Dear Mr. Martinez,
Hello, Mr. Martinez. I am Justin W. and I am writing to talk to you about an issue you may have heard about: the replacement of letter grades with just a simple Pass/Fail system of assessing a student.
My advice to you is to keep the more precise system of letter grades. I shall weigh the pros and cons of using the letter grade system. This will allow you to see that the positive effects of the letter grades are far greater than the negative ones.
Mr. Martinez, my first point of view supporting the letter grade system is that this way of evaluating students is more accurate. Without the letter grades, there would be no difference between a lazy, barely passing student and a hardworking “A” student. With the letter grading system, the hardworking students are separated from the barely passing ones, making the good students feel confident that they are well above the passing score. The barely passing students also get the idea that they need to improve their grades. This leads into my next point.
This next point is motivation. If the letters were replaced by the Pass/Fail system, there would be an overall drop in percentage grades, due to the lack of motivation. With the letter system, there is a major difference between “A” and “D” grades. With that, the good students know that they are doing great and above average, and that they need to keep up the awesome effort for the grades to not drop lower. The mediocre students see their grades, and know that they have to work harder to raise them. Mr. Martinez, you should know that some people might argue the Pass/Fail system would allow the mediocre students to feel better about their grades, because only a “Pass” would appear on the progress report. However, it could be very likely that the student would not know that he was only barely passing, and would not work as hard. This lack in motivation could easily change the Pass to a Fail.
My last point in convincing you to keep the letter grading system is related to the previous point. With more motivation and competition to see who has the highest grade, students try to improve and beat the kid one letter grade higher. The “F” students try to pass the class. The “D” and “C” students strive to get slightly above average. The “B” students try to get to the top of the grading system, and the “A’s” try to stay there. If students were assessed with a simple Pass/Fail, they wouldn’t know when to improve, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have the motivation to do so.
So, Mr. Martinez, as you can see, the letter grading system strongly outweighs the Pass/Fail one. With the letter grade comes a definite increase of overall GPA. I really hope you can see this situation from my point of view. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter.
Sincerely,
Justin W.
