What’s the point of graduating high school if a student has nowhere to go? The point of school is to prepare students for the real world, so why are schools so worried about graduation rates instead of actually preparing students?

I’d like to start by saying, as a student, that poor grades fall on the students. In most situations a student can’t blame the school or the teacher. No if, ands, or buts about it. But I do think the system we have is flawed.

In the state of Maryland grades are classified by A (100-90), B (89-80), C (79-70), D (69-60), and E (59-0). An E is failing, but a D is passing. Yes, if you get a 60 or above in every single class for all 4 years, you will graduate high school. All you need is a 1.0 GPA. Combine that with the fact that in Prince George’s County Public Schools, teachers must give a student at least 50% on assessments if they show a “good faith effort,” and graduating high school’s not that difficult.

If all you need is a 1.0 to graduate, it sets the students up for failure when entering the real world. Again, if your grades are low it is your fault. But pushing students out with 1.5 GPAs and in some cases even boosting students GPAs above 1.0 to make the school’s graduation rates look better is absurd.

I think the bare minimum GPA to pass should be raised to at least a 2.5. With a 2.5 students show that they do have some understanding of what’s being taught and this GPA is high enough to get into a decent college, like Bowie State University, and a college degree is becoming more and more needed for today’s job field.

And it’s not like I’m some scholar typing this with college acceptance letters waiting at home for me. With my own idea I would’ve failed a grade before so there’s no bias to my argument. But if someone like me, who would’ve been held back a grade if this idea went through, realizes there’s an issue than you should to.

What’s the point of toting 95% graduation rates if 20-30% of those students are going nowhere?