The board finally voted on wGPAs!

Thank you for supporting weighted GPAs. We wouldn’t have reached this point without your help. Decision: On Tuesday night the board voted to adopt Dr. McGee’s latest proposal after making some minor amendments. The most contentious issue was weighting for freshmen. Board members Todd Collins and Melissa Baten Caswell voted for weighting. The other three all voted against it. Both high schools will submit eligible honors classes (such as Chem H) to the University of California for their approval annually. Plan: For the classes of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, i.e. current high school students, the traditional, cumulative weighted GPA will be reported. Students will receive an extra point for all PAUSD-designated honors courses as well as AP courses taken in all grades. For students graduating 2021 (our incoming 2017 freshmen) and beyond, the weighted GPA calculation will change. Honors and AP courses taken in grade 9 will no longer be weighted. In addition, including PAUSD-designated honors that are not UC-approved will be contingent upon whether or not PAUSD develops criteria and the Board approves a process for designating courses as Honors courses. If this does not happen, only UC-designated courses will be included in the wGPA calculation. Follow-up: By August 1, 2019 an evaluation plan will be completed to study the impact of reporting wGPA and this will be conducted every year for three years. Factors such as enrollment in electives, enrollment in honors and AP classes, students’ mental and physical health, and homework loads will be examined. It is unknown what the results of these evaluations will mean for current students grandfathered into the traditional, cumulative weighted GPA and for those coming in later. We must remain vigilant to ensure that the administration doesn’t rename all Honors courses to "Advanced," causing them to lose weighting. We must also ensure there is balanced representation on the committees that will evaluate course names and the impact of wGPA reporting. In addition, the board chose not to set up a task force to address stress. While there were some encouraging signs that this would be done soon, we should keep tabs on this as well.