<p>Our school board is considering the idea of changing to a weighted grading system. Currently we are on a standard A=4.0 system, with students who attain the same GPA sharing ranks (so if there are 20 4.0 there are 20 "first in the class"). Graduation speakers are by audition, and I would not expect that to change even with weighted grades.</p>
<p>I am hoping to hear from parents (or students) who have strong feelings either way or who could point me in the direction of any studies regarding this issue. I hope to supply the board with additional information in order to help make an informed decision.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance,</p>
<p>Ellen (2applying is old...should now read 2 more 2 go!)</p>
<p>Personally I like the weighted system if the classes truly do require more work and have more rigorous material. It seems this does reward students for "going the extra mile". However, I've read some school systems have made "honors" everything from PE to basketweaving which takes away from the weighted scale meaning anything. The school my kids attended did an extra 1 point for both honors and AP. Valedictorian and such were chosen by gpa.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I think weighted grades end up confusing students and families. "Our little Spikey had over a 4.0 and was still turned down by ____" Truth is, Spikey was a B+ student unweighted, but got a bump with weighted grades.</p>
<p>Weighting can, IMHO, lead to some crazy extremes. Just take a look at New Trier HS:</p>
<p>BTW, most colleges can figure this stuff out, and will calculate thier own averages anyway - at least those where it really matters.</p>
<p>It is even more confusing when you consider that most HS report both weighted and unweighted GPA and rank. Which will a college use? who knows? And if they only report weighted, what then does the college do? Does it adjust? Who knows?</p>
<p>Our high school is doing away with weighted GPA. The faculty is 100% for this change; the parent and student community is about 50/50.</p>
<p>There is no way that an AP class is equivalent work-wise to a standard class. So, therein lies the reasoning behind the weighted grade. However, I can see the other side of the coin too.</p>
<p>Yes, weight the grades, but also, change from a flat A,B, C system to a percentage based system. Teachers give % grades - then there are very rarely any ties for val, sal spots.</p>
<p>I think there should be weighting. The encourages the students to take the harder classes because of the "reward". However, I do not believe in straight rankings. I think it is too hard to compare a humanities student with a math and science student.</p>
<p>then when a kid gets to college what's to encourage them to take a course 498 as an elective rather than course 101 as an elective. they get no bonus points for taking the harder course, and they get a LOT more work with it. It's just something you do to help yourself, to benefit yourself. you shouldn't get brownie points for taking a harder course. if you think you can handle it, then you should do it.. for yourself... NOT for the bonus.</p>
<p>I think the whole weighted average is quite pathetic. a 4.2 out of a 4.0. get real.</p>
<p>Weighting benefits the more 'academic' students. It encourages kids (Bear in mind we are talking about 15 to 18 year old kids, not adults!) to take a more advanced level class. Most people agree that a 95% in a college-prep class carries more weight than a 95% in a general level class. Kids who are primarily interested in getting all the GPA points they can might otherwise take a lower level class, knowing they can make a really high grade and bump up the GPA. Whereas, kids who want to be challenged and are willing to work harder should be rewarded for that work even though they might only earn a 92%. Many high schools use percentage grades to calculate GPAs, rather than the simpler A, B, C, etc. </p>
<p>Think the bigger problem lies with high schools who don't weed out their students from the higher level classes by requiring strong grades in the prereqs or, perhaps, strong teacher recommendations. Schools are often pressured to take less-gifted students into their more academic classes because many parents think their kids are special and, by virtue of the gene-pool, should be enrolled in the most challenging classes offered. Those same parents complain because their little ones aren't making good grades and blame the teacher. The result is often 'dumbing-down' the curriculum because of parental complaint/influence. We have just had a CC thread written by one parent who thinks the AP teacher requires too much homework. I'm of the opinion that parents can be a real thorn in the side of public education and public school teachers. I could be wrong , but I just don't think these same issues arise in upper-crust private schools.</p>
<p>Sorry to have gotten a bit off-topic here, but I'm interested in knowing how others feel about my rant!</p>
<p>weighting grades can have a downside...i have a 4.0UW and am ranked 32/348 because i took jazz band zero period at 6:30AM every day before school (counted as non honors)...8/350 has a 4.0UW and the same number of honors semesters (23) but only took seven periods a day...whose schedule was more rigorous? the difference between 23H/49 semesters and 23H/56 semesters is astounding</p>
<p>But the downside to non-weighted averages is pretty well known. Before we adopted them, the rankings were heavily skewed toward students taking fairly light weight courses.</p>
<p>As competitive as the local high school is,, particularly with the 10% rule at Texas universities, parents would be putting pressure on their students not to take challenging courses so they could stay "competitive".</p>
<p>I don't know that I agree completely with fendergirl on weight (because there are cases even in college where weight occurs, like A+s and their affect on law school admissions), but I do see her point. Unfortunately, it seems that weighting is an easy way for colleges and students to understand how many "hard classes" a student took in high school. It does lead to silly things like 4.4 GPAs, but that just serves as a bright flag to admissions that said student took the "hard road."</p>
<p>Colleges do often completely take out of the picture non academic classes when calculating GPA- PE/Art etc
Additionally I feel that students who earn As- shouldn't be restricted to recieving an A only in an AP class. I don't agree with students who are capable of getting an A in an AP class taking something like "rocks for jocks" for the easy A, but I think that is up to the high school counselor.
I realize this reasoning gives my daughter a lower GPA than she would have otherwise- but it possibly also broadens the type of classes that are taught.
If her marine science class was up against biology AP students might take the AP course for the weighted grade, even though the marine science class is more rigourous.
My older daughter didn't attend a school that offered AP courses and didnt weight honors or rank, but students still got into top schools.
I think it is a problem mostly for students who are interested in schools, like until recently the UW, who sort applications by scores and stats before they start looking deeper</p>
<p>I agree with weighted gpa in high school, even if the weighting systems are not uniform between school districts. It encourages rather than discourages students from taking more difficult courses.</p>
<p>The gpa should only take into account academic courses, but not classes such as band, art, home ec, shop, etc. This would make comparison among students in the same school more meaningful. Many students in our high school who were after gpa only dropped classes in the fine and practical arts and took study halls instead. </p>
<p>My son took every honors and AP course available and had 4.0uw/4.6w. The only difference between him and the val was band, which dragged his gpa down since it was not a weighted class.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If her marine science class was up against biology AP students might take the AP course for the weighted grade, even though the marine science class is more rigourous.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Make the marine science class an honors class. ;) </p>
<p>Truth is that, without the weightings, universities are going to judge which student are taking more difficult classes and they'll probably weight AP course as more rigorous than other classes simply because they're a known quantity. The schools need to provide some information as to how challenging a student's courses were and this is certainly one quantitative way to do so.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, down here in Texas, weighting may be necessary. There are rumors of unweighted schools where students with a 3.5 and higher can't make it into the top 10% of their school and have trouble getting into state universities. </p>
<p>Regardless, it's a tough enough job ecouraging our students to do well and challenge themselves without giving in to the pressure to go madly competitive. Maybe something will change to some how make that better some day soon, but in the mean time, I'm inclined to offer some reward to students willingly taking more challenging courses because I do prefer it to the alternative.</p>
<p>I agree with LKF. I was totally in favor of weighted grades going in, but now that my daughter is a senior it has turned out not to work in her favor.
First, implementation can be unfair. In my daughter's case, she has made one B in high school, in a gifted math class. It was before weighted grades were implemented. She got 3 points for the B. Another student made one B in high school in a gifted math class, but after weighted grades. She got 4 points, so her average is higher. The point is, weighted grades cannot really be implemented half way through one's high school career without some planning for a situation like that.
Second, most weighted classes in my child's school are math and science. Unfortunately, my daughter would rather have as much foreign language as possible and be editor of the newspaper. None of those sort of electives offer honors or gifted options, which she would gladly have taken if available. Same goes for psychology. Anyway, with weighted grades, when your kid follows his or heart and that conflicts with scheduling a weighted course, your kid loses rank. So in her case, weighted grades has meant that because Journalism II is only offered at the same time as AP Biology she will settle for a lower rank.</p>
<p>First, I need to disclose that my D's school doesn't weight. Does the fact that it doesn't weight affect whether or not kids take AP classes? I'm not sure. With the exception of one student, the top 10% kids were those that took the most AP classes anyway. And the one student who WAS in the top 10% but who didn't take many AP classes was the only one not to get into his ED school. So, these colleges are smart enough to figure it out, and I think all the brouhaha over weighting vs. unweighting in practicality means little when it comes to the college admissions process. It probably means something in the GPAs reported to US News.</p>
<p>To me, the biggest problem with weighting is the that no two weighting protocols are the same between schools. How colleges compare one high school to another's weighted GPA, I don't know. I think they CAN compare unweighted GPAs in most cases and then refer to the strength of the curriculum on the transcript. So, I agree that UW GPA should be reported on the transcript. If the school wishes to weight to determine who will be val or sal, fine.</p>