Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Grade Weighting

Author:
From a parent:
Every parent I’ve talked to regarding this issue just throws their hands in the air and says “I don’t understand it” – quite frankly I don’t understand the rational for not making a change for the honor classes.
Prior to its September 8th recommendation to retroactively weight honors courses, the LCPS administration had advised us not to weight honors courses. Here's why, in an excerpt from the Grade Weighting Committee's final report (emphases mine):
Section 8 VAC 20-160-60 of the Code of Virginia describes elements for weighting: “Advanced, accelerated, advanced placement, and honors level course to be weighted shall have the following elements (1) defined curriculum; (2) standards that exceed normal course requirements; and (3) defined assessment component."

The LCPS Program of Studies describes Honors classes that include the following characteristics: expectations for extended work, more independent learning, greater depth of material, and quicker pacing of content to be learned. When the committee examined the descriptions of Honors and Advanced English, an insufficient level of difference was noted. Specific information on rigor or higher-order thinking skills has not been incorporated into course descriptions. There is a reluctance to provide course descriptions that do not specify high expectations for all students. The current curriculum does not sufficiently define the advanced level of content or standards for Honors
courses, and do not appear to meet the requirements of the Code.

A third element of the code is also missing because current Honors courses do not provide a defined assessment component. Current Honors courses do not include different assessments, nor do they provide sufficient guidance to justify weighting.

In order to pursue weighting of Honors courses, an alternate set of beliefs about access and equity would need to be introduced to replace current principles. Additionally, some areas of study do not label courses with an “Honors” designation because students progress according to their level of competence in the subject while other subject areas offer multiple Honors classes.
So either the committee was wrong, or the Board will decide that it matters more what Fairfax says than what state law says. I will vote according to the law, with advice from the Board's attorney.
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3 comments:

  1. Politics have mucked up grading so much that a student's GPA means nothing. We should just remove GPA from the transcript. The only grades noteworthy are the AP scores and other standarized test scores with percentile rankings.

    Eventually college admissions will resort to selecting students based on performance on advanced proficiency SOL tests rather than GPA because schools have caved to pushy parents and everyone gets As.
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  2. Sorry, Ed. Virginia is the only state to give SOL tests. Even though other states have their own testing process due to NCLB, each state sets their own standards. Too subjective to use those scores for college admissions. What Mississippi (just as an example) might set as an advance score could be barely passing compared to Virginia's standards.
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  3. Remove the fluff from GPA's, thats how colleges are calculating GPA's. Any weighting as it is approved in LCPS are only fluff and will certainly improve the confidence and class rank of the student, but will not be of any advantage in college admission. Recently, colleges started taking the non-weighted GPA of main courses (Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and Foriegn language) than looking at all padded, weightes GPA. hence, county approving "a kind of GPA" to satisfy a parent or student or the neghbouring county policies, doesnt matter. Do not think your kid's grades become better by this new policy, an A is an A and a B is always a B!
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