When it comes to grading scales, not all A’s and B’s are equal for students in Ohio.

An examination by the Springfield News-Sun of area high schools found disparities in the percentage that qualifies as a failing grade.

Most local school districts operate on a seven-point scale, where earning an A requires a 93 percent or above. But statewide some schools operate on a 10-point scale, where a 90 percent or above is an A, which can make a difference for students applying for college entrance or scholarships.

While most local districts operate on a seven-point scale that sets the bar for failure at 69 percent, others consider anything below 64 percent an F.

The seven-point scale may initially appear more challenging to earn an A and pass a course, but the differences between grading scales may even out in the evaluation of the student’s work, said Springfield High School Campus Director Chris Shaffer.

A-grade work is A-grade work, he argued.

“Did the kid get it or not?” he said. “If they got it, it’s an A. If not, let’s keep working until they’ve got it. Because that’s really our goal, is to teach it to them.”

While most local district operate on the seven-point system, that’s not true statewide. When local students are seeking admission to college, applying for scholarships and awards, they may be competing against students from other counties and states.

Middletown and the Hamilton school districts both have 10-point scales in Butler County and another Butler County school district, Madison Local Schools, recently adopted the same scale.

“There are different variations of it, but the 10-point scale in some form has become the norm,” said Madison superintendent Curtis Philpot. “For Madison, it was just about putting or students on a level playing field while competing for scholarships and awards.

“I know of at least one Madison student who, while at Madison (under the previous 7-point system), earned all A’s and two B’s. Both of the B’s were grades in the low 90s. This student’s grade-point average would be lower than a student from another school using a 10-point scale who earned exactly the same grades.”

Springfield High School Senior Hayley Stoll said she hadn’t considered if the differing grade scales would play a role in admissions and scholarships but that a more uniform system would benefit students and schools.

“I feel like it’d be easier for colleges too because then they don’t have to configure two different ways for two different kids,” she said. “If they had one for everybody, then it would be more fair for us.”

At Wittenberg University, GPA plays a large role in admissions, but the school takes care to level the playing field created by discrepancies between schools, said Karen Hunt, director of admissions.

“Grading scale, curriculum, how perhaps they do class rankings, we consider all of that when we take that deep dive into the transcript,” she said. “At Wittenberg, the GPA is more than just a number. We try to go beyond that number to understand what the student did in that curriculum.”

Some universities re-calculate the GPA, she said.

Other college admission officials say they look at GPAs when considering students, but they say a well-rounded student is more important.

“The way we do our application review process is to look at the entire applicant in the context of their high school,” said Meredith Smith, the associate director of communication in Miami University’s office of enrollment management. “We consider GPA, difficulty of curriculum, test scores, activities and many other factors. It’s a contextual review.”

Ohio State University considers a student’s completion of the college preparatory curriculum in high school, their high school performance based on class rank or GPA, their ACT or SAT scores “and a number of other factors also play into the holistic review of admissions applications,” says Amy Murray, the assistant director of media relations at OSU.

A school district in Mountain Brook, Ala., surveyed 15 major universities as part of its research into changing to a 10-point grade-point scale. The school learned that the typical GPA (as reported by the college) for an incoming freshman was in the 3.10 to 4.14 range. At the time, Mountain Brook’s junior class average was 3.034, so they switched to the 10-point scale.

The seven-point scale, which requires students to meet a higher percentage to earn an A, might be a benefit in college, Stoll said. She plans to apply to the Art Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio University and Kent State University.

“If you have in high school where you have to work harder to keep your grade up, you’ll be a little bit more prepared for college,” Stoll said.

Despite discrepancies in grading scales, schools can still help their students stand out by offering the options that make them well-rounded students in addition to their GPA, said Springfield’s Shaffer.

“We have every athletic that you can possible imagine, we are probably one of the few institutions that has a class called rock band, and it does create a well-rounded student,” he said. “People are looking today for people who are creative and innovative. They’re not looking for someone who can spit back answers on a knowledge-based test. They’re looking for students who can create something out of bits and pieces of a puzzle.”