To me it's a poor system for the fact that it attempts to apply meaning to grades that may not be accurate. If a regular excelling student slacks off, they may go from excelling to developing, when developing is exactly the opposite of what's actually happening.
I say this as someone who won the 'most improved' award in my grade several years running, for the fact that I slacked off early in the year and and put in a lot of effort late in the year, and I'd see improvements in my grade from B- to A every year. I was essentially being rewarded for my own bad habits.
Keep it at percentage marks, or at the most, at letter grades. Trying to apply more qualitative words to these grades is simply misleading, suggesting that more analysis is being put into their performance than what is actually happening.
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