<p>gpa is pretty easy to get at our school, but you DO have to request it. It is UNWEIGHTED, so it’s also easy to figure.</p>
<p>Class rank is something else. It is weighted, it’s a complicated system, and they do NOT officially rank except at certain intervals. It is given at the end of the junior year, again mid year of the senior year, and again for the final. It’s on every transcript. No one but the top 10 care that much about the final, because it’s the end of the junior year ranking that gets you into the public colleges in our state.</p>
<p>The methodology is in the student handbook for anyone to see.</p>
<p>Your school is behind the times, hope they let you update. </p>
<p>Ours uses ‘Campus’ which allows us to look at grades (current to the minute if needed), daily attendance, class rank, GPA,… Both students and parent have access anytime they would like. You can also print unofficial transcripts, class schedules,…</p>
<p>At my daughter’s HS the GPA was only on the transcript and also on Naviance, not on any report cards. You were given a copy of the transcript during junior year counseling (middle of the year) and Naviance was updated at the end of each school year (some time over the summer). The school report which was created beginning of the senior year was also key - the only place you could find out what the highest GPA is for your current class. </p>
<p>The school did not provide any rank and the sal and val were notified about a month before graduation.</p>
<p>both weighted and unweighted GPA are on the transcript and in naviance.</p>
<p>Our school also uses an online grading system and transcript reporting system (they are 2 separate systems). The printed report cards do not have a gpa listed, just the current semester’s letter grades and “citizenship/effort” grades.</p>
<p>For the online grading system, we are able to see current assignments, grades given for all past assignments (for the current semester), attendance, teachers’ websites, etc.</p>
<p>The online reporting system allows us to print reports (free of charge) such as unofficial transcripts with cumulative weighted/unweighted/academic gpa’s, standardized state and national test scores, even specialized UC/CalState eligibility reports.</p>
<p>OP, your school needs to get with the times; you have a lot of ammunition in this thread to lobby for change.</p>
I could make the argument that having real-time access to overall GPAs and classrank is counter productive … and some schools may be keeping systems that are “behind the times” because they believe they align better with their educational mission.</p>
<p>PS - what is real time access to a GPA mean anyways … it only changes at the end of each term or semester … having real-time access on 9/15, 9/30, 10/15, 10/30, and 11/15 is essentially wasted functionality … the overall GPA is the same on all those dates.</p>
<p>Our semester report card listed the weighted and unweighted GPA. We also had a transcript available online for a few years that showed class ranking at the end of the year. It was available a week after school ended. That was nice for seniors to have the information available during the summer, especially since the guidance office was closed during the summer when DS was completing applications for colleges and scholarships.</p>
<p>I never knew my kid’s exact GPA and I can’t think of any reason I would want or need to know. My kid always had a ball park idea and if he needed the exact info for his college apps I assume he just asked his GC.</p>
<p>Again - thanks for your input. I guess what I’m looking for is if you had the opportunity to get this changed on the report card, do you feel it’s worthwhile? How much do I fight for this or to at least have them change their process and send out transcripts annually and updating Naviance annually? </p>
<p>It seems to me that the majority do feel it’s worthwhile. Yes, as ours are unweighted, it’s relatively easy to compute, assuming you know how the teacher weights each quarter, midterm, and final. Each teacher does not use the same weighting. Can we ask the counselor for a transcript at any time? Sure. But why should we have to bother them? </p>
<p>Also, when we do ask the counselor, they have to then request it from the registrar who hand computes them. In 2013, as joszacem says, it seems our school is behind the times. And for a school that consistently ranks in the top 100 schools by Newsweek and US News & World (for what the rankings are worth) that seems pretty sad. </p>
<p>As I mentioned on another thread, for some of my son’s regular decision applications we were told that they required the mid-term grades/transcript by 2/18. As the last day of mid-terms was 1/24, you’d think this was an easy thing to do. I even spoke to the guidance counselor about it on 2/14 and they assured me the schools would have the transcript by 2/18. However, the school didn’t complete the mid-term transcripts for seniors until 2/21 when they uploaded them to Naviance. The colleges downloaded them overnight and they “received” them on 2/22 (a Friday). To me, that just seems really ineffective. As the SUNY schools will be releasing acceptances this Friday/Saturday, it’s unlikely that the transcript would make it in time to help.</p>
<p>Yes, I would think it’s worthwhile. I think, ideally, the kids would know their gpas whenever earn the credit for classes. (So if your student earns a credit at the end of the year, it should be annual. If he/she earns a credit per semester, it should be then.) </p>
<p>Our schools include weighted and unweighted gpa on each report card. Also, once a year, the kids get a spreadsheet showing them progress toward graduation. That spreadsheet has all the classes they’ve taken listed by subject (Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Languages, Electives) with grades and shows you the cumulative gpa by subject. (So you can quickly compare gpa by subject matter and not just year.)</p>
<p>I would fight for the annual naviance update - that is the only way to figure out which colleges they are in range for based upon your school’s history.</p>
<p>The GPA (weighted I think) appeared on every report card labeled “Average”. What I wanted and we didn’t get officially till senior year was to know how that average translated to class rank. I was pretty surprise, but also happy to discover that my kid who was on the cusp of B+ to A- actually ended up in the top 6% - a very important piece of information. Naviance though was the biggest help in identifying which colleges were reasonable bets - we got access to it spring junior year I believe maybe even January when they do the first college counseling when PSAT scores are released.</p>
<p>FWIW most schools use computers to calculate grades. If your school has an honor roll they are doing the calculations, so it’s certainly no work to add it to the report cards.</p>
<p>Both high schools my D went to gave weighted GPA, unweighted GPA, and class rank twice a year on semester report cards. I think it should definitely be on report cards or the online grade site beginning with 10th grade, if not 9th. </p>
<p>Even if it is not, though, you should have a basic idea what kind of grades your student mostly gets and have a two prong approach of encouraging the highest possible grades and looking for schools that are good fits for the type of grades your kid mostly gets.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity, I’m actually in a suburb of Seattle, and my kids go to a private school here. The school is against having parents track progress; they want the kids to step up to the responsibility. Many parents would like to see them add this type of access, but I’m good without it!</p>
<p>At the bottom of each semester report card, we see the GPA for the semester and the overall GPA. Our high school does not rank the students, nor does it even say whether the student is in the top 10%, etc.</p>
<p>We can also get the information on Naviance after the junior year.</p>
<p>OP, I’m having trouble understanding the statement of the committee that “until the grades are final it won’t be an official GPA.” </p>
<p>Seems to me if the teacher submits the grade, it’s final. And the computer can easily make adjustments/corrections if necessary. I assume it is a computer program doing the calculations?</p>
<p>I think you are on the right track, OP. Hang in there with that committee!</p>
<p>calla1 - the committee leader said that until a course is completed, the grade isn’t official. If they were to update the GPA mid year (after 1/4, mid-semester, or 3rd quarter) the cumulative GPA wouldn’t be official as the current year long class grade would not be official and it could change greatly during the school year. Does that make sense? Our school has the core classes that are a full year but electives can be one semester (two quarters). </p>
<p>Thanks for the support everyone. Glad I got the courage to post and ask for feedback. You all have been great! It can be intimidating to be on a committee with 16 school employees and only two parents to fight for what you think is best for the student and parents.</p>
<p>Every report card in high school has their GPA on it. Our school does not weight grades but it does offer 2 rankings, honors and regular. The honors ranking takes into consideration via some formula I don’t know, the honors, AP and DE classes kids take, the grade they got in that class and recalculates their ranking based on that. It sure is a heck of a lot easier, and I think, more fair for the kids that challenge themselves. No ranks or GPA’s were on middle school report cards, no need to really.</p>
<p>College removed weighting on grades anyway so why go through the hassle of doing them. The weighted rankings are what the school sends over to the colleges so that rigor stays with them.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school had term and cumulative GPA on every report card. No cumulative rank, but they did list rank for each marking period, so it was possible to look at the bulletin board each marking period and have a good sense of rank. If the kid tanked on any report card, it could be humiliating.</p>
<p>Our high school gives the kids an copy of their transcript once a year before they sign up for next years classes. The transcript has the gpa and class rank. The report cards do not have the gpa or class rank on them. Also in Georgia the public schools download the kids transcripts after each semester into gacollege411. The student or parent can go out and see if they are on track to have a gpa high enough to qualify for the hope scholarship for college.</p>