We believe that Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) has taken an unfair decision regarding school class rank and GPA that is adding to the stress students and parents are experiencing during the current social and economic situation due to COVID-19.

       On April 3rd, RRISD announced that: “Grades through the fourth six-week period of school, which ended February 14, 2020, will be used to determine GPA. The fifth six-week grading period began February 19 and was scheduled to end April 3. No work or assignments graded during the fifth six-week period will be counted toward GPA. The year-end GPA/RIC will be calculated as follows:

75% First Semester Average

25% Fourth Six-Weeks Grading Period”

       This petition takes inspiration from what Austin ISD and Leander ISD have decided on, and rather than having the 4th six weeks considered for GPA, we request RRISD to drop the entire spring semester when determining GPA and class rank. There are numerous reasons we believe the current decision is unfair to many students. First, many students spent much of their time in the 4th six weeks on various extracurricular activities, such as basketball, school trips, applying for summer programs, traveling for winter break, etc. and planned to focus on school harder in the 5th and 6th six weeks. Especially as many of these activities are now canceled, these students face an increased disadvantage in college admissions because of their now lower grades relative to their peers. Due to these factors, performance is not distributed equally across all six weeks for each student. Therefore, it is unjust to take a single marking period as a representative measure of an entire semester’s worth of grades. Most importantly, the 75%-25% calculation in itself is flawed; a semester has a key component of a final exam accounting for 16% of the overall semester average, which highly influences their semester average which is counted for GPA calculation. This opportunity is lost to students in the current policy, as students plan for semesters as a whole, not for a single six weeks; any chance for the student to traditionally recoup after the 4th six weeks has been lost. In the case that this petition successfully influences the RRISD committee, the 4th six weeks grades should not in any way determine GPA/RIC. Instead, the transcripts should display the pass-fail system for the semester. This way, juniors won’t be put at an unfair disadvantage in college admissions, and freshmen, sophomores, and juniors can continue their studies normally. Furthermore, the administration can preserve the integrity and intent of the original GPA calculation, maintaining equitable academics for all of the district. Thus, we believe that by disregarding second semester grades, we will both maximize fairness for all students and ease unnecessary stress during these uncertain times.