Students in the Warren County School District could soon be seeing changes in how their grade point average and class rank are determined.
"The math that calculates the GPA was not appropriate with regard to weighting," Amy Stewart, director of instructional technology and communications, told the school board's Curriculum, Instruction and Technology Committee on Monday evening.
For the upcoming 2010 graduating class, the changes made to school district Policy 9743 would be enacted to establish valedictorian, salutatorian and historian.
Under the changes, a dual enrollment course would be awarded .33 credit per college credit-hour, with a 3 credit-hour college course being awarded a full credit upon successful completion.
Additionally, the updated policy states, "All curricular areas, whether they are special education, vocational, academic, or cyber are used to determine the grade average, which are then in turn used to determine the final class ranking at the end of the senior year. Grades received in any Pass/Fail course, or in the required courses of Physical Education 9, 10, 11, and 12 shall not be counted towards a student's GPA."
If the motion passed by the committee on Monday and sent to the full board is ultimately approved, a second rank calculation would be based on Policy 9743 prior to the changes, utilizing .5 credits for a three-credit college course. If the rank calculation resulted in a different valedictorian, salutatorian and historian, those students would be named co-valedictorian, co-salutatorian and co-historian
"We don't want to take anything away from anybody," said Stewart.
The second system for calculating the class valedictorian, salutatorian and historian will only be utilized this year.
For graduating classes beginning in 2011, students would be able to add 10 percentage points to their final grade if they are enrolled in an advanced placement or dual enrollment courses. Students enrolled in honors courses would be able to add an additional five percentage points to their final grade. The modifications are derived from new Policy 9742.
Both policies were forwarded to the full board for approval.
The next meeting of the Curriculum, Instruction and Technology Committee will be Feb. 22 at the Warren County Career Center following the Physical Plant and Facilities meeting.