Research Paper on Grade Reporting to Colleges

Weighted vs. Unwedfdfdighted GPAs

Palo Alto’s two high schools calculate and report students’ GPAs differently.  Paly only reports unweighted GPAs, while Gunn reports both unweighted and weighted. (Gunn uses the GPA calculation that the UCs and CSUs employ).

I. PAUSD GPA-Reporting History

Up until the late 1990s, both Palo Alto high schools calculated both weighted and unweighted GPAs.  

Eventually Paly dropped weighting GPAs while Gunn continued reporting both.  

Then, in Fall of 2014, Gunn’s new principal Denise Herrmann attempted to discontinue sharing weighted GPAs too:

• In Fall 2014, parents and students were informed by Gunn’s college counseling staff that counselors were only permitted to provide colleges and the Class of 2015 seniors with unweighted GPAs for admissions and scholarship applications. After concerns were raised, counselors were told that they could share students’ weighted GPAs but only upon request.

• In Spring 2015, a Gunn High Oracle student reporter published that Principal Herrmann’s plan is to align with Paly’s practice and “prevent counselors from telling students what their weighted GPA is." Herrmann told the reporter that she had looked at “’whether there would be any potential harm if we stopped doing this, and the initial answer is no’” she said.

• In Fall 2015, Gunn’s counselors again advised seniors (this time the Class of 2016’s) that they could not share weighted GPAs with them or with the colleges they applied to but, again, later reverted to prior practice.  Superintendent McGee had stepped in and told Principal Herrmann that she could not change how her staff reported GPAs without School Board direction on this.  

• In Fall 2016, the Palo Alto Weekly reported that Denise Herrmann shared that she and "Gunn ...school counselors agree [with Paly staff] that weighted grades should only be made available if required for scholarship reasons.”  This aligns with what Paly reported to its entire community - Paly and Gunn's principals and guidance department are "in agreement," the right direction is for Gunn to follow Paly and "no longer provide the weighted grade information to colleges" on the application.

District staff promised to gather additional student input.

In August 2016, the school board agreed to take this issue up.

A Paly senior spoke at the September 27, 2016 School Board meeting about how a change from only reporting unweighted GPAs to reporting weighted GPAs, if implemented this Fall at Paly, could relieve her of substantial student debt by qualifying her for a $36,000 merit scholarship at the University of Oregon, available because her weighted GPA (but not her unweighted GPA) crosses the required GPA threshold.  

Sympathetic, Superintendent McGee said he would mention this at the School Board agenda setting meeting the next day to see if it can be placed on the board’s October agenda.  They agreed and it was discussed at the October 18 school board meeting, with a possible board vote on it at the board meeting on November 1.   (The early application deadline for the University of Oregon is November 1 but regular decision applications are not due until January 15, 2017.)

On October 21, Dr.McGee wrote this about the short-term – how to address students in the Class of 2017 applying to colleges that award scholarships based on the GPA on the transcript : PAUSD will make sure that those “students will not be disadvantaged when applying for scholarships. “

The issue to be resolved by the board is whether:

• Neither high school will report weighted GPAs (preferred by both high school principals), or
• Both will share weighted GPAs with colleges and scholarship organizations upon a student’s request

Last year's homecoming, 9th grade

II. Why Weighting Matters

Studies conducted on GPA methodology -- from the State of North Carolina to individual school districts -- found that weighted GPAs provide advantages to students not conferred by unweighted ones.

In 2014, the North Carolina State Board of Education studied this and passed a law that requires honors and AP courses be weighted in public high schools in the state.

Google news search revealed:

• In California:

• PAUSD’s peer high school Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach, CA recently took this up after a senior realized that the Bs she earned, combined with her high school’s unweighted GPA calculation, may have cost her up to $24,000 in scholarships at her first choice college – the University of Oregon.

The financial aid package she received she said made a “big difference” in the college she’d be able to attend so she approached the district seeking a policy change.  

The district researched it and discovered that there are colleges whose policies put students without weighted GPAs at a disadvantage when it comes to financial aid for merit.  Wanting to “make sure our students are not harmed,” Mira Costa changed its policy and now weights GPAs (57% of Mira Costa’s students pass at least 1 AP exam compared to PAUSD’s 70+%.)

• Laguna Beach Unified just changed its GPA method to match the weighting system that the UC’s use.

• Comparable districts elsewhere:

• Highly-rated Fairfax County School District in MD weighted GPAs after hearing concerns from the community and uncovering that its unweighted grading policies could have a direct, adverse impact on merit-based scholarships and honors placement decisions.  

• Greenwich CT school district looked at this and reported that a weighted GPA provides an advantage to a student for college admissions as well as scholarships and awards.

• Milford NJ also discovered that weighted GPAs “keep students competitive …when it comes to college admission,…academic scholarships and even [NCAA] athletic scholarships.”

• Frederick County MD studied this issue with help from the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The Committee, comprised of 7 subcommittees which studied various aspects in depth, unanimously recommended weighting advanced courses.  Noting that this recommendation preserved the district’s commitment to equity and quality learning,  the paper describing the process and findings said that “by operating without a weighted system...students are [placed at] a disadvantage in competing for admission.”

Last year's homecoming, 10th grade

III. What Other High Schools Do re GPAs

At last reporting, 86% of high schools the size of Gunn and Paly or larger weight student GPAs.   Overall, 74% of high schools weight students’ GPAs to account for course difficulty, trending upwards (66% did a decade ago).   

Of 14 peer high schools (excluding PAUSD), 83% weight GPAs:  

• Calculates both Weighted and Unweighted GPA:
  • Student chooses which to send: New Trier (PiE Benchmark)
  • Sends both: Gunn, Mountain View, Los Altos, Edina (PiE Benchmark and 21^st Century), and Chapel Hill (PiE Benchmark)
• Weighted GPA only: Menlo-Atherton, Wellesley (PiE Benchmark), Highland Park (21^st Century), Westlake (21^st Century), and Westside (21^st Century)
• Unweighted GPA only: Paly, Scarsdale (does not offer AP classes) (PiE) and La Due Horton in St. Louis (21^st Century)

In fact, The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)'s formal recommendations adopted in 2010 are that all high schools should ensure that "all students are encouraged to take a more rigorous course of study and be appropriately recognized for doing.”

Last year's homecoming, 11th grade

IV. What Colleges Do re GPAs

The UCs and CSUs recalculate students’ GPAs automatically - giving an extra GPA point for AP and UC-designated honors classes; they do not receive a GPA from the student or the high school as part of the students' college application process.  (Well over 50% of PAUSD seniors apply to these universities and 23% attended last year (22% Paly and 24% Gunn).

But 51% of colleges do not recalculate students’ GPAs. For example:

-     Many colleges in the new Coalition for College Access consortium, such as University of Chicago, Northwestern, Stanford, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Columbia and others, do not recalculate applicants’ GPAs. 

-     Nor do large public universities like the University of Oregon and University of Colorado Boulder which acknowledge that this often ends up assigning students who submit weighted GPAs a higher GPA in their system than the GPA the college would record if the student had shared his or her unweighted GPA (for students whose coursework includes at least one AP or honors course).  For example, at Indiana University in Bloomington the admissions office assigns a 4.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale to a student whose weighted GPA equals or exceeds 4.0 even if she has Bs and Cs on her transcript.

Last year's homecoming, 12th grade

V. Why Weighting GPAs Matters-  Specifically

College Scholarships

One of the main reasons high schools give for switching to weighted GPA reporting is to not put students at a disadvantage for college merit and athletic scholarships.  A student who reports a weighted GPA will have a higher GPA than a student who reports an unweighted GPA provided that he or she took at least one weighted class. 

For example, it is easier for students with weighted GPAs to qualify for:

-       NCAA athletic eligibility and scholarships. When determining NCAA eligibility, extra points are given to athletes who take advanced classes only if their high school weights GPAs. The higher the GPA the lower the athlete’s SAT scores need to be to qualify. NCAA Division I and II schools provide more than $2.7 billion in athletics scholarships to more than 150,000 student-athletes each year.

-       The automatic $55,000 Presidential Scholarship for out-of-state students attending the University of Colorado Boulder (available to students with un-recalculated high school GPAs – weighted or unweighted - of 4.0 or higher typically) and Boulder's automatic $25,000 Chancellor's Achievement Scholarship (for an un-recalculated weighted or unweighted GPA of 3.85 or higher typically).

The GPA used is the one on the student’s transcript.

-       The automatic $36,000 Summit Scholarship for out-of-state students at the University of Oregon (un-recalculated high school GPA – weighted or unweighted - of 3.8 or higher) and Oregon's automatic $16,000 Apex Scholarship (for an un-recalculated weighted or unweighted GPA of 3.6 or higher). The university takes whatever GPA the high school sends; it does not recalculate GPAs.

 

• University of Missouri scholarships also have minimum GPA requirements.  It too will take whichever GPA the high school sends. "All GPA requirements shown below are based on a 4.00 scale rounded to the nearest 0.01… If your school provides a weighted GPA, it will be used to determine scholarship eligibility." http://www.missouristate.edu/FinancialAid/scholarships/Freshman.htm)

• Indiana University in Bloomington gives students who attend high schools which weight their GPAs a boost for the Dean’s Scholarship ($1-$11,000/year renewable for 4 years).

(Twelve percent (12%) of Paly students attend public out-of-state universities.)

College Admissions

Blind studies of otherwise identical transcripts (courses and grades) that compared weighted and unweighted GPAs revealed that:

-       76% of private colleges, and

-       72% of public colleges

preferred the high school student with the weighted GPA despite 3 out of 4 stating that their college did not prefer one GPA method over another. 

These research findings were among others cited in 2007 by Harvard and University of Virginia Schools of Education researchers who reported the “sizeable impact [of weighted grades] on college admission and access to financial aid” and concluded that there is “strong support for high schools to calculate weighted grade point averages.”

They were also cited in a 2000 paper by Gail Downs who, focusing on equity, learning and college, concluded that "weighted grades ultimately have a large impact on students' academic futures [in that] applicants with weighted grades on their transcripts have a clear advantage for admission and scholarships at many colleges and universities.”  As to learning, she shared research that found that unweighted grades "failed with respect to encouraging learning" (Ashenfelter (1990)) and cited other research that concluded that weighted grades were "overwhelmingly supported” (Cognard). She also cautioned that failure to weight GPAs could have “possible legal ramifications” (but did not cite any law or cases).

VI. AP Classes

Many Colleges Expect Applicants to Have Taken AP Classes

UCs, which weight GPAs, expect students to take advanced classes.  For example, 75% of students attending UCLA had a UC-GPA of 4.26 or higher which is only possible if a student takes several weighted grade classes in high school. Even UC Irvine, historically less competitive than UCLA admissions-wise, has an average admitted GPA of 4.04 now.

Other universities do too:

• USC reported that half of the students they accepted took more than 8 AP courses. 

• Students accepted at University of Virginia “will have generally taken seven or more AP courses.”

Many College Admissions Officers Reward Students for Having Taken AP Classes

AP classes enhance a student’s prospect of admission at 90% of private and 40% of public colleges and universities.

Also, admission preferences are given to students whose GPAs have been enhanced by participating in those courses (given weighted grades) in 25% of colleges – 38% private and 19% public. 

 

The top factor colleges consider for admission are grades earned in college prep courses and strength of curriculum, such as APs which are designed to approximate college level work (more than overall GPA):

“Although overall GPA serves as an indicator of a student's academic success in high school, strength of curriculum - and particularly grades in college prep courses - are better indicators of a student's likelihood of succeeding in college. College prep courses - which include Advanced Placement (AP)…- are designed to approximate college level work. Therefore, participation in a college prep curriculum and performance in the courses can indicate to college admissions officers both motivation and ability to succeed in postsecondary education.”

Colleges which do not recalculate GPAs --  like public out-of-state universities including the University of Oregon and University of Colorado Boulder -- give an admissions boost to students who take APs if they attend high schools which submit weighted GPAs on their behalf. (Twelve percent (12%) of Paly students attend public out-of-state universities.)

Impact on Minorities

The US Department of Education/Office for Civil Rights and California Department of Education press high schools to encourage minority students to take at least one AP course, a predictor of success in college and substantially higher earnings post college:

The results of two major research studies show students who complete a rigorous high school curriculum are much more likely to complete a bachelor's degree than those who complete less rigorous curricula.

“Completing college or other postsecondary education such as a technical certification is increasingly necessary for students to enter careers that will enable them to join the middle class.” (“Median earnings of workers with bachelor’s degrees were 65 percent higher than those of high school graduates.”)

PAUSD follows this federal and state direction; its LCAP goal is to get to 75% AP participation by 2017

PAUSD’s Minority Achievement and Talent Development committee’s report identifies the underrepresentation of students of color in honors and AP classes as a concern. Last reported (Class of 2015), about 70% of PAUSD students took at least one AP with underrepresented minority students' percentages considerably lower (note Gunn, with its weighted GPA, has higher minority participation in these classes):

PAUSD: Students Enrolling in at least 1 AP class (2011, grades 9-12)

Paly

Asian 42% (% of total Asian enrollment)

White 34%

Hispanic 13%

Black  n/a (6% in 2013-14)

Gunn

Asian 43% (% of total Asian enrollment)

White 39%

Hispanic 19%

Black  n/a

One key incentive for students reluctant to take an AP class is weighted GPAs, which will produce a higher GPA than the unweighted GPA for the same grades earned.  (GPAs are important to students because they are a key factor in college admissions and scholarships decisions.)  Weighting helps students to not always play it safe by only taking easy classes and instead stretch by taking an AP while in high school – an advanced high school/entry college level class whose content is taught over a full year in a supportive classroom with 25-30 students instead of over a few months with, at the UCs for example, over 1,000 students in a lecture hall.   APs, the research shows, better prepare students for success in college and are associated with higher college completion rates and well-paying careers post-college.

Impact on Student Stress

The argument against weighting GPAs that student journalists elicited from PAUSD administration is that “having a weighted GPA may drive students to enroll in more honors and Advanced Placement classes than they can handle.”

The UCs and CSUs, which most PAUSD seniors apply to, automatically weight GPAs. So in California it is the state universities’ weighted GPA calculation method – not PAUSD sharing that weighted GPA with students – that affects students’ class choices.  

Second, at least 7 out of 10 PAUSD students take at least one UC/CSU-weighted class.  PAUSD hopes to increase that percentage by increasing minority participation in those classes.  Weighted grading relieves GPA-stress since it gives a student an admissions and financial aid boost at the colleges popular with PAUSD seniors, like those listed above, which do not recalculate GPAs.

Third, anti-stress advocacy group Challenge Success does not advise against students taking APs. Its founder Denise Pope recently “discredited a persistent and harmful myth that Advanced Placement courses are the central cause of academic stress in America [and] advised that schools ‘don’t cap or limit the number of AP classes in which students are permitted to enroll.’”   This statement, reported in the Washington Post, aligns with Challenge Success 2015 Gunn High School survey results that:

1. Did not find:
   1. APs added academic or other stress (or longer homework hours or more cheating),
   2. A statistically significant difference in mental health problems by the number of AP/honors courses students took (in 2010 survey, not asked in the 2015 survey).
2. Found that students:
   • Who took more APs had significantly fewer academic worries, and
   • Taking AP or honors courses reported significantly more engagement – cognitive, behavioral, and affective – than students who took none. 

Finally, the absence of a weighted GPA on AP or honors courses might put more pressure on students to get higher grades. “Weighted grades act as a cushion for students who are trying learn more about subjects they enjoy,” Gunn sophomore Viraj Ghosh said. “Kids are still going to take AP classes out of enjoyment for a subject, but without the safety net of a weighted grades, these students are going to be much more stressed to get an A in a very difficult class.” (Oracle Sep 9 2015, Admin discusses removal of weighted GPA).

9 out of 10 Colleges Give AP Credit

91% of colleges and universities give AP credit, including the UCs, CSUs and Foothill Community College.

Data: Weighted-GPA Gunn’s AP Participation is Slightly Higher Than Paly’s

• Exams Per Year (total AP exams taken divided by number of students taking at least one AP exam)

PAUSD:

• Paly: 2.1 (up 11% since 2008) (691 students)
• Gunn: 2.9 (no change since 2008) (717 students

US:  1.8 (up 52% since 2008)

• During All 4 Years of High School

Number of AP classes taken (averages - # AP classes taken divided by total enrollment - for each grade totaled for the 2014-15 school year)

• Paly: 3
• Gunn: 4.5

                        Exams / student of all students taking at least one AP

• US:
  • top 25%: ~4.5 or more (565,000 students)
  • top 10%: 6 or more (236,000 students)
  • top 1%: 10 or more (33,000 students)

Last year's homecoming, cheer leaders

VII. Conclusion

Comments from multiple sources revealed the truth is that the district does not really know how big this problem is and what each college does for scholarships, honors programs and admissions yet; and exactly what it will take to put our students in their best light at all the colleges they apply to.

Pros of weighting GPAs:

-  Weighted GPA is helpful to students and families in need of financial help with college tuition, a concern that creates a lot of stress for those students and families.  Sharing weighted GPAs can put students at an advantage for scholarships at places like University of Oregon and University of Colorado Boulder, two very popular colleges with PAUSD's students. Oregon's highest automatic merit scholarship is $36,000 and Boulder's highest is $55,000.  In the last 3 years, 262 PAUSD students applied to Oregon and 235 applied to Boulder.

- PAUSD wants to encourage all students to take at least one AP class (the State of California is considering upping that to two) before graduating to help them be college-ready.  Weighting grades encourages students to take courses that interest them but they hesitate to take because they may be a challenge and fear that they will get a lower grade than they would if they took an easier class. This helps all students take risks and challenge themselves in new fields from AP Psychology, which is very popular with all Gunn students, to electives like Studio Art, Music Theory, and Computer Science.

- GPAs are important to the PAUSD students planning on going to 4 year colleges (80% of them do) because they are an important part of the student profile that admissions officers consider. Unweighted GPAs cause students stress because they put more pressure on grades due to the bigger difference Bs and Cs have on unweighted GPAs than on weighted ones.

- Easing the pressure on getting As, weighted GPAs free up time for sports, music, art, and family and friends.  That balance is important for students' health and happiness.

- Research has shown that “not” awarding weighted GPAs can harm students' chances at getting scholarships, honors program invitations, and even college admission offers at colleges that employ a holistic approach to making decisions too. 51% of colleges take the GPA the high school sends and do not recalculate it.  74% of high schools share weighted GPAs, trending upwards from 66% a decade ago.

Cons of weighting GPAs:

The main arguments in Paly's position paper to change Gunn's weighted GPA reporting to unweighted are long on hypothesizing with very little empirical research.  For example, several Paly administrators said that weighted GPA is detrimental to student mental health offered no evidence that shows that how GPAs are calculated helps or hurts teens.  Teen mental health issue is extremely individualized and could be the result of multiple causes. You could not possibly pin it on adding weighted GPA or not. In Gunn’s 2010 Challenge Success survey, Challenge Success found “NO significant differences [in students feeling sad or depressed] by the number of AP classes they took.” Challenge Success’s own study results indicated weighted GPA-Gunn students are overall less stressed and less worried about academics than unweighted GPA-Paly students are; twice as many students describe Paly as competitive as Gunn students do; and Gunn students report more engagement in their learning than unweighted GPA-Paly students. Could Gunn's weighted GPAs be a reason why?

Recommendation

Ultimately both GUNN and PALY should:

- report both weighted and un-weighted GPA on the transcript, and

-  for the school-side of the college application either (i) report both weighted and un-weighted GPAs, (ii) only report weighted GPAs, or (iii) let students pick which GPA they want the high school to report, like New Trier High School outside of Chicago does, to ensure that all PAUSD students have the same access to scholarships, honors programs, and admissions as well as NCAA athletic eligibility and scholarships as the students who attend the 3 out of 4 of high schools in America which weight their GPAs do.

Sources:

___________________________________

http://issuu.com/gunnoracle/docs/apriloracle at page 2.

Superintendent McGee's School Board Meeting Report (February 24, 2015), starting at 14:48: http://midpenmedia.org/palo-alto-unified-school-district-board-meeting-12/ (“grade weighting… this is a board decision.  This is a board policy.  I want to make that clear.  This is not something that anyone snaps his or her fingers and the changes are made.  It is worthy of debate and consideration.  This is happening in our partner 21st Century Consortium districts.  Right now some of these schools are having a similar debate and discussion”).

Superintendent McGee’s Weekly Communication/Board Meeting Executive Summary (September 29, 2015)http://www.pausd.org/sites/default/files/pdf-faqs/attachments/ExecutiveSummary_150929.pdf (“Board members have also requested a session to discuss the ramifications for students if Gunn High School were to change their practices around the reporting and recording weighted grades to align with Paly’s, which has not given or reported weighted grades for several years. As a brief background, earlier this year I asked Gunn and Paly to align how they report GPA distribution on the high school profile reports. It makes sense, then, for the administration and Board to have further conversation to discuss aligning student grading and reporting practices. With that said, I have informed Gunn not to change how students’ grades are reported and recorded until we have had a full Board discussion about the impact and consequences of aligning (or not) how the high schools record and report grades for AP and honors classes.)” 

Superintendent McGee's Weekly Communication (October 16, 2016) https://www.pausd.org/sites/default/files/pdf-faqs/attachments/151016_weekly.pdf (Gunn “counselors will report weighted grades for students wanting to include them on the common app”).

  http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/10/19/palo-alto-parents-students-urge-district-to-report-weighted-grades

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dgRurvVuzDXtwWqByW2LQgKYiFhHWuQ84r_lCxhSteY/edit.  See also http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/24/palo-alto-schools-weigh-adding-weighted-gpa-to-transcripts/?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0.

“New Grading System sparks debate” Campanile October 12, 2015 http://thecampanile.org/2015/10/12/new-grade-ranking-system-sparks-debate/  and “The weighted GPA debate” Campanile October 30, 2015 http://thecampanile.org/2015/10/30/the-weighted-gpa-debate/(“The district is looking for student feedback as to whether Gunn should make the transition away from weighted grades. ‘I [Superintendent McGee] am really interested in what students have to say’”) 

On whether to discuss weighted GPA reporting at future board meetings (brought up by Melissa Baten Caswell)  (August 11, 2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxtTGBBzdCQ&start=9669&width=420&height=315  around hour 4:03 (30 minute discussion)

 

Melissa Caswell:

Currently, there are different practices re GPAs reporting to colleges at PAUSD's two high schools.  This creates disparate financial implications based on which high school students attend.  This is a tactical concern.  "Right now we have two schools with two different policies that create a different financial outcome for the students at each school and for the families."

She added that many "schools report both kinds of grades and students use whatever works best for them in their college process…We can look at what common practices are and make a recommendation to the board based on common practices." 

Superintendent McGee was hesitant, saying that "this will be a big issue" with one camp seeing this as a "threat to social emotional health" and the other as a good motivator for students to stretch academically. (Caswell said that this tension exists on every topic.)  Facilitator Dr. Johanna Vander Molen explained that the hesitancy isn't about the amount of staff work involved but that each high school will defend its approach. Superintendent McGee added that not reporting weighted grades has been a long standing practice at Paly.  Caswell retorted that Paly reporting only unweighted GPAs was a change from its prior practice, saying that when Camille Townsend's children were at Paly it reported weighted grades.

 

Superintendent McGee concluded that "I do think that [the board] should have a say."  Board President Emberling polled the board to see if they wanted to take this on:

Caswell: Yes. Graduates opining on this could be helpful.

Dauber: Yes. Agrees that it should be discussed.  Wants it to be consistent at both high schools. He does not know what he thinks about what the outcome should be yet. Wants a well-considered staff recommendation on this.

Townsend: Yes.  Of course, give students everything they need for college. Wants also to hear from students in addition to the staff recommendation.

Godfrey: Yes.

Emberling: Yes.  It could be folded under the "consistency" goal.

Superintendent's September 11, 2015 report to the school board http://www.pausd.org/sites/default/files/pdf-faqs/attachments/150911_weekly.pdf (“Gunn and Paly were able to settle on reporting of GPAs on a 4.0 scale as well as how to report students by quartile. It is a positive stride for the students at both schools")  

http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/policies/GCS-L-004.asp?pri=01&cat=L&pol=004&acr=GCS

“Mira Costa's non-weighting of AP credits called into question” (February 19, 2015)

http://tbrnews.com/news/manhattan_beach/mira-costa-s-non-weighting-of-ap-credits-called-into/article_57f145b0-b85e-11e4-bce7-6bf512a8923a.html and” Mira Costa High School will begin weighting AP grades next year” (June 8, 2015) http://tbrnews.com/news/manhattan_beach/mira-costa-high-school-will-begin-weighting-ap-grades-next/article_d27f9e16-0ad5-11e5-bd19-a36fd5160376.html

https://www.lbusd.org/uploaded/1-District/Board/Documents/2015-2016/Presentations/Weighted_Grade_Board_Presentation_Final_2-9-16.pdf

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=39CEB62D5A0B1726872574D3005D63D7 and http://www.fairgrade.net/media/fairgrade/GradingPolicyInvestigationReport.pdf).  (Weighted GPAs: honors courses weighted .5 points and APs 1.0 points) 

https://www.greenwichschools.org/uploaded/high_school/about_ghs/GHS_Front_Page/Weighted_Grades_Proposal_Outline_2-3-12.pdf

http://www.nhregister.com/social-affairs/20140715/milford-public-high-schools-to-update-gpa-scale

"Heavy Grades? A Study on Weighted Grades" by Estes Lockhart, Journal of College Admissions, Winter 1990.

NACAC’s 2013 Counseling Trends Survey  - 2014 State of College Admissions (not mentioned in 2015 report).

As of 2014/2015.  

 https://www.nassp.org/who-we-are/board-of-directors/position-statements/class-rank-gpa-and-grading?SSO=true

- http://chsweb.lr.k12.nj.us/jmcmichael/2006%20SOCA.pdf NACAC’s 2005 Admission Trends Survey (this appears to be the last year it tracked this) 

Per telephone discussions with admissions and financial aid officers at both universities.

http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/grade-point-average

UCO Boulder for out-of-state students (deadline 1.15.17)

-Presidential Scholarship (top 1-3% of students admitted, based on GPA and scores which are higher than Chancellors, $55k) http://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/presidential-scholarship

-Chancellors Scholarship (3.85 GPA $25k) http://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/chancellors-achievement-scholarship

-Arts and Humanities Scholarship (3.6 GPA $8k)  http://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/ah-scholarship

http://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/frequently-asked-questions

See e.g., https://enroll-recsupww.uoregon.edu/scholarships/presidential/ ("on a 4.0 scale”/ "3.85 cumulative high school GPA (weighted or unweighted)”  

For out-of-state students:

-Diversity Scholarship (3 gpa, $6,500, "Official Transcripts must be received by the Office of Admissions by January 27, 2017") - available to URM and 1st generation high school seniors  https://financialaid.uoregon.edu/diversity_excellence_scholarship

-Apex Scholarship (3.6 gpa, $16,000, must meet the criteria with grades and test scores on file with the Office of Admissions by February 15, 2017 (automatic, no application required). https://financialaid.uoregon.edu/apex

-Summit Scholarship (3.8 gpa, $36,000, must meet the criteria with grades and test scores on file with the Office of Admissions by February 15, 2017 (automatic, no application required) https://financialaid.uoregon.edu/summit

2016-17 School Profile (Paly) http://paly.net/sites/default/files/Paly1617_profile_and_grading_key_2016-09-26.pdf

Weighted averages, computer screening, and college admission in public colleges and universities.”  Talley, N. R. & Mohr, J. I. (1991), Journal of College Admission, 132.  72% of competitive public US colleges and universities chose the weighted applicant over the student with unweighted grades even though 72% said that they believed no preference is given to the student with the weighted average (202 colleges participated in the study)

“Weighted average and college admission,” Talley, N. R. (1989), Journal of College Admission, 125. 76.2% competitive private US college admissions directors chose the student with the weighted average over the one without weighted grades even though 74.3% indicated that institutional policy did not favor a student with a weighted average. The transcripts included identical coursework; however, one transcript had been calculated using weighted averages for honors type courses, while the other reflected a traditional (unweighted) grading practice. (601 colleges participated in the study)Many school administrators believe "students with weighted grades have a definite advantage in the college admission process"

“Weighting for Recognition: Accounting for Advanced Placement and Honors Courses When Calculating High School Grade Point Average,” Philip M. Sadler (Harvard) and Robert H. Tai (University of Virginia, Curry School of Education), NASSP Bulletin, Vol. 91, No. 1, March 2007 5-32.  Noting the “sizeable impact [of weighted grades] on college admission and access to financial aid,” Sadler and Tai “find strong support for high schools to calculate weighted grade point averages” – “the common practice of adding bonus points [1 point for AP courses and .5 for honors courses] for AP and honors courses taken in high school when calculating HSGPA” based on data from 7,613 students attending 55 randomly chosen colleges and universities.

“Accounting for Advanced High School Coursework in College Admission Decisions,” Philip M. Sadler (Harvard) and Robert H. Tai (University of Virginia, Curry School of Education), College and University Journal (2007)  “Study supports the incorporation of letter-grade bonuses into the calculation of high school GPA” Research Cited in Saldler and Tai’s studies:

- “Applicants from high schools that do not weight advanced courses can be at a significant comparative disadvantage if the colleges to which they apply do not recalculate HSGPA (Lockhart 1990; Rutledge 1991).”

- “The majority of high schools in the nation modify or ‘weight’ their calculation of

HSGPA (Hawkins & Clinedinst, 2006).”

- Half of colleges “recast GPAs based on their own standards. The rest use the reported

HS GPA unchanged (Hawkins & Clinedinst, 2006).”

- While the majority of colleges had official policies stating that they have no GPA calculation preference, “in a blind rating of candidates, 76% gave preference to those with a weighted HS GPA (Talley, 1989).” “College admissions officers prefer weighted HS GPA, even when their admissions policies do not state a preference (Seyfert 1981; Talley and Mohr 1993).

Downs, Gail C. (2000) “Weighted Grades:  A Conundrum for Secondary Schools.”  Center for Research and Evaluation, College of Education and Human Development, University of Maine.  http://libraries.maine.edu/cre/35/No35.pdf

UC Berkeley (HS graduating class of 2015) :   From the 78,918 applicant pool: average high school GPA of those attending is 4.41 weighted GPA http://admissions.berkeley.edu/studentprofile

UCLA (HS graduating class of 2015):   Of the 5,700 freshmen attending from the 92,000 applicant pool:

- 75% had at least 4.26 weighted GPA http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/faq/FR_Not_Adm.htm

- 25% had at least 4.6 weighted GPA

UC Davis: Average admitted weighted GPA: 4.07 (2015).  UC Santa Barbara: 4.05.  UC Irvine: 4.04. http://highschool.latimes.com/el-segundo-high-school/university-of-california-campuses-release-admission-decisions/

https://news.usc.edu/78392/fall-admits-are-a-diverse-intelligent-bunch-from-every-state-and-77-countries/ (HS graduating class of 2015)  

Washington Post March 15, 2015 source Shirley Bloomquist.

(Sathre, 2006 Table 3.8). http://highered.colorado.gov/Academics/Transfers/Conference/2006/wichealo.pdf (page 30)

http://www.lkeducationalconsulting.com/images/soca2013.pdf (2012 NACAC State of College Admissions Report) 

https://admissions.uoregon.edu/freshmen/apply/review (“the UO will use the grade point average (unweighted or weighted on a 4.00 scale) reported by your school on your official transcript (grades 9–12)")

http://www.colorado.edu/admissions/selection (“For freshman applicants: Since there are many different grading scales and weighting methods, we use the total weighted GPA provided by your graduating high school, using a standard 4.00 scale. …If your high school does not provide a weighted GPA but provides a total unweighted GPA, we will use your total unweighted GPA on a standard 4.00 scale.”)

2016-17 School Profile (Paly) http://paly.net/sites/default/files/Paly1617_profile_and_grading_key_2016-09-26.pdf

 http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/ag/ag/yr14/agenda201401.asp Item 20

Office for Civil Rights: “The US Department of Education's Strategic Plan 2007-2012 (the Strategic Plan) … emphasizes the importance of AP coursework…Students who complete at least one AP examination are more likely than their peers to complete a bachelor's degree in four years or less. Students who enroll in AP courses also have higher college grade point averages and four-year graduation rates than students who do not enroll in AP courses.” 2008 Dear Colleague Letter.

Department of Education Strategic Plan Goal: Indicators of Success: “Increase number of public high school graduates who have taken at least one STEM Advanced Placement exam.” Department of Education's Strategic Plan 2014-2018

(US General Accounting Office, (2003). College Completion: Additional Efforts Could Help Education with Its Completion Goals (GAO 03-568). Washington DC; Adelman, C. (2006).  The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion From High School Through College. Washington DC; U.S. Department of Education.  http://www.lkeducationalconsulting.com/images/soca2013.pdf

 http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-resourcecomp-201410.pdf

http://pausd-web.pausd.org/community/LCAP/downloads/2013_Local_Control_and_Accountability_Plan_Palo_Alto_Unified_School_District_20140515.pdf (May 2014 - LCAP report)

https://www.pausd.org/sites/default/files/pdf-faqs/attachments/MATD%20Report%205.26.15.pdf and  http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/09/30/achievement-gap-persists-in-new-state-test-scores

See also:

Gunn WASC goal: By 2018, we will increase the enrollment in AP/Honors classes by 30% for Latino and African American/black students. The percent of students fulfilling their AP potential for African-American and Latino students is at 39% and 52% respectively.

Paly WASC goal: .AP class enrollment should reflect the proportion of ethnicities of student body  Use data to analyze root cause of enrollment gap in AP/honors. Research through data and interviews why this subset of students who are potential AP students do not enroll in AP classes.

http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Page?t=s&eid=253606&syk=6&pid=933

In Paly’s 2014-15 WASC report it shared that in 2013-14 only 6% of African American students enrolled in an AP course.

 http://thecampanile.org/2015/10/12/new-grade-ranking-system-sparks-debate/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-to-handle-school-stress-without-blaming-it-all-on-advanced-placement/2015/08/16/050fcea6-4243-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html Washington Post (August 16, 2015) Washington Post (August 16, 2015) 

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/media/reports/1441823816.pdf

AP credit lowers the number of units a student needs to graduate saving families tuition dollars, allows students to skip large introductory lecture classes, and frees up their schedule for added coursework for a minor or an additional major, extra-curricular activities, internships, and/or studying abroad. 

-       Ninety-one percent (91%) of colleges give credit for APs – 97% of research colleges and universities, 93% of colleges which offer bachelor degrees, and 88% of community colleges. (Sathre & Blanco, 2006)

-       UCs and CSUs give credit for 34 courses with that score (25% of Gunn High students and 20% of Paly High students attend these colleges).

-       Foothill College gives credit for 21 AP courses with that score (16% of Gunn students and 12% of Paly students attend community college).

-       At private and out-of-state public university popular with PAUSD students:

-       University of Michigan (181 PAUSD students applied) gives credit for 30 AP classes with a score of 3 or higher. 

-       USC (199 PAUSD applicants) gives up to 32 units of college credit for AP exams scores of 4 or 5. 

Full list of other colleges that offer AP credit:https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/creditandplacement/search-credit-policies
 

From School Profiles

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/Volume-by-Region-2014.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d6cHhyuhyw&start=1338&width=420&height=315 at minute 30:29 (October 29, 2015)

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/Number-of-Exams-per-Student-2014.pdf

注：图片来自网络或网友。