Attention HS educators... GPA experiment

2,225 Views | 6 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by FriscoAggieFan
Ag92NGranbury
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Our local high school is trying something completely different with GPA. The first class that is being affected by this is our current junior class.

The old GPA system was on a 6.0 scale. The administration claimed that it was over inflated and caused kids stress anxiety.

The new GPA system works like this. All courses receive the same credit. You can get a 1.1 multiplier on your entire GPA once you have 16 'AAC' credits. An AAC credit would be like an AP, dual credit, pre-AP or some other courses.

Out of those 16 credits, you can get 2 of them by getting 'fidelity points', which is your commitment to a sport or a fine art for the entire four years.

It is an all or nothing GPA multiplier. There is no benefit to taking on a few AP classes. You get the multiplier after your sophomore year and once you have collected 8 credits. You lose it your senior year if you don't get 16 credits.

Some of the issues that are being seen now is that kids that don't take any AP classes at all are surpassing kids that have a heavy course load of AP's.

Has anyone seen a system like this? What are your thoughts about it?
OldArmy71
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I taught AP English in high school for 22 years.

First, sports and fine arts should not receive any sort of "multiplied" GPA credit.

Second, whatever multiplier you use should make taking difficult courses more attractive. It should be exceedingly rare for someone taking "regular" courses to have a higher GPA than someone taking AP, IB, Dual Credit, etc.
LatinAggie1997
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I think something in most systems need adjusting. I'm not sure how to fix things or if something needs to be "fixed". What I do know is that at some very competitive schools GPA and class rank seem somewhat unfair.

Ex: Some year round athletes take advanced classes and have a rigorous course load, some students have advanced classes and a rigorous load but don't play year round sports, some students have regular classes and don't participate in a time consuming extracurricular activity.

Not making an argument on college transcripts and admission requirements just GPA. The kids that put forth effort in regular classes and have no time consuming extracurricular activities tend to have a higher GPA and rank than the year round athletes taking a rigorous course load.

Not overly upset about it but seems a bit unfair just on face value. Another variable that I'm not well versed on but seems unfair is class ranking. The class rank of a student at one school compared to the ranking of a student at another school (within the district) when one school is far more competitive. Is there an indicator on academic competitiveness between schools in the same district?
b0ridi
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LatinAggie1997 said:

Is there an indicator on academic competitiveness between schools in the same district?
Standardized tests.
LatinAggie1997
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boridi said:

LatinAggie1997 said:

Is there an indicator on academic competitiveness between schools in the same district?
Standardized tests.



How do prospective colleges (admissions) and scholarships (selection personnel) know/receive this information? Are you referring to individual student scores or the school's average?

When looking at a pool of candidates is the school's/district's average scores readily available for comparison?

If it is merely the test scores of the possible candidates then my concern stands.
Two students from the same district but different schools.
Student A : GPA 5.7/6.0, Top 30%, Athlete, SAT 1400/1600
Student B : GPA 6.0/6.0, Top 10%, Athlete, SAT 1400/1600

My concern is that selection personnel might not know that the school Student A attends is far more competitive. Student A would most likely be in the top 10% at Student B's school.
Gigemchicken90
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They don't know the competitiveness of the school. That is not a factor. Too 10% rule changed all of that.
LatinAggie1997
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Gigemchicken90 said:

They don't know the competitiveness of the school. That is not a factor. Too 10% rule changed all of that.


That is what's frustrating. Much of the top 10% at some of the schools in the district wouldn't be in the top 25% at my daughter's school.
FriscoAggieFan
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Why couldn't the 10% rule be adjusted to top 10% of the state?
Benchmark it somehow and reward those high performers regardless of what high school they attend.

Que the diversity comments in 3. 2. 1.....
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