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2006-2007 Officers
Co-Presidents: Debora Hoard & Marlene Stone
Co-Vice-Presidents: Karen Large & Sharon Kelly
Treasurer: Nancy Leonelli
Secretary: Marilyn Rea Beyer
The meeting was called to
order, the treasurer’s report was submitted. Questions were taken from the
floor.
Q: Why do we have a negative balance on budget?
A: We have a reserve fund of $15,000. Also, typically, not all the stipends
get used. But we could, of course, use more membership. We are just over 50%.
Some people commented that this was poor, but it is in fact average.
Q: Didn’t we used to have higher membership?
A: No clear answer.
Q: What is the landscaping line item?
A: Any landscaping you see around high school is volunteer effort. The high
school has gotten a large share of the budget so it didn’t continue to look
like a construction zone. This is to make sure volunteers have the resources
they need.
Q: (Olga Guttag, school board member) How is the donation from town being
carried? In effect, we are processing money from the town for landscaping. It
has never been separated out in the past, but for full disclosure it is being
separated. We want to make sure that people understand that the town is not
giving money to PTSA, but that PTSA is giving all this money to school for
landscaping, and processing town money for same.
Move to accept budget. Seconded. Voice vote in favor.
The meeting was then turned over to
GPA Committee.
What follows are excerpts from the committee’s presentation and attendees
questions and comments. “Q” indicates a parent’s comment or inquiry.
Weighted GPA Committee Members:
John “Jack” Papadonis (Social Studies)
Chris Doucette (Math)
Elliot Gimble (Science)
Karen Russell (English)
Dr. Michael Jones, Principal (ex-officio)
On the committee but not in attendance: Nikki Amara (Guidance - no longer at
LHS) Rebecca Federspiel (Social Studies)
Jack Papadonis:
We’ll take you through the process we went through to study issue of weighted
GPA.
[NOTE: The report can be viewed online at this address: <http://lhs.lexingtonma.org/gpa_report.html>. The full
report, including appendices, can be reviewed in hard copy in the LHS Main
Office.]
Committee three or four years ago recommended getting rid of weighted GPA.
Faculty voted overwhelmingly to get rid of weighted GPA. After further
discussion, it was decided to re-study the matter.
We took it upon ourselves to look at new data. Did a literature search to see
what the literature says about weighted GPA. Not a lot there on weighted GPA,
but a great deal of information on class rank, which is related. We held a
parents forum, used parents questions and concerns to guide our study. We
held a student forum, which was not terribly well attended, and surveyed
students in January, to find out how students felt. Statistical analysis was
an important part of the process. Looked at data from college admission
counselors. (How do they look at transcript, compare students from different
schools?) We asked how they treated home- schooled children applying to
colleges, versus students coming out of public schools with GPAs. There is a
lot of data in the report. Looked at data, analyzed it, made a decision for a
recommendation.
The committee is recommending eliminating weighted GPA. Presented an
“Addendum to the Executive Summary: The Rationale for Unweighted GPA.”
(below)
For the convenience of the reader in the general distribution of this report,
the Committee has added the following rationale for it recommendation to
eliminate the weighted GPA from the Lexington High School
student assessment system:
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1
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Surveys and studies indicate that over
the past ten years, colleges are increasingly diversifying their criteria for
admissions; GPAs reported by high schools are usually recalculated by
college admissions boards; and class rank (which is closely linked to the
use of weighted GPA) is less of a factor in college admissions than once it
had been.
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2
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Weighted GPA, which over the years has
been affiliated with class ranking, has lost whatever significance it has
had in schools like Lexington
High School, which
dropped class rankings two decades ago.
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3
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While there is no consensus within the Lexington High School student population on
the value of weighted GPA, the faculty and student/faculty groups that have
examined the issue over the past four years have consistently and
overwhelmingly recommended that weighted GPAs be dropped.
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4
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Weighted GPAs are useless in comparing Lexington students to
students of other high schools, because no commonly accepted weighting
system exists in secondary education.
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5
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Weighted GPAs provide a distorted way of
comparing Lexington
High School students
to one another because of widespread flaws in the system, including the
arbitrary and inconsistent assigning of numerical enhancements to courses
and programs within the broader program of studies.
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6
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Weighted GPAs are disadvantageous to
Lexington High School students who excel in highly challenging courses or
programs that do not offer advanced placement options or honors options or
that do not allow students to repeat honors level courses (such as concert
choir or varsity debate).
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7
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Weighted GPAs have proven useless as
predictors of academic performance among students changing course levels,
thus suggesting that the weighting system is arbitrary and flawed.
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8
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The weighted GPA is inconsistent with the
High Schools Mission Statement, which affirms the values of high academic
standards within an environment that discourages .unhealthy stress and
unproductive competition.
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Papadonis:
In particular, we determined that using a weighted grade point average (WGPA)
is inconsistent with the LHS mission statement, as pointed out in point #8.
Kids feel hard work is diminished because of weighted GPA.
[Papadonis then presented a series of statistics gleaned from an independent
study of various colleges and universities admissions processes.]
Factors in admissions – 1993-2004
Class rank dropped from 42% of colleges using it as a factor to 28% using it
as a factor of considerable importance in admissions.
Grades rose as a factor.
Grades in college-prep courses are an overwhelming factor. WGPA doesn’t even
show up on the study.
Colleges have de-emphasized class rank, but increased value placed on the
student essay.
At LHS, the emphasis on writing in the curriculum pays dividends, as evidence
anecdotally by students who report experiences in their college courses.
The research is there that says rank is less and less of a factor, and
colleges are looking at “overall” GPAs, as opposed to WGPA.
Q&A
Q: Aren’t we
disadvantaging kids who want to go to the few schools who consider weighted
GPA, e.g., Brown?
A: (Papadonis)
We’re making decisions based on what is best of the vast majority of
students. And we have seen that the rigor at LHS is a strong factor in
recommending LHS students to selective schools.
A: (Gimble)
Weighted GPA is most useful in comparing students from the same school;
hence, deciding which LHS student to take and which to reject.
A: (Papadonis) Recommendation
is to put the phrase “college prep” on the transcript before all courses that
are, indeed, taught as college prep at LHS.
Q: Is there a
consensus among students?
A: (Papadonis)
Many students did say they wanted weighted grades, but on the same survey
made narrative comments that were the opposite of that response.
A:(Doucette) We
saw big discrepancies and confusion among students’ survey responses.
A: (Papadonis)
Don’t forget, we’re looking at three colleges [that consider weighted GPA].
The vast majority of colleges look at five basic courses (English, Science,
Math, Social Studies, Foreign Language) and re-calculate the GPA based on
their own formula (say, A=4, etc.). They will then add to it the factors of
difficulty of coursework.
Q: I am troubled that
three of ten schools you surveyed, 30%, said they would ask for weighted GPA.
[NOTE: Referring to survey of ten schools LHS students apply to most often.]
How many say that if they get it, it is a negative?
A: (Papadonis)
They are getting applications from schools and home scholars that do not have
any GPA at all.
Q: Do all those
schools really re-calculate the GPAs?
A: There is a real
interesting article about how admissions are handled behind the scenes.
[Guidance department can direct parents to this article.]
Q: We would like to
have the weighted GPA upon request of student...because...
A: (Papadonis)
That’s already happening with students in our AP courses, etc.
Q: I’m more concerned
with the signal we send to students about the value of the grade they get in
harder courses. A kid could get a D in an Honors class, but an A in a Level
1.
A: (Doucette) They
get the bump from the “AP” or “Honors” in front of their course titles.
A: (Russell) It
is simply not so that a poor grade in an Honors class is doubled in a lower
level class. As teachers we know that for a student in Level 1, an A
represents incredibly hard work; we need to honor that work.
Q: What about the
recommendation of listing the average grade in the class?
A: (Papadonis)
One way to make a student’s transcript clearer, is to list the average for
his/her class.
Q: What is this
conversation about? Are we focusing on college admissions? Out of the four
groups parents/students/admissions officers/faculty – which group/s want to
change this policy?
A: (Doucette)
We want all students at this school to do the best they can. Yes, our kids
have been getting into elite colleges with weighted GPAs. This [WGPA] is
still only a tool for comparing one LHS student to another.. The three
schools that want weighted WGPAs also wanted class rank, and we don’t use
that. WGPA is linked to class rank.
Q: We’re trying to
take an incentive away from students to reach higher, in higher-level
courses.
Q: What’s the harm in
weighted GPAs?
A: When kids get
their grades in homeroom, they see the GPAs and even if they have straight
A’s they are demoralized if another student’s GPA is weighted.
Q: Are they
[colleges] having trouble interpreting LHS transcripts?
A: (Jones)
Colleges cannot always see that virtually all LHS classes are college prep.
Q: Wouldn’t it be
better to improve the methodology rather than throw out the policy
altogether?
A: (Papadonis)
Interesting comment.
Q: My biggest concern
is that there are no clear goals for this committee. Not do we or not have a
GPA, a goal is are we going to try to see if our kids are getting into
college or not. You clearly did not do that. When I look at your statistics I
see that students want it, 30% of colleges want it,
A: (Papadonis)
[Explained the task the committee was charged with completing]
Q: If that was your
assignment, that was stupid. [Questioner left the session]
Q: One of the reasons
I am behind your decision is that the system itself is flawed. If you compare
a high performing Chemistry student/Concert Choir kid gets higher
consideration than Chemistry student/athlete.
Q: Weighted GPA
benefits a few high performer students with high interest parents. What do
you think the advantages will be to the larger LHS population?
A: (Papadonis)
In a discussion with an admissions officer at a major university, that person
didn’t mention GPA at all. Mentioned big reputation of Lexington High School.
It is to our advantage to raise the bar for all students. That is achieved in
every class when we push students to the best of their ability; designation
of class levels delineates level of performance.
Q: But what about
advantages to the student population?
A: (Doucette)
We have levels for different kinds of kids. I try to think what is the best
fit for the student? If a student is bent on getting into a class because of
the WGPA, I’ll recommend against it and in favor of getting the right class
for this student. On the flip side, I’m going to try to push the student into
the highest level class they can be successful in.
A: (Papadonis) To
put it quite simply, students should not be taking a class to get into a
specific college or to get a WGPA. They should be taking a course to benefit
them. When you weight a class, that weighting becomes a factor in choosing
the class.
Case in point: A poor math student decided to take an AP statistics course
senior year. The parent asked, “Why in heavens name would you take
statistics? You’ve never gotten above a C in Math? You can’t possibly do well
in AP Stats.” She said, “Dad, I’m going to be a social science major. I need
to prepare to study stats, even if I fail.” That’s the reason to take a
class. Not for a grade. And this kid did fine. I know, she’s my daughter.
A: (Jones) Lincoln
Sudbury and other similar area schools don’t use weighted GPA. When you look
at what classes are weighted and which are not, it simply does not make
sense. [Dr. Jones listed comparisons among several LHS classes for which GPA
is weighted and not weighted.]
Q: We know the
faculty and administration really wants to drop WGPA. There is still
confusion among parents and students. Can’t we find consensus and reach out
and get concrete information? Can’t we find those issues and causes that will
build this community?
Co-president Hoard, our moderator for the evening, closed the formal session
at 9 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Marilyn Rea Beyer
Secretary
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