Why were eighth graders included in this year's PBL transition if they will go back to traditional grades at the high school?

Answer:
Our goal is to provide our students with the best educational experience possible.  The model we have adopted represents what is widely recognized as best practice in the field of education.  Our current system gives us far more accurate information about what our students have and have not learned.  This information helps us to plan for intervention or enrichment in ways that were impossible in the traditional system.  This will allow us to provide the high school with far more detailed and accurate information about what our eighth graders know and are able to do as they make the transition.

The traditional system that we had been using lacked integrity and was largely inaccurate.  Course grades were often found to be incongruous with performance on standardized tests and local placement exams.  It would have been a great disservice to our eighth graders to keep them in a system that was so inaccurate.

Regardless of the grading scales used at the high school level (in York or anywhere else), our eighth graders will be far better off having gone through YMS with this system.  Our students now have a much better sense of who they are as learners, what their individual strengths are, and areas that need improvement.  They are also building a sense of perseverance, determination, and work ethic.  These traits will only help them to be successful as they transition to high school.