A, B, C, D, F—wait, what? Why is there no E in the grading system?
Here’s Why You Never Got an E on Your Report Card
Updated on Apr. 30, 2025
Not to toot my own horn, but 100 years ago, I was pretty much a straight-A student in school (yep, total nerd). But whether your report cards and transcripts contained mainly A’s, B’s, C’s or even the occasional F, I can pretty much guarantee that you never received an E.
But wait—why is there no E in the grading system? Well, I was curious about this—and I’m guessing you are now too! To get to the bottom of this, I reached out to renowned educational researcher Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, professor emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. Read on to learn something interesting.
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What are the origins of the letter grading system?
Grades have not always been given in letters. At Yale University (one of the first schools to attempt a formal evaluation system for students, according to online learning platform StudySoup), beginning in the 1780s, grades were given in Latin: optimi, second optimi, inferiores and pejores—which translates to quality, best, worse and worst.
At many other institutions way back when, including William & Mary College in Virginia, grades were expressed as numbers or percentages. The problem with grading on a scale from zero to 100, according to Guskey, is “the impossibility of getting any consistency in the way teachers are grading, with a scale that had 101 discrete categories of student performance.”
The letter grading system is believed to have originated at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In 1897, the school adopted an A-to-E system: The A was equivalent to 95% to 100% (Excellent), B was 85% to 94% (Good), C was 76% to 84% (Fair), D was 75% (Passed) and an E was anything below that (Failed).
In time, other colleges and universities adopted the letter grading system, which ultimately spread to K–12 schools as well.
Why is there no E in the grading system?
The answer is that there is no definitive answer. “This is probably one of the most frequent questions I’m asked in presentations on grading,” says Guskey. “I can find no documentation that indicates exactly why.” However, he explains, in the 1930s, many universities began changing from using A, B, C, D, E to A, B, C, D, F. “There has been speculation that there was this sort of general misunderstanding among students that an E represented Exemplary [or Excellent]—which is kind of odd, because none of the other letters stood for anything.”
But as a result of that misunderstanding (or wishful thinking), the university system replaced the E with an F, “because F was unmistakably Failure.”
Public schools in the K–12 community were a bit behind college and universities in implementing the standardized A–F system, according to Guskey. They started in the 1950s, and by the 1960s, he says, “it was pretty much universal that everybody was using A, B, C, D and then F.”
How do grades differ around the world?
Grading systems vary significantly around the globe, and many countries don’t use letters at all. Here’s a quick rundown, according to Study Portals, of how school in other countries make the grade:
- The U.K. uses a classification system in which First-Class Honours is the highest, roughly equivalent to 70% or higher.
- Germany and Switzerland have numerical systems, where 1 or 6 represent the best grades, depending on the country.
- India uses a percentage-based system, with 90% or higher considered exceptional and 50% considered passing.
- Australia combines letter grades and Honours classifications, with High Distinction being the highest, usually 85% or above.
Each system reflects different educational philosophies—some favoring competition, others emphasizing mastery or holistic assessment. “What we have to understand is that letter grades are just labels attached to categories of student performance,” Guskey says. “And so the set of labels you choose doesn’t really seem to matter very much.”
Why are some classes weighted?
At many schools, grades for courses that are thought to be more academically strenuous (like Advanced Placement classes) are weighted, meaning their value is adjusted to reflect their difficulty or importance. Here’s how that started, according to Guskey: In the 1940s (or maybe earlier) in American high schools, there were three tracks: the “academic track” for kids who were well-to-do and college-bound; the “vocational track,” which was for young men who were going to go into professions, like electrician, plumber or mechanic; and the “commercial track,” typically for young women who were going to become typists, stenographers and bank tellers.
“The reason we have weighted grades is there was a fear among high school administrators at the time that someone from the commercial track or the vocational track just might become the class valedictorian—and we didn’t want that,” Guskey says. “So we designed weighted grades for the academic track to purposely discriminate against the students on the vocational and commercial tracks—and it persists to this day.”
How can the grading system be improved?
“There’s a sort of ‘going gradeless movement’ in some places around the United States—this idea that letter grades are evil and corrupt,” says Guskey. “But I am a strong advocate of grades. I think that they’re really important and an essential aspect of feedback to kids.” That being said, there’s always room for improvement.
Greater consistency in the grading process is key, he says. “When we ask teachers, or parents and families and students, about their greatest concern with regard to fairness and grading, the No. 1 issue that they consistently identify is inconsistency among teachers in the same schools.”
Also, Guskey notes, “parents never say, ‘You’re expecting too much from my kid.’ They say, ‘What are you expecting?’ and so teachers need understand that it’s clarity that makes a difference.”
So the next time you glance at a report card, or help a kid decode theirs, remember: Whether it’s a satisfying A or a dreaded F, what really matters isn’t the mark—it’s the message behind it. And the message to administrators and educators? Be clear. Be consistent. And maybe, just maybe, be open to rewriting the rules. After all, if we can lose an E, we can certainly make other changes.
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Sources:
- Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, professor emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky and author of 30-plus books, including Grading with Integrity; phone interview, April 16, 2025
- Study Soup: “History of the Letter Grading System”
- Mount Holyoke College: “Know Our History”
- Study Portals Masters: “Key Grading System Comparisons”
