Board resolution on middle school grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what happened with this? The Board was supposed to take it up in December.

They implemented a new process in January for transcript updates. Each time it’s generated, it will determine whether or not to include middle school grades when calculating GPA and WGPA. A grade will be included if that results in higher GPAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what happened with this? The Board was supposed to take it up in December.

They implemented a new process in January for transcript updates. Each time it’s generated, it will determine whether or not to include middle school grades when calculating GPA and WGPA. A grade will be included if that results in higher GPAs.

She did that happen? Do you have a link? I’ve heard that was being considered, but I didn’t hear it was decided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what happened with this? The Board was supposed to take it up in December.

They implemented a new process in January for transcript updates. Each time it’s generated, it will determine whether or not to include middle school grades when calculating GPA and WGPA. A grade will be included if that results in higher GPAs.

I think that's only for class of 2025 or later. They were considering what to do for current 10th and 11th graders.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Has this gone into effect? Will people cover up their world language 1 and 2 As to get their gpas higher above 4.0?

It's a done deal.

Why don’t our affected kids know?

Although I was aware of the policy, I also came across it on their website a few weeks ago. It's not like they haven't made this perfectly clear to anyone who wants to know.

They should have sent an email out to everyone. We didn’t receive one. Can you please post the supposed change in policy? I can’t find it anywhere.

We have not heard anything about it. DD has all As in middle school classes, but most aren’t weighted as honors so they bring down weighted GPA. Are you saying they can still be on transcript but not bring down GPA?

wait a freaking second. Are you telling me that one can drop their middle school language classes from their GPA so it doesn't bring down the weighted GPA? Same with not including middle school Geometry grades?

Yes.

I wish I had known this last year, though...!

This is getting ridiculous. My sophomore DD has a 4.0 unweighted and 4.52 weighted GPA. She received A's in her middle school foreign language classes and her 8th grade Honors Geometry class. Are we really at the point where I need to consider dropping her A's from her middle school language classes to bump up her weighted GPA even more? No wonder our kids are so stressed out - talk about gaming the system.

Hi, I'm the pp who said I wish I had known last year...

... when my child -- who has learning disabilities -- was struggling with distance learning, failing Algebra and French, and was deeply distraught about what this would do to their HS GPA -- at age 12.

That was not great. Of course I was worried about the kid and not the GPA, but that nugget of info would have come in handy!

I have no issue with not counting MS grades in those classes if your child did poorly. I get that. What I think is ridiculous is if kids get As in their foreign language middle school classes and parents want to drop those grades since those As are unweighted and that brings down their high school weighted GPA.

So, the Honors FL in middle school is unweighted and doesn't count for weighted GPA? What about MS Honors Geometry? But it does count in unweighted GPA correct? I guess if Honors FL 1, 2 and 3 and Hon. Geometry taken in HS doesn't count as advanced enough to be weighted, why should it count for count just because it's taken in MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what happened with this? The Board was supposed to take it up in December.

They implemented a new process in January for transcript updates. Each time it’s generated, it will determine whether or not to include middle school grades when calculating GPA and WGPA. A grade will be included if that results in higher GPAs.

She did that happen? Do you have a link? I’ve heard that was being considered, but I didn’t hear it was decided.

MCPS seems to have already started this for current 9th graders. My son's GPA is higher on Naviance/ transcript compared to his HS report card for the semester. Based on my calculations, MCPS only included Honors Geometry from MS. Of course, the process isn't transparent but his HS counselor told us we will see the information for his semester/transcript report soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this gone into effect? Will people cover up their world language 1 and 2 As to get their gpas higher above 4.0?

It's a done deal.

Why don’t our affected kids know?

Although I was aware of the policy, I also came across it on their website a few weeks ago. It's not like they haven't made this perfectly clear to anyone who wants to know.

They should have sent an email out to everyone. We didn’t receive one. Can you please post the supposed change in policy? I can’t find it anywhere.

We have not heard anything about it. DD has all As in middle school classes, but most aren’t weighted as honors so they bring down weighted GPA. Are you saying they can still be on transcript but not bring down GPA?

wait a freaking second. Are you telling me that one can drop their middle school language classes from their GPA so it doesn't bring down the weighted GPA? Same with not including middle school Geometry grades?

Yes.

I wish I had known this last year, though...!

This is getting ridiculous. My sophomore DD has a 4.0 unweighted and 4.52 weighted GPA. She received A's in her middle school foreign language classes and her 8th grade Honors Geometry class. Are we really at the point where I need to consider dropping her A's from her middle school language classes to bump up her weighted GPA even more? No wonder our kids are so stressed out - talk about gaming the system.

Hi, I'm the pp who said I wish I had known last year...

... when my child -- who has learning disabilities -- was struggling with distance learning, failing Algebra and French, and was deeply distraught about what this would do to their HS GPA -- at age 12.

That was not great. Of course I was worried about the kid and not the GPA, but that nugget of info would have come in handy!

I have no issue with not counting MS grades in those classes if your child did poorly. I get that. What I think is ridiculous is if kids get As in their foreign language middle school classes and parents want to drop those grades since those As are unweighted and that brings down their high school weighted GPA.

So, the Honors FL in middle school is unweighted and doesn't count for weighted GPA? What about MS Honors Geometry? But it does count in unweighted GPA correct? I guess if Honors FL 1, 2 and 3 and Hon. Geometry taken in HS doesn't count as advanced enough to be weighted, why should it count for count just because it's taken in MS?

The only Honors world language class in MS is level 3

[Anonymous]

^ Good to know, thanks! And is the world language 3 not weighted regardless of whether it's taken in MS or HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ Good to know, thanks! And is the world language 3 not weighted regardless of whether it's taken in MS or HS?

Honors classes are weighted, yes. But apparently now they will only include that grade earned in MS if it helps improve the GPA in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Good to know, thanks! And is the world language 3 not weighted regardless of whether it's taken in MS or HS?

Honors classes are weighted, yes. But apparently now they will only include that grade earned in MS if it helps improve the GPA in HS.

So what's the issue? How does it penalize getting As in MS Honors high school classes? What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Good to know, thanks! And is the world language 3 not weighted regardless of whether it's taken in MS or HS?

Honors classes are weighted, yes. But apparently now they will only include that grade earned in MS if it helps improve the GPA in HS.

So what's the issue? How does it penalize getting As in MS Honors high school classes? What am I missing?

No, I just think there was some confusion because World Language 1 and 2 in MS and Algebra in MS, although considered advanced/accellerated courses for MS students, are not Honors HS courses and are not weighted. Only WL Hon level 3 and Hon Geo are weighted. The system for automatically calculating the best outcome for Class of '25 is new.

Personally, I do not know whether BOE has extended the optional nature of counting MS Grades in GPA to 10th, 11th graders.

[Anonymous]

Just for clarity, including non-weighted As in Algebra 1 and FL1&2 in the weighted gpa calculation brings that “down”, so parents originally wanted the option to exclude those grades (and of course, Bs or Cs earned in MS). However, parents can’t predict the future. It’s possible that by 11th or 12th grade, including MS grades in the GPA calculations would benefit a student. So now, it will.

[Anonymous]

Any update on this policy? Will juniors and seniors be able to choose for middle school grades not to be calculated in their high school gpa?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe this is old news to others, but did others know the Board passed a resolution in June about examining the feasibility of giving all current high school students the option of not counting middle school grades in their high school GPA? Currently this option is only available to students in grades 9 and below. Does anyone know whether a decision has been made on this?

It's wonderful! Even more ways to achieve grade inflation!!

[Anonymous]

I teach college. The first thing our admissions office does when they receive a transcript is _unweight_ and recalculate the GPA. Weighted GPAs vary so much in different environments (I even saw a US student once, in a conventional school, with a GPA on something like a scale of 1 to 6 or 7) that they cannot be compared. We give a separate rating based on strength of curriculum that takes AP, IB, honors, and other challenging classes into account, but it does not nuance every individual course.

Weighted GPA matters if a student is going to have access (or not) to something within their own school as a result. At the college level? Not so much. Just inventory the grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe this is old news to others, but did others know the Board passed a resolution in June about examining the feasibility of giving all current high school students the option of not counting middle school grades in their high school GPA? Currently this option is only available to students in grades 9 and below. Does anyone know whether a decision has been made on this?

Yes equity objectives can be advanced through these maneuvers