The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
GPA, fairness and Hamden High seniors
Hamden High School was recently caught up in a controversy regarding GPA and class rank. In June, two juniors came across a major flaw in Hamden High School's GPA system, discovering a miscalculation in the weight of P.E. courses.
The school allows students to take summer physical education classes for a pass-fail grade. These classes are not weighted the same as P.E. classes taken during the school year. Students who take P.E. classes during the academic year take it as a level 5 class, which is the lowest level. For these students, receiving the highest possible grade does not help their GPA because an A+ in a level 5 class is equivalent to a C+ in a level 9 class. However, summer P.E. classes are not leveled at all, so if a student takes the course and receives a pass, it is calculated as equivalent to an A+ in a level 9 class. Students who elected to keep the academic year P.E. courses were not told of this discrepancy, and therefore it hurt many of their GPAs.
The two juniors immediately spread the word to fellow students and gathered facts and information to present to the school administrators. However, no action was taken. In September, the now-seniors proposed a plan that called for immediate action to the Hamden Board of Education, one which would benefit all seniors, as early decision deadlines are in early November. The plan would be to allow students to choose whether or not P.E. (either from summer or the school year) would be counted toward their GPAs.
The conclusion that the Board of Education arrived at, however, was not satisfactory. While members of the BOE agreed that the students' solution was logical, it was not voted upon at the Sept. 20 board meeting. According to the chairman, there were legal issues that restricted the board's authority, though no specifics of said legal issues were given. The board's final vote implemented this solution: P.E. courses taken from this point forward would not count towards students' GPAs. This may sound like a reasonable decision. However, it leaves out the current seniors.
As a senior who is applying to college, I am hyper grade conscious, and I believe that this resolution is unfair. And I am not alone. My fellow seniors have worked hard to gather various pieces of information to create their argument and even come up with a solution, and yet, they received nothing for themselves. Although the intention was to help the entire Hamden High student community, the students' most immediate concern was the seniors. Seniors are in the season of college applications, which is arguably the most important time of their high school career, and colleges agree that GPA is a major part of college acceptance.
Some may not think that this is a serious issue because colleges recalculate GPAs using their own formulas. However, GPA is heavily emphasized by administrators and teachers, and many of us believe it defines our performance in school. Due to these reasons, it is crucial for our GPAs to properly represent our grades. It is not a surprise that many students went to great extents in an effort to bring awareness to this problem and to implement a solution because GPA also affects class rank, which is another controversial topic.
The students that first discovered the issue surrounding the inequity of GPAs have suggested that class rank should be abolished if “an equitable solution cannot be implemented.” This is because, if students' GPAs are unequal, then class rank is also inaccurate and not truly reflective of students' various achievements and hard work. GPA heavily influences class rank, so if the right solution to the issue of discrepancies between GPAs of those who took summer P.E. courses and those who did not cannot be implemented, then many students argue that class rank should be removed entirely.
Students that pushed for a proper solution to this problem did not do so out of competitiveness, or because they wished to be the first in the class. It is because the inequity of GPAs and the inaccuracy of class rank do not correctly show our accomplishments and academic work to colleges. For example, my GPA is affected by this discrepancy in the calculating system, and therefore my class rank is affected as well. Students like me, who were not able to take P.E. as Pass/Fail, are clearly and obviously negatively impacted by this miscalculation.
Of course, if the option had been available and I understood that an academic year level 5 class could be taken for a pass equivalent and calculated as a level 9 class, then why would I not have done it? Some students benefit from this while others are adversely affected. This is why we want our efforts to be properly represented to colleges and although GPA and class rank may not be all that college admissions offices look at, they are no doubt important parts of our college applications.
The lack of action by the administration has not helped students feel heard. Although authority was notified at the end of the last school year, no steps were taken to address the matter until this past September. Not only that, but administrators were aware of this issue from the beginning. They were in full knowledge of the discrepancies between students' GPAs, but did not bother to come up with a solution. Hamden High School will be sending letters to every college explaining the issue with students' GPAs. But this creates friction for our applications, and this step would not be necessary if the board had implemented a satisfactory solution that benefited seniors as well as the rest of the students at Hamden High. However, because the policy has already been put into place, what is important now is raising awareness so that Hamden will work to avoid problems like these for its future students.