Students and staff give their thoughts on VHS’s grade from Niche.com

Grades, a system implemented in many high schools. Whether you love them or hate ‘em, they’re inevitable. Even the school itself has been evaluated with a grading system. Niche.com gives schools of all levels an overall grade, as well as scores in specific categories, such as diversity, sports, and food. According to niche.com, they have data scientists and user researchers who analyze dozens of public data sets and millions of reviews from various websites. VHS is one of the schools that got evaluated. However, as many people feel about their own grades, it may not be truly accurate. 

Overall, VHS was given an A-. To some students, this may seem fair. Referring to the categories on Ventura High’s report card, freshman Elonah Boyd commented, “I think for most things it’s pretty accurate.” At first glance, she seemed to agree with the website, but Boyd followed up her statement by noticed, “the food is surprising. I’d think it would be lower.” She wasn’t alone in this observation. Ventura High was given a B minus in food, which did not go over well with some students. 

Junior Deegan Hendricks and sophomore Jack Edwards are among some of the students who strongly disagree with the food grade. When reading Ventura High’s report card, Edwards expressed, “The food is the most surprising to me. I would give it like a D because of the lunch line in the cafeteria and the gross taste.” Hendricks added, “The food is just atrocious, it’s grade should be a lot lower.” 

Although the food wasn’t met with positive approval, some people believed that multiple categories were lower than expected. The resources and facilities category was ranked a C. Senior Anthony Tabrizy believed that to be too low. He said, “I thought that the resources and facilities would be at least a B.” 

When asked to give Ventura High School an overall grade, most students responded within the B range, however a few details seemed to hold them back. Hendricks concluded, “I would give VHS something within the A minus-B plus range because a lot of teachers are pretty nice, but it’s really lacking in a lot of things. Administration is not as good as it could be.” While the administration score left Hendricks uncertain, Tabrizy noticed another aspect, the clubs and activities, which was graded a C plus. He commented, “I understand the clubs because we have a lot of clubs, but not a lot of people go to them. I think the food should be a lot lower, but the academics seem right, the teachers seem right, and most everything else seems accurate. Overall I would give Ventura High School like a B plus.” 

These students gave us their points of view, so now it’s time to think of what we can do to improve their concerns. Whether or not VHS deserves an A minus, its students and staff have their opinions on the pros and cons of the environment. It takes effort from not only the administration, but the kids as well. If the students listen to the teachers, and the teachers to the students, improvement is not out of reach.