On Tuesday, Feb. 9, the LBUSD school board voted 3-2 in favor of unweighting 6 honors classes at LBHS. This change was approved and will go into place for the incoming freshman class of 2020.
“We are taking away an arbitrary weight that nobody else uses,” said board member Carol Normandin.
The district assembled a task force to analyze weighting practices and make a recommendation to be presented to the board.
“The task force met on Jan. 11 and Nov. 23. There were a lot of people involved: board members, the superintendent, district administrators, teachers, counselors, elementary school staff, middle school staff, and high school staff and parents,” said assistant principal Lisa Brackez.
Another issue that came up in the process was the inequity among the weighting practices in the foreign language department. At LBHS, the Spanish pathway offers six opportunities for a weighted class while the French pathway offers only one.
The school was prompted to examine potential changes after receiving complaints that the school doesn’t weight Honors Algebra II for freshmen, but sophomores and juniors in the same exact class receive weighted credit.
“It’s an interesting dichotomy. They feel that it is unfair because they are in the same class- the tenth graders are getting the weighted grade and they are not. However, the ninth graders aren’t in the same graduating class as the tenth graders, so there is not an inequity in the freshman class in math,” said superintendent Sherine Smith.
The change will have no effect on the weighting of grades for students who have taken the class already.
“Weighting practices for the classes of 2016-2019 will remain the same. Currently, whatever is weighted will continue to be weighted, but for incoming freshmen, the weighting will be in line with the a-g guide except weighting will be taken off Honors Digital Photography and Honors Art Studio as well,” said Brackez.
Many parents were upset about the new changes and came to the board meeting on Feb. 9 to address the board directly during open session.
“An honors class is noted as an ‘H’ on students’ transcripts; however, is that enough of a carrot to encourage this population to really push themselves and take that advanced math?” asked a concerned parent.
Many of the parents pointed out that the shift seemed to be a move in the wrong direction – one with more negatives than positives.
“We were rushed into a lot of these changes. We need more people involved. My son is great, and I hate to say this, but if he didn’t have to take honors classes, he wouldn’t. He takes them because, in the long run, he understands that if he works hard he will get a reward,” said another parent.
Even some board members spoke out against the proposal, pointing out perceived flaws in the new system.
“I don’t want to discourage kids from taking hard classes. I don’t want to take away incentives. I don’t want to rely on the fact that they’ll take the harder classes just because,” said board clerk Bill Landsiedel.
Although this new system may seem like it will decrease incentive to take an honors class if there is no grade bump, the benefits of taking accelerated courses still exist.
For the classes of 2020 and beyond, the following classes will not longer receive weighted credit: Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors Algebra II, Honors Spanish II, Honors Spanish III, Honors Spanish IV, Honors Digital Photography and Honors Art Studio.
“Ultimately it’s going to show you took the more rigorous pathway, and if you are striving to be in AP classes, those honors classes are going to better prepare you,” said Brackez.
Another central concern expressed centered on the manner in which colleges select students for merit scholarships. If LBHS were to unweight the grades of the six honors classes, it could put students at a disadvantage when seeking financial aid from their future schools.
According to school board member Dee Perry, some colleges accept the weighted GPA from the high school transcript when valuing applicants.
“Many colleges use the weighted grades for scholarships. University of Colorado Boulder uses weighted GPA,” said Perry.
In the end, board members Jan Vickers, Ketta Brown and Carol Normandin voted in favor of unweighting the six honors courses. Board members Dee Perry and Bill Landsiedel voted against the proposal.
“There is an inequity in that a student in an honors class gets a B and could have easily gotten an A in a college prep class,” said Perry.
After nearly three hours of discussion during the board meeting, the proposal was passed, despite the concerns of select parents and board members.
“I was one of the parents that ended up on the task force. We met several times and discussed the issue thoroughly. At the start, I was under the impression that we should weight everything, give everyone an extra bump. I was later convinced that weighting everything would be like printing more money. That’s like calling a one-dollar bill a ten-dollar bill – we aren’t fooling anybody,” said an anonymous parent.