Sunday, May 19, 2024
During a regularly scheduled Granbury ISD board of trustees meeting, the board voted to adopt a new grade point average calculation that will go into effect for current eighth graders who will soon begin their freshman year.
A presentation was made by Granbury High School Principal Jamie Robinson during the meeting, who put together a team to look further into GHS’ current GPA system.
“After careful analysis of our current GPA policy, it was determined that our current policy is outdated and limits opportunities for students to participate in CCMR, CTE, dual credit, and advanced placement courses that may affect ranking,” Robinson read from the presentation. “We evaluated the policies of 10 similar districts and created this draft to fulfill goals of our district and campus strategic planning and TEA’s A-F accountability system to produce a more appropriate and aligned GPA policy.”
The team looked at different GPA policies from around the region to determine what would be the best fit for GHS students. Instead of the previous 6.0 scale, the new GPA system will work based on a tier system with a 5.0 scale. The four tiers are broken down by difficulty of class, meaning more difficult classes will carry more weight.
“This will allow for those students who are wanting to take those AP and dual credit classes to be rewarded for their hard work,” Robinson said during the meeting.
With the new system, level three and four courses will be non-calculated for athletics and fine arts to encourage continued participation, more focus will be put on SAT/ACT preparedness, the school will be more aligned to other districts in state, and transfer students will have an easier transition.
“One of the things that was happening is that if a student moved in (to the district) they were kind of penalized (academically) for just moving in,” Robinson said during the meeting. “Now with this new system when a student transfers and if they had the same course we did, we will be able to give them credit.”
Transfer grades for Tier 1 courses will receive Tier 1 weight. When a student transfers semester grades for courses that are not offered by the district, students will receive Tier 1 weight and the district will include the grades in the calculation of class rank.
GISD Superintentendent Jeremy Glenn spoke on behalf of his son and the difficulties of being a transfer student with the old GPA system.
“One of the huge advantages of this new system is that it puts everybody at a level playing field. It helps with honor classes in the area, too, from school to school,” Glenn said during the meeting.
An email was sent out to parents Jan. 29 discussing the new system, and Robinson will present the new system during different CTE and middle school nights.
The board adopted the new system in a 6-0 vote; Board Secretary Billy Wimberly was absent.
