Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Weighted GPAs

DD14 came home the other day upset because of one of the quirks of the weighted GPA system at her school.

All of the pre-IB Freshmen take the same six honors-level classes and have a weighted GPA (A=5). Freshman are allowed to take band, orchestra or choir as a seventh class but no other seventh classes are allowed. The music classes are not considered honors (A=4).

DD had straight A's. Since she took band, her overall GPA is lower than the kids who did not take band and had straight A's. Bottom line is that her GPA would have been better off if she had not taken band. She is miffed that she took the same classes as the other kids plus an extra class and is ranked lower in the class because of it. She doesn't regret taking band but her "justice police" streak is having a hard time with this one.

We've talked about taking the classes that she wants and exploring different interests through electives. We've talked about it being an imperfect system and that colleges will look at actual transcripts. She gets all of that but still finds this issue annoying.

Has anyone else run into issues with how the high schools implement weighted GPAs?

Yes, wow. I'm surprised high schools have not yet seen this flaw in their system and corrected it. Our high school, many moons ago, had a similar system. It provided a real disincentive to any students who were primarily in honors/higher weighted classes to delve into too many non-honors classes, lest their GPA would artificially plummet! It bothered me back then, too!

One thing I've seen schools do is offer "honors" for some "less academic" classes. This classes are challenging, and require invitation. These can be controversial, too, though.

But then I've heard of the "flip side," where schools have removed such weighting, meaning that students who opt to "accept" the honors classes that were recommended for them...no longer get the GPA boost. Those classes, in my experience, did not COMPARE to regular classes (more work, more challenging, etc.), so this is also a terrible solution, IMO.

Has anyone seen a GOOD fair system for including weighted GPAs, but not discouraging lower GPA classes?

I'll bet lots of us have stories about GPA weighting rules. I transferred into my high school in junior year, and the school did not transfer my prior Honors classes at A=5. So I was salutatorian, not valedictorian, despite higher (actual) grades and harder classes than the valedictorian. Eh.

So, unfairness is just out there, as it is in any rule system.

Keep in mind, though, that the vagaries of weighting are well-known to college admissions officers, who often compute an UNweighted GPA as well. Class rank, too, is such an imperfect indicator: hard to know what it means without knowing the other kids. So I wouldn't worry too too much.

I suspect you're right that the "plus" from her music enrollment and higher course load will outweigh the lower weighted GPA.

There are many online discussions of weighted GPA, most in regard to college admissions.

In addition to considering GPA, institutions may look at the total number of credits taken. Those who took only the weighted courses and no others may be seen as not availing themselves of all the opportunities offered.

These thoughts may not help a student seeking specifically to be valedictorian, but they may prove helpful for college admissions and beyond.

Our district doesn't do class rank anymore. Any honor rolls that kids make are based on unweighted GPA's.I know in our district junior/senior year though you can take one class pass/fail but that doesn't help in your case. I agree with GF2 with it being a "plus" though it lowers the GPA. This may seem dumb but I'm not sure why you get a grade for taking band. High School athletes don't get graded for being on a sports team.

Several schools and districts which claim not to generate a class rank, actually do generate a class rank which is used in determining valedictorian and salutatorian and is also furnished to colleges, however it may not appear on student report cards or progress reports, or on parent/student copies of transcripts. Evidently class rank is not considered to be a data item covered by FERPA, but rather a school-specific statistic and therefore is not required to be furnished to the parents/students.

I could be wrong but I couldn't find a valedictorian or salutatorian info anywhere in our district.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't think that weighted GPA will affect what classes my DD chooses to take. She wants to take some electives in areas that truly interest her. I'm encouraging her to explore since she is cursed with multi-potentiality and doesn't know which direction to go. I most definitely do not want her to take classes only based on how they might affect her GPA.



Sports teams are extra curricular. Marching band also is an extracurricular activity that is not graded and they will take almost anyone who is willing to pick up an instrument.

Band, orchestra and choir are actual classes given during the school day that are graded based on a variety of things including playing tests, music theory and concert performances. You have to audition into these classes.

Our district also does not use class rank or award valedictorian.

This is off topic, but you have touched a sore point for me, so I'd like to explain why kids can get grades for band (sort of like getting a grade for taking art, or architectural drawing, or computers, or... I'm not sure I get the distinction where band is not a class).

I don't know about other districts, but here, the wind ensemble and highest level of symphony are considered to be the equivalent of college level courses in the amount of work and skill expected. I think the comparison with sports doesn't add up, as the music ensembles meet for a specific class period every day, during the day (thus kids taking these courses have one fewer period to take what you might consider to be more academic courses). In addition to written work, they are tested and graded on specific aspects of their playing (technical skill, musicality) and have to submit recordings of their parts for part checks, There is quite a bit of theory, performance, practice, lessons during school, etc- the amount of work that is done and evaluated is easily more than most of my daughter's other honors courses. The fact that this work is "rewarded" with a grade is unimportant, as others have mentioned, it is the activity itself that holds the value. However, the fact that she can take fewer electives or can't easily double up on academic classes means that having the course graded is appropriate, in my mind. She's certainly being evaluated on her work, just as a visual artist, or student in other non-traditionally academic subject would be evaluated.

Our school does not weight or rank precisely for this sort of reason. It fosters unhealthy behaviors and competition.