Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How important is it? Conflicted

I need some perspective on this one.... I'm in one of those states with some G/T laws, so with lots of pushing and fighting I've been able to get what my DS needs. I try to pick my battles and I have some big ones coming up so I'm wondering if I should let this current one go.

The issue is a local policy I stumbled on that is written to indicate that his grading scale should be weighted and they won't do it. They say it's only for high school. If I took it to the state, I'd win hands down. But that would be another conflict with the school system. He's in the classes he needs and getting good grades so do I just let this one go? How important is it to make sure they follow their own policies?

I'll be back in battle with them again in January when I request for him to start taking a high school class in the 5th grade. I just hate all this battling back and forth just to get my kid the education he deserves, but I don't want to not battle if it's the right thing to do.

What is the benefit of having weighted grades for him? My gut is that it's not worth it. But maybe it has to do with how you look at / use weighted grades. To me, I think of weighted grades to help with class rank, to show that the degree of difficulty of a particular class is harder than another class, but primarily leading to "looking better" when applying to colleges. From that perspective, the weighted grades won't make any difference in elementary school. But perhaps you see another use or purpose to them?

I too wonder what it's going to do for him in elementary school. What is the benefit?
DD9 takes a high school class and I don't care if it's weighted or not. It shows up on her middle school transcript and that's about it.

It sort of depends on whether or not you anticipate pursuing an Ivy (or 'elite' college experience, at any rate).

There, class rank may eventually matter significantly. On the other hand, it's unlikely that not having weighted grades NOW is going to significantly impair his ability to take coursework which is weighted once he's in high school, yes? And maybe high school won't even look conventional at all at that point, if he's outstripped the offerings going through middle school.

My answer is "maybe." You know your family, you know your school system (will they weight college coursework taken in high school, for example?) and you know your CHILD.

For my daughter, this wouldn't have mattered much to her-- at least we would have said then that it didn't. I think. I was, however, very surprised when it mattered to her that she graduate numero uno in her class. I would not have predicted that.

While generally, it's good advice to take things one year at a time, and certainly there is no reason to fight this battle now... it's also true that it's best if you don't shoot yourselves in the foot later with decisions that you've made NOW.

Look carefully at high school offerings.
Talk to guidance counselor at high school and ask about what happens when your DS runs out of coursework there.
Get promises (ie-- to weight credits taken at a college) in writing.

This is going on a high school transcript, yes?

I'm actually irritated when we (as parents) aren't supposed to play both sides of the GT/acceleration card (that is, we have to CHOOSE whether we want our kids treated chronologically or cognitively and not bounce back and forth as it suits us) but then school administration sees fit to do it FOR us.

Sounds retaliatory to me to have your child taking a weighted class, but denying the ability to be treated like any of his other classmates.

A good HS is the most important thing. A good HS is defined as one that has a significant number of National Merit Semifinalists. This means 5 or more each year for the last five years. This will ensure that the programs at the HS, the teachers, and the kids are all at a high level and your child will be well prepared for college.

If the HS has only 1 or 2 or none each year that means that they rarely have anyone place in the top 1/2 or 1% of that state's senior class intellectually.

Thanks for the great words of wisdom from all!

I don't want to "shot myself in the foot" as HowlerKarma said. We are looking at an elite high school but I don't think it will hurt him not to have the weighted grades now since he really does fine without it. He's also doing great on his test high school course that he's taking right now. Once he's officially taking them it will just show as pass/fail for any he takes now on his high school transcripts, so I think I'm leaning towards letting it go.

I've fought so hard for so long, maybe I'm just stuck in fight mode and I need to let it ride for awhile. Thanks again to all. Whenever I need support, have a question or just need to clarify some things, I seek out this forum. It's been a life line that I hope all G/T parents know about!

Interesting... I was one of 2 my year, none the year before, my brother the only one the year before that. Not a super small HS either.

Now that part I might quibble about. If he's taking actual high school classes, I'd want him to get actual high school grades. The fact that my son took algebra 1 honors a couple of years earlier than his agemates doesn't mean he did any less work or learned any less than did they, and by golly, he deserves the 5 points toward his GPA as much as they do. (And actually, I just brought this to his counselor's attention this morning: the three classes he took at the brick and mortar school are being counted, but his state-run virtual school classes have not been. Thus far. In his case, it makes a difference between a 4.333 and a 4.642 on his GPA, and thus his class rank, so it's worth the battle.)

Does your high school actually give an extra GPA point for Algebra I? My dd's school doesn't give extra GPA points for honors classes, pre-AP classes, or college classes taken while in high school. AP classes are the only ones for which they get the bonus GPA points and, in math, that doesn't occur until AP calculus or AP statistics. Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, precalc, college Algebra, and trig all do not give bonus GPA points, whether they are honors or not.

Yes, this district does. Seems like each district does things its own way. I gather colleges tend to disregard weighting in a lot of circumstances, though which colleges and which weights are variable. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. If it's a high school class, and it's an advanced class, then it should be weighted. But then you get into the whole "what constitutes advanced?" question, and pretty soon we're talking in circles, or maybe ellipses and rhomboids.
That aside, though-- we can change it to "he deserves the 4 points toward his GPA" and the point is the same. He did the same work as someone two or three grades agead who took the same class, so he deserves the same end result (in this case, full credit and GPA points).

Edited to add: and fwiw, the counselor agreed with my previous point, so he now has full credit for all the classes he took pre-high school.