Keller ISD is proposing a plan to implement major changes in their EIC policy, tweaking the ranking and grading systems beginning with the freshman class of 2018-19.
The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 5 in 2013, enabling the district to strategize the iGraduate plan to offer a wide variety of classes for their students. Essentially, these classes are to help them explore different career opportunities and/or follow the career pathway that they’re already pursuing. The same motivation applies for the construction of KCAL (Keller Center for Advanced Learning). However, what the district has learned is that more and more students are dropping these classes because of the GPA game; they are choosing to take more weighted classes to chase a number instead of classes that can provide them experience for their future. As a result, these students are left drowning in a consistent flow of stress and anxiety.
“If you have students come through our system, you know that every year we do what’s called SOS, or Signs of Suicide screening,” said Assistant Superintendent Dustin Blank at a district-lead meeting about the proposed changes. “We’ve seen the 7% increase [since last year] in the students with outcries. Every time we had an outcry, we put them through an online screening and find out what it is they were stressed about, and one of the things that they mentioned was their academic stress.”
Blank discussed how students think they have no choice but to take classes that will help them maintain a specific rank and GPA, feeling obligated to compete in a system that is causing them a lot of pressure.
“It’s not that competition is bad,” he said. “It’s just how the current competition is set up.”
Top 10% is ranked by law. The district is required to have a ranking system, but they have control over how this system should work. The changes they are suggesting include the following:
- GPA will be calculated each semester.
Different from how it has been the past few years, grade point averages will be posted starting after the first semester of the freshman class of 2018-19. Students will be able to view their GPA on Home Access, but their rank will not be shown–this is due to the fluctuation in numbers that occurs at the beginning of their high school careers and the demotivation that it may cause for those who aren’t in a very stable spot. Instead of their specific rank, there will be a key showing where their GPA fits in a range of percentages. However, if parents would like to see their child’s exact rank number, they may ask permission from the counselors to give them the said information. The top 10% cut score will then be reported and posted once a year beginning the Spring of freshman year.
- Only the top 10% students will have their rank posted on their transcripts at the end of their junior year.
Those who are in the 25% percentile or below will still be able to request the counselors for their rank to show up on their transcript if needed while applying for college.
Additionally, Blank also explained how being in the top 10% or top 7% only gets the student inside a university’s lobby; getting accepted in the actual college of their major mostly depends on how well-rounded they are and if they took classes that are applicable to the path they are following.
“What did the AP classes do? They got you 10 points. What didn’t they do? Get you in the university of your choice,” he said, emphasizing how colleges at some point strip the numbers down on transcripts and solely focus on other activities that the students were involved in.
Another plan in this proposal is changing how Dual Credit and Pre-AP classes will be weighted. Instead of treating Pre-AP classes like AP classes and giving students the 10 extra points, Pre-AP students will only be getting five extra points. Instead of being unweighted, Dual Credit classes will be able to give their students five extra points as well. (This proposed change was later disregarded)
The board will have another meeting where parents and students can voice their opinions concerning these possible changes this month.