The Alliance for Academic Excellence is weighing in for weighted
grades; they want Gilroy High School to award an extra grade point
for AP classes.
The Alliance for Academic Excellence is weighing in for weighted grades; they want Gilroy High School to award an extra grade point for AP classes.
Granted without argument: AP classes are harder than regular high school classes. In fact, AP classes can be harder than the equivalent class at some colleges. This is because the purpose of an AP class is to prepare for a rigorous AP exam. Many colleges confer college credit upon the student who scores a 3, 4, or 5 on an AP exam, as well they should, as such a student is showing an admirable level of proficiency.
But apart from the non-compulsory AP exam, what does a grade in an AP class say about a student’s performance? Unfortunately, not much.
A student should enter an AP class expecting to work hard and learn lots; a teacher should tackle an AP class expecting to work hard and impart vast quantities of information and encourage her students to take the exam. Many do so; for example, the GHS AP Spanish teacher, Mrs. Scettrini, and the economics and the U.S. government and politics teacher. Eighty-seven percent of Mrs. Scettrini’s students and 85 percent of the econ examinees earned 3s or better.
But some students attend AP classes purely for the coveted designation, and when grade weighting is offered, for the extra points. Some teachers, for various reasons, don’t succeed in preparing their students for the exam. In such cases, do extra points mean anything? Nay not.
Colleges know this. They have their formulae, and, according to Pamela Burnett, director of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley, “We don’t pay any attention to the GPA and class rank as gauged by the high school.” They re-calculate the GPAs and class ranks because of the underlying problem: grade inflation.
Grade inflation. Thirty years ago, a C was an average grade: it meant that you were turning all your work in and performing at the average level of the class. An A meant you were working hard and learning at least 90 percent of the material. Now a C means you are keeping your seat warm, and perhaps turning work in. An A means vastly different things from different teachers.
So what is Berkeley to do when all its applicants have GPAs in the 3.9 to 4.6 range? Throw them out the window, that’s what, and rely on test scores: APs, SATs, the whole alphabet soup. This is monstrously unfair to the student who doesn’t test well; he ends up as roadkill on the college application highway. Alas, I see no remedy.
Let me hasten to say that I am not opposed to weighting grades for AP classes. I am, in fact, neutral on this issue. Colleges can read a transcript and tell whether AP classes have been grade weighted. They re-calculate in an attempt to get the best possible student body, with huge efforts to encourage diversity. Weighted grades are purely irrelevant, and I am surprised that AAE is spending its energy in this battle. But it’s up to them.
I am passionately for AP classes and exams. They provide much needed rigor, a star for which to shoot. If students attempt AP classes, if they work hard, study hard, learn much – at that point, they have won. If they are also emboldened to take the AP exams, they have gained more.
If they score well, if they are admitted to college because of their hard work, if they learn thereby college credit, well, that’s icing on the cake.
In general, I applaud the efforts of the AAE, but I think they are mistaken in this case. If our AP American history students are learning the provisions of the Missouri Compromise, that is wonderful. If they are scoring well on the AP exam, that is great. If, without having learned or scored well, they are getting a 5.0 rather than a 4.0 on their transcript, that is irrelevant. We need to keep a tight focus on learning here; it’s awfully easy to drift into irrelevancies.
