The school held on March 21 a meeting to inform parents of younger students of the potential changes to the system the school uses to calculate GPA and class rank. Director of Student Services & Safety Scott Kessel ran the meeting, and began by explaining the committee whose job it was to propose changes. Some of the committee members from the high school include Mr. Dan Peterson, Ms. Angi Tims, Ms. Cathy Williams, Ms. Karey Moore and Ms. Mary McClellan. The committee began their meeting and planning at the beginning of the school year, but parents and students are now able to provide their own opinions.

The meeting was used to explain what the proposed changes were and why they were what they were, but many parents took the opportunity to speak up with their opinions.

The system used to determine GPA and class rank, among other logistical scenarios, is called the EIC Local, as opposed to the EIC Legal and Regulation, which are determined by the state and federal governments and regulatory documents used by the board. Mr. Kessel’s first section of his presentation focused on the current policy, which includes GPA exclusions in athletics programs and grades being counted for high school classes taken in eighth grade. Some of the reasons Mr. Kessel provided include that it has been so long since the district last made a change (2001); there are recently implemented graduation requirements from the state (with a focus on electives and endorsements) that the current system does not fit into; the district is competitive, so students could make good grades but be in a low quartile, which may look poor to colleges; and the current systems’ fostering of stress and unhealthy competition.

Another reason that they made changes, and a determining factor in what changes they made, was the EIC Local in other districts, including surrounding schools, schools from the AHS comparison group (a group determined by the state of similar schools based on size, demographics, and socioeconomics), and districts who recently made changes to their own EIC Local policies, but in observing all of these schools, the committee determined that none of them did it exactly the same; each school has a unique system that works best for them.

Mr. Kessel then moved onto describing the potential changes that might be made, though he prefaced this section by stating that nothing was decided and by reminding the meeting attendees that they could give their feedback on the survey that would be posted. Though the changes are somewhat extensive, they will not affect anyone older than the current sixth grade students, as this will not come into play before the class of 2025 enters high school.

This delay is because of a proposed change to the GPA system that will only count classes taken in 9-12 grades toward students’ GPAs. The sixth grade class was the oldest class who had not yet decided on high-school level courses with the knowledge of the current system. The reason given by Mr. Kessel for only classes taken in 9-12 grade to count on students averages is because the students in these high school level classes taken in eighth grade are only 13 or 14, and the school does not want to put extra pressure and stress on young teenagers.

Another major change is the shift from a 100-point system to a 4.0-point system. Currently, students are given GPAs on a scale from 0-100, with AP classes being worth 115 percent (an 85 average would be a 97.75 in the GPA calculations), Pre-AP, and for students who took Honors classes in other districts, Honors courses being worth 110 percent (85 would be 93.5), and the remainder of the classes being worth 100 percent of the grade received. With the proposed changes, both AP classes and classes with an AP class as a prerequisite (such as Multivariable Calculus) will be assigned a GPA value between 0.0 and 5.0. Pre-AP and Dual Credit classes will be in the second weight category, being worth up to 4.5 points, while any remaining classes that are not excluded will be worth up to 4.0 points.

Mr. Kessel was diplomatic in his explanation of the reasons for AP classes being in a higher category than Dual Credit classes, saying that other schools they observed had them in similar placements and that AP curriculums are written to rigorous standards, which must be achieved in order for students to do well on the AP exams, while Dual Credit is dependent on the Weatherford Community College professor that year, and not all colleges accept it as credit.

The grade conversion chart can be found at this link: https://www.aledoisd.org/cms/lib/TX02205721/Centricity/Domain/1720/Proposed%20GPA%20Policy_Grade%20Conversion%20Chart.pdf.

Additionally, fewer classes would be weighted on the transcript. Only core classes and AP-level classes will count toward students’ GPAs, though all grades will appear on their transcripts. This change concerned some of the meetings’ attendees, as it seemed to take away students’ motivation to perform well in classes that did not count, such as foreign languages, but its purpose was to encourage more students to take electives they were interested in instead of taking many AP classes to boost their grades and class rank. This is also hoped to better align the school with the state graduation requirements, as all endorsements require enrollment in elective and CTE courses.

The complete list of classes that would count towards students’ GPAs can be found at this link: https://www.aledoisd.org/cms/lib/TX02205721/Centricity/Domain/1720/Proposed%20Courses%20That%20Will%20Count%20in%20GPA.pdf.

Among the proposed change, one that inspired much concern among the parents was the total removal of class rank on students’ transcripts. This would keep students from knowing their quartile, which troubled some parents, as they feared that some scholarships which required students to include their quartile would not be available for their otherwise eligible children. Some of these fears were satiated with the explanation that students in the top 10% would be given a certificate, and teachers would share the lowest GPA in each quartile, so all students would have knowledge of what quartile they were in, it just wouldn’t be provided on their transcript.

However, new worries arose when parents recalled that the University of Texas takes only the top 6% of students, and the new plan provided no way for students to know if they were in the top 6 or only the top 10. Mr. Kessel assured the audience that students would be informed if they were eligible for automatic admission to UT, but parents still appeared uncertain.

In implementing these changes, the district hopes to reduce some of the unhealthy competition among students and remove some barriers to college admission, because some students may be high-performing students, but because Aledo has so many of those, their quartile does not accurately reflect their academic success.

Though many of these changes raised concerns and eyebrows, they are done in the hopes of improving the school, and they are not done without taking into consideration feedback from parents.

The best way to make ones voice heard is through the survey that is posted on the school website or at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe14N_mhV274UpDZC0CVyoswbIv-6YiqJ5XK6m26Sj9QTPl4w/viewform.

There is also a video and a slideshow available at https://www.aledoisd.org/Page/5410 if one was unable to attend the meeting.