and parents from across the state asked the board to reconsider because of the problem that would be created by having one group of students on a scale different from the all the other students in the same school. “The superintendents saw that there could be an issue when it came to grades,” Principal Dean Jones said. “They stood united and said we either needed to do it for all or for none. It’s going to be much easier on teachers. If you have two students with a 91 and one has a B and the other has an A, how would we fairly distribute those grades.” Educators believe the new grading scale will help students who are planning to go to college as most colleges follow a 10-point grading scale. High schools in states surrounding North Carolina, including Virginia, already use a 10-point scale. The new grading scale could help students raise their grade point average (GPA), a measure commonly considered by colleges in the admissions process. A student maintaining a 91 average would currently receive a B, but next year the student would receive an A. “It brings us in line with the majority of schools in the country who have a 10-point grading scale,” senior guidance counselor Anne Hafer said. “It will look better in terms of their final GPA when
they make that application. Right now our students have been at a disadvantage because they are making a 90 or 91 and are making a B, so they are not looking as good on college applications.” Senior Sam Polovina, who has applied to colleges like the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, believes students will benefit from the new grading scale. “I think personally the new grading scale would help me relax with a larger margin of error,” Polovina said. “I wish this was implemented while I was at West.” With a change in the grading scale may also come a change in standards teachers use while grading classwork. English teacher Matt ParSam Polovina ent believes the scale will Senior change his judgment of his students’ work. “My standards as far as what A work looks like will have to be higher, but as far as my teaching goes, it won’t change,” Parent said. Some teachers are looking forward to the change next August. English teacher Laurene Carnes went to schools that used a 10-point grading scale and believes students will benefit from the change.
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I think personally the new grading scale would help me relax with a larger margin of error. I wish this was implemented while I was at West.
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‘Credit by Demonstrated Mastery’ option coming by | Katlyne Featherstone
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ophomore Rebecca Reesor stared blankly at the wall. She stood patiently waiting for everyone to get the technique down. They were learning how to do piqué turns in dance class, but she already knew how to do them. She enjoyed her class, but she already knew the majority of what the students who had never danced before were learning. This semester students will have the option to earn credit for a course without taking it. Interested students will be required to pass a test that covers the standards of a course with a 94 percent or above and complete a product. This concept, Credit by Demonstrated Mastery or CDM, is being introduced by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The State Board policy says that “CDM is to ensure every student has the opportunity for the most rigorous and appropriate courses of study based on academic progress and need.”
Visual arts teacher Kelly King likes the concept of testing out of classes for her students, but she thinks they will miss out on necessary instructional time in the classroom that cannot be replaced by a test and product. “I like the idea of the option of individual students to begin in a higher level of art class, but I don’t like the idea of getting credit for an entire semester of class by taking one test and showing five to 10 pieces of artwork,” King said. “The student will miss out on information, techniques, guest artists and other valuable experiences.” Testing out of a class also raises the question of how colleges will react to CDM credits earned by students. “I don’t know how they’re going to react to this because it is obviously something new in the state,” gifted specialist Angela Perry said. “I certainly don’t think their reaction is going to be negative. As of right now, I’m kind of in a wait-and-see pattern. Let’s see what happens after the first year.” The National Collegiate Athletic As-
sociation has already said it will not accept course credits earned by CDM. If a student tests out of a class, he or she will receive a ‘P’ for “pass” on a transcript rather than a letter grade. These grades will not be calculated into a GPA. Students cannot receive honors credit through the CDM process. Perry said she is “pro CDM” but thinks there are some downsides when it comes to core classes. “If you are CDMing core classes, then you are not getting instruction, and what’s even worse is on your transcript it says basically that you CDMed it,” Perry said. “You lose out on the honors credit, and I’m not so sure how some of these colleges that many students aspire to go are going to feel when someone applies and half their transcript is P instead of A.” Perry also sees the positive side of giving students the option to test out of elective courses. “This will mainly benefit students who are very proficient in any of the arts classes,” she said.
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