Do you weight your child's GPA?

[Melissa B]

I had to learn how to post a poll in order to help me figure this out. :) My dd is taking classes at FLVS that are listed as honors. Should I weight these .5 more?

[8filltheheart]

I don't weight any courses even if AP or college level.

[snowbeltmom]

I don't weight any courses even if AP or college level.

 

:iagree:Same here. My son took AP Physics B this past year at our local high school. The transcript from the school lists his grade as a "5." However, on his official homeschooled transcript, I simply listed his grade as an "A".

 

I also don't assign grades to subjects studied in the homeschool setting, so I am not calculating an overall GPA.

[MyThreeSons]

I calculated my ds's GPA with a straight 4-3-2 scale. I noted that his GPA was unweighted.

 

Here is SC, the actual percentage in the class impacts the grade points awarded. So, for instance, a 95 and a 96 are both As, but the 96 is worth .125 more grade points than the 95 for a CP class, even more for an Honors or AP class.

 

I also don't assign grades to subjects studied in the homeschool setting, so I am not calculating an overall GPA.

 

You may run into some problems when your children apply for college. Some colleges are really picky about what's on the transcript, and a graduating GPA is often specified as necessary.

[snowbeltmom]

You may run into some problems when your children apply for college. Some colleges are really picky about what's on the transcript, and a graduating GPA is often specified as necessary.

 

:iagree: You are right. I realize that I may have to bend on this issue, but I would prefer not to issue a grade. I know this is going to vary from college to college. If a particular college insists on a letter grade then I will assign one, but the whole concept to me seems a little strange in a homeschool setting.

 

For the most part, I think letter grades only indicate how well a student performed when compared to other students in his class - and even then, I think way more students receive an "A" today then when I was in school. Over 60% of the student body is on the honor roll at our local high school, yet the average SAT scores are in the low 500's and the passing rates on the AP exams are very low.

 

I don't think letter grades are very meaningful in a homeschool setting when a student does not advance in a topic until complete mastery at the current level is obtained. If my child was currently working at a "B" level in a topic, he would not advance until he was at an "A" level. As a result, every letter grade I assigned would be an "A."

 

My son took one class at our local public school last year so he could play on the tennis team. In order to comply with the state's athletic association's by-laws, I had to provide a letter grade for each of his courses. I did, even though I would have preferred not to.

[MyThreeSons]

Over 60% of the student body is on the honor roll at our local high school, yet the average SAT scores are in the low 500's and the passing rates on the AP exams are very low.

 

 

Our local paper publishes an All-Academic Team at the end of each high school sports season. They used to include GPA, class rank and SAT or ACT scores. There were lots of students who had very high plus-4 GPAs (like 4.875) and SAT scores like 1020 or ACT scores like 21. It seemed incongruous to me. I noticed that this spring they stopped reporting the SAT/ACT scores.

[snowbeltmom]

Our local paper publishes an All-Academic Team at the end of each high school sports season. They used to include GPA, class rank and SAT or ACT scores. There were lots of students who had very high plus-4 GPAs (like 4.875) and SAT scores like 1020 or ACT scores like 21. It seemed incongruous to me. I noticed that this spring they stopped reporting the SAT/ACT scores.

 

Exactly! I am sure it also seems incongruous to the college admissions folks. I don't fault the colleges for placing so much emphasis on standardized test scores. Grade inflation is rampant.

 

I guess my main reason for not assigning a homeschool "mommy" grade is that I feel it would be disregarded by the college admissions staff. I think that the standardized test scores would trump any grade I would assign.

 

Obviously, if a college required grades, or if my child needed a weighted GPA in order to be considered for a scholarship at a college, then I will jump through both hoops and assign grades and weight them.:D

[Kareni]

I did not weight any of my daughter's grades even though she took four AP classes and numerous community college classes. I noted on her transcript that her GPA was unweighted.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[TravelingChris]

I did weight because that is what the local school districts did or do. I didn't want my kids to be at any disadvantage.

[Rhonda in TX]

I'm not going to weight. I think the main reason PS weights is for class rankings. I've heard that some colleges actually remove the weighting and recompute the GPAs. Does anyone know if this is true?

[StephanieZ]

Sure, !they all have 5.0s.

 

4.0 for doing so well in theirs (nearly all ungraded) schoolwork, plus 1.0 for being so darn cute.

 

Lol, sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Brigid in NC]

I weight grades using the same standard/honors/AP/CC scale used by the public and private schools in our area. On the transcript I show yearly weighted and unweighted grades, and I include the grading and weighting scales I used to compute grades/weights. :)

[creekland]

I'm not going to weight. I think the main reason PS weights is for class rankings. I've heard that some colleges actually remove the weighting and recompute the GPAs. Does anyone know if this is true?

 

We do not adjust the GPA and we definitely assign one as colleges want to see one.

 

We did have one college adcom tell us (in a group setting) that they totally recalculate GPA and only use the 4 main subjects, then put them on a 4.0 scale. However, they said they looked at the rest and wanted to see rigorous courses for academic majors.

 

I agree that a homeschool GPA is kind of meaningless, but nonetheless, colleges want it to be there (at least those we've applied to have). They also want outside confirmation of mommy grades via standardized testing and some outside classes (cc, AP tests, etc).

[emubird]

I did not weight grades.

 

There was often an option to check whether the transcript GPA was weighted or unweighted on the college admissions forms. I was also careful to note on the transcript that the GPA was unweighted. I also made sure to point out if she'd taken an AP test following a certain class, although I didn't call the class AP. I didn't list anything as honors. I figured the class list spoke for itself.

 

As far as giving grades -- I didn't want to, but every college my daughter looked at insisted on grades and a GPA. Initially, I just gave her all A's and made a note that "we teach to mastery" or some such thing, which gave a basis for why they were all A's. But then she started taking outside classes and getting all A's anyway, so I didn't bother with the mastery note anymore.

 

I sometimes wonder if my giving her all A's gave her something to live up to.

 

But, as I asked my husband when we were discussing this and he thought a straight A transcript might look fishy, WHICH class did he propose to give her a B in? At what point could he honestly say she hadn't done A work?

 

Anyway grading on a strict numerical scale is just silly. 90 percent does not mean an A -- it just means that's the the numerical score that students reached when the teacher/professor thought they knew the material. In some classes, that percent might be as low as 50 and the student might still get an A. A grade, no matter how you package it, is still just the teacher's gut reaction on how well the student knew the material.

[Laurie4b]

I'm not going to weight. I think the main reason PS weights is for class rankings. I've heard that some colleges actually remove the weighting and recompute the GPAs. Does anyone know if this is true?

 

Colleges do whatever it is that they want to do with the transcript. While some may unweight it, others weight it. I suppose there are some that take it "as is." Of course they cannot weight it if they don't have reason to, for instance, if there is no honors or AP designation on the transcript.

[snowbeltmom]

I did not weight grades.

 

As far as giving grades -- I didn't want to, but every college my daughter looked at insisted on grades and a GPA. Initially, I just gave her all A's and made a note that "we teach to mastery" or some such thing, which gave a basis for why they were all A's. But then she started taking outside classes and getting all A's anyway, so I didn't bother with the mastery note anymore.

... A grade, no matter how you package it, is still just the teacher's gut reaction on how well the student knew the material.

 

You guys are starting to convince me that I should be assigning letter grades.:glare: It just seems so meaningless to me. We work to mastery as well, and all the grades I assign will be "A's."

 

For those that assign grades, do you explain your grading policy?

 

Is there anyone out there who has applied to college without providing grades for classes that are strictly homeschooled classes, i.e. not online, cc courses, etc?