GAINESVILLE – The way class rank is calculated for Hall County high school students will be changing.
The Hall County Board of Education decided Monday evening that beginning with the freshman class (9th graders) arriving on campus in August the weighted system would be adjusted to better reflect and incentivize classes taken at a higher level of challenge than normal.
The idea to give Quality Points to classes taken at the AP (Advanced Placement) or IB (International Baccalaureate) level within the high school has been in effect for several years, but now that a dual enrollment program is operational school officials say classes taken at the college level need to be weighted appropriately as well.
Kevin Bales, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, explained, “If a student received a 91 (grade score) at a college, UNG for example, in dual-enrollment, the reality is we never know it’s a 91. They send in letter grades and not numerical grades…so that translates by our (current) policy as a 95.”
Dr. Terry Sapp, High School Improvement Specialist for Hall County Schools, said the decision to not apply the changes to current high school students immediately, but rather to gradually bring the changes onboard beginning with freshmen in August was reflected in the potential changes to class rankings at the six county high schools.
(See image 2, “Class Rank”, to the left for the effect on class rank if the new weighting model was implemented immediately.)
At one of the unidentified high schools on the chart (column 4) the student currently ranked #1 in their graduating class would fall to #9, and school officials realized there was not sufficient opportunity left in that student’s high school career to take courses needed to return to the #1 position.
Superintendent Will Schofield said, "Another piece of being fair is students who entered high school three years ago entered under a set of rules that were explained in terms of how we will calculate your place in the class."
(See image 3, "GPA Calculator", to the left for details on how the weighting policy will change in August for rising freshmen.)
"What it does is it puts everybody on a level playing field," Schofield added. "We have said all along one of our strategic goals is to get more and more students taking our more rigorous courses at the high school level."
