Before she was state superintendent of schools, Kathy Cox taught high school social studies. And inside her Fayette County classroom, she saw firsthand the conundrum teachers face when issuing grades.

"The battle I had to fight was the thinking that an A stands for attendance," she said. "I had to explain that an A stands for excellence."

Grading practices have become a hot issue as officials debate how to rein in the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship, which pays in-state college tuition and fees for students with a B average. The HOPE program must change because the growth in lottery income isn't keeping up with the rising number of students who qualify.

Some metro Atlanta high schools have large numbers of kids qualifying for HOPE, yet they fall short on other academic measures such as SAT scores and pass rates on Advanced Placement exams, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis has found.

Only about 40 percent of HOPE scholars survive their freshman year in college with their B average intact. In 2000, about 11 percent of HOPE scholars needed to take remedial courses when they arrived at college, according to state figures.

A study commission of legislators, parents, college students and college presidents issued recommendations recently on how to better ration HOPE dollars. Among their recommendations: Raise the academic standard to get the scholarship.

But Cox wasn't included on the study commission. In fact, no one representing kindergarten through high school had a vote in how the scholarship should be changed.

"That's a huge oversight," Cox said in a recent interview.

State Sen. Bill Hamrick (R-Douglasville) said the commission was limited to 20 members and "we had to draw the line somewhere."

State education officials were welcome to attend meetings, he said.

Disparity between SAT scores and the percentage of students qualifying for HOPE (56 percent statewide) has led to charges of grade inflation in Georgia high schools, but Cox said she did not think teachers handed out easy A's and B's.

Instead, teachers are alone in their classrooms with no set standard of what an A or B should be, leaving them to decide. They often set their standards based on their own school experiences.

"Our expectations weren't as high as they should have been," she said. "Our A's and B's still don't mean what they should."

As a teacher, Cox encountered what she calls the "couch potato mind-set," with students often wanting good grades without putting in the effort. Parents sometimes challenged her grading practices.

Most difficult, she said, was figuring out how to assess students who tried hard but did not have the basic reading and writing skills to do the coursework.

Though teachers are supposed to teach each student individually, they face conflicting pressure to treat all students equally when it comes to grades.

Cox said the state's massive curriculum overhaul would help teachers issue grades by including examples of what A work should look like.

The new curriculum will make high school more challenging, ensuring that students put forth effort to earn their HOPE scholarship, she said.

Gov. Sonny Perdue wants a minimum SAT score added to the HOPE criteria, a proposal that stirred up controversy because it would shut out many African-Americans, who tend to score lower. The HOPE study commission did not recommend an SAT requirement, but the Legislature will probably discuss the issue, Hamrick said.

Cox does not object to requiring a minimum SAT score for HOPE. But she said the state should wait until the new version of the SAT, which will include an essay, goes into effect in 2006.

• ON THE WEB: Read a series about the HOPE scholarship.: ajc.com