West Allegheny students may be pleased to learn that the 90 percent they may have earned in a class last year will net them an A grade rather than a B grade this year.

School directors voted 8-0 July 16, with member Ron Pasic absent, to relax the grading scale, eliminate naming a valedictorian in favor of recognizing more top students and no longer publicize class rankings.

Superintendent John DiSanti said he'd heard very little community opposition to the grading system changes.

"It's definitely going to give our students more opportunity to take more courses, and hopefully be treated more fairly by colleges," he said.

Starting this fall, the districtwide grading scale will have lower percentage cutoffs for the assignment of letter grades.

The revised grading scale will make 90 percent to 100 percent an A; 80 percent to 89 percent a B; 70 percent to 79 percent a C; 60 percent to 69 percent a D; and 59 percent and below an F.

Previously, the lowest A in West Allegheny was 93 percent, the lowest B was 85 percent, the lowest C was 73 percent and the lowest D was 65 percent.

Other changes to take effect next year include limiting the type and amount of extra credit teachers may offer, adding some Advanced Placement courses in the high school, placing more information on elementary report cards and giving teachers more tools to help students who earn a failing grade.

Valedictorian and class rank changes will not take effect until 2009-10. When those students graduate, the school district will honor the highest achievers -- between 20 percent and 25 percent -- instead of naming a valedictorian.

Students will continue to be eligible to earn the distinction of graduating summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude.

Class ranks will be available for college and scholarship applications if required, but they will not be publicized as in the past.

During previous meetings, parents, teachers and administrators who supported the changes said that lowering the grading scale would level the playing field for students applying to college because other school districts are increasingly moving toward the 90-80-70-60 scale.