In response to regulations from the state’s university system, students will now earn letter grades for aiding.

Student aides, who help teachers in their classrooms, deliver passes and complete other tasks, had previously received pass-fail grades.

But the Kansas Board of Regents, which governs the state’s public universities, changed the way it would evaluate students for admissions. In schools where a passing grade is equivalent to a D or better, that pass grade would count as one point for calculating GPAs. That means that high-achieving students would have their GPAs significantly damaged, potentially hurting their admission to state universities.

So, starting this year, students will receive letter grades for being teacher aides.

This means student aiding, independent studies and any other classes currently pass or fail must now be graded with an A, B, C, D or F. The letter grade holds the same weight for calculating GPA as it would in another class.

“It’s a workable solution,” assistant principal Mike Norris said. “However, I do not believe the Board of Regents should have been able to force it on high schools since it has no authority over public education. It only has authority over the state colleges.”

Most teachers aren’t in favor of the new regulation, but students have a different take on receiving letter grades for aiding.

“I think it is a good idea,” senior office aide Kaitlyn Applegate said. “Since I don’t really do hard work while aiding, it would be nice to get an A and up my GPA.”

The new rule has led to speculation. Considering the probability that students will now want to aid for an easy A, some say aiding should come with certain requirements, such as a minimum GPA.

“It would be kind of nice but at the same time it would be kind of a security blanket if a student has bad grades,” senior office aide Elizabeth Medlin said. “Students will think, ‘Oh, that’s easy, so let’s all be aide.’ So that would be an issue.”

Now that aiding hours will be performance-reflecting grades, the expectations placed on students may change.

“What each teacher requires of an aide might look different depending on the teacher and the course,” Norris said.