Dear Editor:
This Thursday evening the Gilroy Unified School District Board
of Education will be presented with the grade policy
recommendations of Gilroy High School’s Leadership Committee.
Dear Editor:
This Thursday evening the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education will be presented with the grade policy recommendations of Gilroy High School’s Leadership Committee. As parents of GHS students, we strongly disagree with the recommendation to unweight grades, believe it is in conflict with the direction this district has set to promote academic achievement and rigor, and feel that our voice was not properly represented on the committee. We plan to present our views on this issue to the Board and urge others to join us on May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the district office. If you are unable to attend, you may contact our school board representatives directly.
The Leadership Committee is the school’s site governance team and is composed of 29 individuals representing all the different entities responsible for making the school run, including teachers, staff, district office personnel, parents, and students. Only 10 members were in attendance at the last meeting when the vote of 6-4 for final recommendation was taken; this number included the two parent representatives but not the two student representatives or the district office representative.
Prior to the Committee’s recent meeting, separate meetings were held for parents and students where they were informed of the issues and allowed to voice their opinions; a staff member with views against weighting the GPA presented the philosophy and reasons behind the Committee’s recommendation at the parents‚ meeting, and the students were also advised of the different views on this issue. Those parents and students who took the time to come to these meetings were unanimous in their opinion favoring a weighted GPA, a system that had been in effect at the high school until this year.
We are dismayed at the Committee’s vote and especially the vote of the two parent representatives who did not attend the special parents’ meeting and did not properly reflect our viewpoint. We now feel compelled to go before the Board, that will be presented with a first reading on the issue at its May meeting and will take a final vote at its June meeting. Our case will include the following points and demands:
• The purpose of the GPA is to measure academic achievement and academic rigor.
• Though there is no national standard, most high schools choose to weigh their students’ GPAs because it is the system that best accomplishes this purpose.
• Study after study proves that a weighted GPA system encourages students to take challenging courses, helps students be more competitive during the college admission process, and increases students‚ chances for success in obtaining scholarships.
• Colleges consistently use class rank as a means of evaluating a student’s academic qualifications and predicting potential future success in college courses.
• The position taken by the Leadership Committee that the GPA and class ranking should be used to accomplish other goals, such as rewarding effort and improvement, is not standard practice and would put Gilroy High students at a distinct disadvantage when applying for college admission and scholarship awards. These other goals are of great importance, but the GPA is not the appropriate tool to use to achieve them.
• The position taken by the Leadership Committee that an unweighted GPA will encourage students to be well rounded simply flies in the face of reality. Record numbers of students are already availing themselves of the rich variety of electives offered at the high school, such as band, choir, and journalism. In fact, electives such as these are requirements for admission to California’s university system.
• The position taken by the Leadership Committee that a nonweighted GPA will promote a less competitive school culture is not a valid argument. The question whether competition should be promoted in academics, as it is in sports, is a whole other topic of discussion. The main point in this discussion is that in our students’ world, there is competition for employment, colleges, and scholarships; the GPA, whether weighted or unweighted, is neither the cause nor the means to change this fact.
• The current senior class is currently caught in an extremely unfair position at this point, and the Board has it in its power to provide the remedy. The high school switched over to an unweighted GPA system under a previous administration but it was never implemented until this year. What this means is that for three years the senior class received a class ranking based on a weighted GPA. A high school transcript is an official part of one’s academic record, and students will be asked to supply one to colleges, graduate schools, special programs, and future employers long after they have graduated. If we agree that a weighted GPA offers the best ranking system for GHS, then the Board should guarantee that the Class of 2003 not suffer from a poor decision made in the past. A vote on the Leadership Committee’s recommendation cannot legally take place until next month, but a recommendation on this senior class can and needs to happen prior to graduation preparations.
We want what is best and fair for students. We do not want a school environment that puts grades above everything; we too are concerned that Gilroy High School produces students that are well-rounded citizens, and parents have a responsibility to work hand-in-hand with the school to set healthy standards.
However, Gilroy High School is first and foremost a school and as such its policies must reflect this district’s priority commitment first and foremost to academics. In its recent decisions, the school board, the district office, and the high school administration and staff have done exactly that, and we now ask them to continue in the direction that they have already set.
Bob Heisey, Jackie Stevens, Iris Kabert, Rhoda Bress, Denise Apuzzo, Rhona Chan, Gilroy, on behalf of The Alliance For Academic Excellence
Submitted Tuesday, May 13 to ed****@ga****.com
