There’s a lot of numbers throughout today’s world. For students, numbers can represent a variety of things, like money, number of friends, and so on. There’s one number that seems to be more important than any other, a number that has taken control of some students lives. That number is one’s grade point average, or GPA.
Aside from the stresses that maintaining a healthy GPA causes, there is one problem that has become a major headache for many teachers, especially those who teach a variety of elective classes. With the rise of advanced placement, or AP classes, the standard 4.0 GPA scale has been shattered, as students now have the ability to earn up to a 5.0
To achieve a GPA above a four, there are some hefty restrictions a student has to follow. Taking classes that aren’t branded as advanced placement can actually drag down one’s grade point average. The district follows a weighted GPA scale, which means getting an A in a lower level class such as an elective can only earn a 4.0, whereas achieving an A in an advanced placement class can earn a 5.0
This is where the big problem lies. Students are now shaping their education to equip them to simply look better for college, instead of focusing on classes that may really interest them and make them more well-rounded. It’s a problem that desperately needs a solution.
At the high school, we are fortunate to have such a diverse variety of elective classes to take. We are lucky to have amazing programs that can help shape the interests of a particular student. This was the case for me personally. I had no idea what I wanted to do until I choose to take a dive into the field of journalism at the high school.
However, that’s not the case with many other students. There has been plenty of cases where students were driven away from trying something new and taking an elective in fear of lowering their GPA. One former student even turned down continuing in The Courier because they didn’t want it to hurt their GPA.
The fact that students are choosing not to try new things and take certain electives because they don’t want it to lower their GPA is ridiculous. Electives can actually make a student look better, even if it doesn’t show in their GPA. Electives make one well rounded, and this is a trait colleges love looking for. Writing about the electives one took in their resume and essays is just one way to help further show colleges who prospective students are as a person.
Taking electives can also actually provide one with a more in depth look into the interests they might want to pursue as a career. For example, cooking classes can help one interested in culinary arts more than any advanced placement class can.
Having a weighted GPA scale is less beneficial to students. It turns them away from taking more classes that could help them in the long run. Students are more likely to remember a class that was fun and interesting, rather than a class that was not entertaining, and caused a lot of stress and extra work.
Weighted GPA scales are to blame when it comes to all the stresses students face with their grade point average. It pressures them into classes that cause high stress levels instead of classes that they may find interesting, like electives.
The school needs to find a better solution to this problem. Whether it’s scratching the weighted GPA system in favor of an unweighted system, or simply just grading electives as a pass or fail, a solution needs to be found to encourage students to take more electives.
Commentaires