Moved to US public school from an international school with IGCSE

My son joined a public high school in the mid grade 10. He was in an international school doing IGCSE. Even though he’s doing great, scoring 95 in average, his rank has reduced due to year 9 & 10 marks which I think not converted well. Should I consult with the high school counselor or should send his transcript to WES? Please suggest.

What is WES?

What year in HS is your son now?

What IS his class rank?

You should discuss this with the HS counselor. It’s very possible that his class rank is based only on the school he currently is attending. Or it might be based on a combo of both schools. Only way to know…is to ask.

This just might BE his class rank.

When we moved (middle school not high school though) we brought a conversion table so that the counselor could match letter grades across systems. Have you done anything like this? If not, I’d suggest that be your first option. (I’m inferring from what you’ve posted that the school is combining the previous scores into his cumulative GPA?)
WES will give you a conversion, at a charge, but hopefully that shouldn’t be a necessary step.

What is WES?

WES is an organization that officially converts grades and qualifications to US equivalency.

OP, this page on WES shows the equivalent US letter grade for the letter grade awarded under the Cambridge /UK system (scroll down to the table)
https://wenr.wes.org/2014/02/a-guide-to-uk-school-qualifications-offered-internationally

And page 2 of this shows the % to letter grade convention in the UK system: https://www.britishcouncil.lk/sites/default/files/understanding_and_preparing_for_results.pdf

One, or both of these in combination, should be enough for the counselor to ensure he is calculating GPA correctly, without you having to actually pay WES to do it.

When my daughter moved junior year, I worked with her counselor at the new school to convert her grades. It was a bit of back and forth before we were in agreement. I would suggest for you to work with the counselor.

Show them the scales above - because there are As, B’s, C’s the US school may not realize the grading scale is different (a British B is equivalent to A-/B+, a C is a B).
In addition, all IGCSES should be considered Honors or the purpose of Ranking.

Be aware too that some schools in the US won’t use other school’s grades to rank, even domestically. It will be important for your child’s guidance counselor to note in the letter of recommendation the school’s policy in relationship to your child’s ranking.

Also, colleges will see the transcript from the international school as you will submit those as well. College admissions officers are well versed in deciphering other grading systems.

Is class rank the only thing affected…or is GPA affected as well.

No matter what, DO plan on sending the IGCSE results to all colleges (assuming A*-C) at application time since those are widely recognized.

I would get the WES evaluation so that it can be sent when your kid applies to college. You will need to provide the foreign transcripts at that time, and many colleges will want a WES evaluation.

Some school districts have specific conversions that they use for foreign transcripts. If you kid’s school has that kind of policy, there won’t be anything you can do to change the way the old grades were converted.

Good to hear about WES, I wasn’t familiar with it. My S22 will be starting 10th grade in the fall at a public school outside Boston, after two years at an international school in Geneva (pre-IB curriculum) and four years before that at an American school in London. Hadn’t really thought about the need to convert his grades and rank.

If the school is full IB the MYP curriculum will not be a problem for them at all.
If it isn’t, it may be a bit harder, especially if grades aren’t given.

@MYOS1634 The school is full IB, yes. It’s actually the school where the IB was founded, as it happens.

@vineyarder - when your kid applies to colleges, the GC will need to to check off which percentile your kid is in even if the school doesn’t rank, and that’s why it will be important to convert your kid’s grades “fairly.” The American International school my kid went to was not too keen on weighting my kid’s honor courses from her American private school. Whether your kid is top 1, 5, 10, 20% at his/her new school will have impact on what college he/she will be able to get into, and what kind of merit scholarship he/she will be eligible for.