Grading Scale Percentages by School District: A–F Cutoffs Compared
If you move from one U.S. school district to another, your letter grades can change even if your percentage scores stay exactly the same. An 89% might be a B+ in one district and a B in another. A 92% might be an A− in one school and a B+ in another. The reason: grading scales vary by district.
This page lists the grading scales used by 20 major U.S. school districts and several common grading-scale types, so families can compare what each system means for college applications and GPA reporting. For a companion tool that computes your cumulative GPA under any scale, see the GPA Calculator. For help understanding how weighting interacts with your grading scale, see Weighted vs Unweighted GPA.
The three most common grading-scale types
Before the district table, three scale families cover the vast majority of U.S. high schools:
10-point scale (standard). A = 90–100, B = 80–89, C = 70–79, D = 60–69, F = 0–59. This is the most widely used system, especially in large urban districts. Many districts using a 10-point core add plus/minus subdivisions: A+ = 97–100, A = 93–96, A− = 90–92, and so on. The GPA Calculator supports both the plain 10-point scale and the plus-minus variant.
7-point scale (strict). A = 93–100, B = 85–92, C = 77–84, D = 70–76, F = 0–69. Found in some competitive suburban and magnet districts. This scale makes it harder to earn an A or B, which can disadvantage students applying to colleges that recalculate GPA onto a common scale. Some 7-point districts combine it with a plus-minus split: A = 93–100, A− = 90–92, B+ = 87–89, B = 83–86, and so forth.
Weighted-only adjustment. Some districts report only a weighted GPA (adding 0.5 or 1.0 points for honors/AP/IB courses) and do not publish a separate unweighted scale. In practice, their unweighted scale is often a 10-point or 7-point base, but the transcript may omit it.
Grading scales at 20 U.S. school districts (2026 snapshot)
| District | Scale Type | A (%) | B (%) | C (%) | D (%) | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City DOE | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 65–69 | No |
| Los Angeles Unified | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Chicago Public Schools | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Miami-Dade County | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Houston ISD | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Fairfax County (VA) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Montgomery County (MD) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Gwinnett County (GA) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Wake County (NC) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Orange County (FL) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Clark County (NV) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Dallas ISD (TX) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| San Diego Unified (CA) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Broward County (FL) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Hillsborough County (FL) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Palo Alto Unified (CA) | 10-point +/− | 93–100 (A) 90–92 (A−) | 87–89 (B+) 83–86 (B) 80–82 (B−) | 77–79 (C+) 73–76 (C) 70–72 (C−) | 67–69 (D+) 63–66 (D) 60–62 (D−) | Yes |
| Seattle Public Schools | 10-point | 93–100 (A) 90–92 (A−) | 87–89 (B+) 83–86 (B) 80–82 (B−) | 77–79 (C+) 73–76 (C) 70–72 (C−) | 67–69 (D+) 60–66 (D) | Yes |
| Philadelphia SD | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Prince George's County (MD) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
| Duval County (FL) | 10-point | 90–100 | 80–89 | 70–79 | 60–69 | No |
Source: individual district handbooks and grading policy documents as of mid-2026. District policies change; verify with the district website.
Why plus/minus matters for your GPA
A plus/minus scale adds more grade points per letter, which changes the arithmetic of GPA calculation. Under a plain 10-point scale without plus/minus, an A is always 4.0, a B is 3.0, a C is 2.0, and a D is 1.0. With plus/minus, the typical mapping is:
| Grade | GPA Points |
|---|---|
| A | 4.0 |
| A− | 3.7 |
| B+ | 3.3 |
| B | 3.0 |
| B− | 2.7 |
| C+ | 2.3 |
| C | 2.0 |
| C− | 1.7 |
| D+ | 1.3 |
| D | 1.0 |
| D− | 0.7 |
If an 89% is a B+ (3.3) in your district but would be a B (3.0) at a school without plus/minus, that 0.3 difference per course adds up over a transcript. Six courses × 0.3 = a 1.8-point difference in total grade points. That gap grows larger if you have honors or AP weighting on top of the base scale.
What this means if you are applying to college
Colleges know that grading scales vary by district. Most admissions offices do not compare your GPA against a student from a different district without accounting for the scale. Many recalculate your GPA onto their own common scale during the review process. They may strip plus/minus distinctions, add them back, or apply a completely different conversion table.
For this reason, your transcript's listed letter grades matter more than the percentage behind them. Admissions readers typically see the letter grade first; they may never convert a 92% that was called an A− back into the percentage range if the transcript only shows letters. Choosing courses that let you earn consistent letter grades within your district's scale is often more important than optimizing percentages that admissions may not see.
If your district uses a stricter scale than most, your school profile (the document your counselor sends alongside your transcript) should explain that. Ask your counselor whether the profile calls out the grading scale explicitly. A school profile that says "grading scale: 93–100 = A" prevents admissions readers from misinterpreting a B+ as a signal of weaker performance.
Use the GPA Calculator to enter your actual letter grades and see what your GPA looks like under different scales, both weighted and unweighted.
Side-by-side: the same percentage under two scales
To make the impact concrete, here is what a student with these percentage grades would see under a 10-point scale vs. a plus/minus scale:
| Course | Percentage | 10-Point (Plain) | 10-Point (+/−) |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 92% | A (4.0) | A− (3.7) |
| Math | 89% | B (3.0) | B+ (3.3) |
| Science | 94% | A (4.0) | A (4.0) |
| History | 87% | B (3.0) | B+ (3.3) |
| Spanish | 91% | A (4.0) | A− (3.7) |
| Elective | 96% | A (4.0) | A (4.0) |
| Unweighted GPA | — | 3.67 | 3.67 |
In this example the two scales produce the same GPA — but only for this particular set of percentages. If the English grade were 93% instead of 92%, the plus/minus scale would give an A (4.0) instead of an A− (3.7), and the plus/minus GPA would edge ahead. The point is not that one scale is "harder" than the other; it is that plus/minus systems create more GPA variation than you might expect from a transcript that otherwise looks identical.
Why grading scales differ by district
Grading scales are set at the district or even individual school level, not by any federal or state mandate. The most common reasons for variation:
- Tradition. Many 7-point scales date to an era when a 93+ was seen as a marker of truly exceptional work. Districts that adopted the 10-point scale later — often in the 1990s and 2000s — were responding to concerns that the 7-point scale disadvantaged students in college admissions.
- Alignment with neighboring districts. When one large district switches from 7-point to 10-point, smaller neighboring districts sometimes follow to keep their students competitive on the same transcripts that admissions officers see side by side.
- Plus/minus as a compromise. Districts that resisted switching from 7-point to 10-point sometimes adopted plus/minus instead — keeping the A cutoff high but softening the boundaries so an 89% no longer carries the same penalty.
- State-level guidance. A few states, including Texas and Florida, recommend or mandate a uniform grading scale for public high schools, which is why their large districts consistently show the same 10-point pattern in the table above.
The practical takeaway: your grading scale is mostly a function of where you live, not a reflection of how your school measures achievement. The same student body, with the same percentage scores, would produce different-looking transcripts in different districts.