Northville Schools Proposes Harmful New Changes to High School Grading Scale

Last Friday, May 12th, the Northville Public School District released a document detailing the future changes in the GPA policy. Taking inspiration from other schools around the Northville area, the policy introduces a 5.0 weighted GPA to replace the existing 4.0 unweighted GPA. The new policy awards a 5.0 for an A any Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) class. However, any honors or regular level receive an 4.0 for an A. Additionally, the policy implements a universal cut off for an A at 93% for any class.

While this might seem fair, given that AP classes award 5.0's for these A grades, this change would be detrimental in the college admissions process. Colleges do not consider school-reported GPA in the admissions process as weighting systems are greatly varied. As a result, most colleges, including local powerhouses University of Michigan - Ann Arbor and Michigan State University, recalculate GPAs based on letter grade to set all students on an equal playing field. So while it may appear logical to set the cutoff for an A at 93% across the board, the current system of an unweighted GPA with the cutoff set at 89.5% for AP classes, and 91% for honors classes benefits students far more. Under the current system, a student achieving a 91% in an AP-level course would receive an A, and a college would calculate the student's GPA with that class as having an A. Under the new system, this student would be given an A-, negatively impacting their college admissions decision.

Additionally, within the released document, it is stated that the proposed changes should have been released in time for concerned students and parents to attend the May 9th Board Meeting, but the document was not released until May 12th. Despite the widespread opposition to this change, Northville Public Schools has not allowed for more feedback sessions than the three (one is a 'Principal Coffee Chat' during school hours for parents only) that are currently slated before the Board Meeting on May 23rd. The disadvantages and downsides of these proposed changes are vast and wide-reaching.

A change.org petition has been created that can be found at: tiny.cc/npsgrading. The petition has garnered over 1130 student and parent signatures in just over two days.

Some important dates to note:

• May 16th, 2017 at 9:00 AM in the NHS Cafeteria, Principal Coffee Chat for Parents
• May 17th, 2017 at 6:30 PM in the NHS Library, Parent and Student Feedback Session Regarding Proposed Changes
• May 23rd, 2017 at 7:00 PM at Cooke School, Board of Education Meeting to Vote on Proposed Changes

Link to the released document:

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LOWUPSl_IVPLrQboos0ioxSAMjYZ6j_u7PL_WXhJWX8/edit

Written by Casey Fortman and Alexander Steinig

Northville High School Class of 2018