Unfortunate that a petition had to be made for rightfully action to come
C
Cassie McDermott
10 years ago
This needs to be changed so HHS students are not at a disadvantage for college acceptance and merit aid.
K
Kimberlee Ward
10 years ago
Thank you, I was unaware of this. This is unfair and should be changed!
C
Conor Keane
10 years ago
I believe kids at Hingham High are under enough pressure and stress in attaining the grades they feel they should get but to be unfairly disadvantaged like this makes no reason. Why should a child feel below potential when their grade average is not truly reflected and this system only encourages mediocrity by rewarding more points for C and below.
W
William Helfrich
10 years ago
Featured
Unfortunately this comes too late as both of our children have graduated from HHS in the past two years. For them to have been rejected from some of their target schools and to have lost out on additional merit aid is unconscionable.
The policy needs to be changed for all future students so that they are on par with their peers at other schools.
K
Katie kellem
10 years ago
The lack of transparency at HHS is troubling
D
D B
10 years ago
Show both? That raises more questions than it answers. How do you explain two GPAs?
Why does anyone think it is justified to deflate the GPAs of the top 51% while at the same time artificially inflating the GPAS of the bottom 49%?
M
Melissa Wisniewski
10 years ago
There is absolutely no reason not to show both. Transparency and full disclosure should be the rule, not something parents have to fight for.
D
D B
10 years ago
This subject will be addressed at the School Board meeting on Monday night, June 20th (tomorrow) . The meeting will be held in the School Department Conference Room at 7:45.
J
Jayne Goggin
10 years ago
Thank you for this information I was not aware of this until now
C
Carolyn Walsh
10 years ago
Appreciate the research!!!
S
Susan Hill
10 years ago
Thank you for this enlightening report on HHS GPAs. I am glad it was distributed to the sophomore class but think all Hingham students and parents deserve to have this well researched material. Your time, energy and dedication is much appreciated. The question remains... Why does HHS administration not want our kids to be on an even playing field??
F
Frank Nielsen
10 years ago
Thank you for your initiative!
E
Eugenie Murray-Brown
· petition starter
10 years ago
In response to the comment below, HHS has been describing our GPA system as a 4.0 scale for years. While some high schools have custom scales, there is a commonly accepted definition of a 4.0 scale which is not what we are using. College Board, Princeton Review, Peterson's and other authorities on the college application process agree that the 4.0 scale we are recommending is the commonly accepted scale. Many colleges will use this scale to re-weight all of our students, whether we put it on the transcript or not. We are not proposing using an arbitrary system, but the one that is used by the majority of high schools and colleges in the country. It is also used by 18 of the 20 Massachusetts schools that we consider our "benchmarking" set.
In spite of providing a description of our full scale on our school report, many college are still confused and are misinterpreting our information.
Transcript GPA is one of the key measures used for merit consideration and we feel that our students deserve full credit (as they would get at almost any other high school) for the A's they are able to achieve.
http://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/gpa-college-admissions
http://www.collegeboard.com/html/academicTracker-howtoconvert.html
https://www.petersons.com/college-search/college-admission-requirements-gpa.aspx
J
Jane Gilmartin
10 years ago
While I agree that an EXPLANATION of the grade scale should be included with every transcript, (and I am shocked that it is not), I feel it would be entirely UNFAIR to ask the school administration to do anything that would benefit ONLY the top tier students and hurt a HUGE portion of the rest of the students in the process. Someone quoted that as 49 percent!! One comment actually referred to these students as Hingham's "worst students." Getting grades of B or C in lower level classes at Hingham High does not constitute a bad student. Their are some kids who have to work hard to maintain that! I believe what you are asking - only posting that second GPA if it would benefit a student is inherently unfair, misleading and not something we should be asking our school officials to do. It ought to be all or nothing. And if it would actually hurt half the students in the class, maybe it's not such a great idea... a simple explanation would be enough for any college admission board. They'll know how to figure it out.
B
Brooke Goobic
10 years ago
Support!
D
Deb McCarthy
10 years ago
Seems pretty obvious!
R
Robert Boscoe
10 years ago
Showing two transcripts would not hurt a student but clarify a system and reward those who choose the more difficult path
S
Sandra Boscoe
10 years ago
I worked at a college for thirty three years and do feel Hingham's grade scale be included with every transcript sent to a college.
D
D B
10 years ago
The issues are far beyond simply GPA calculation: 1)Hingham High School students are generally not accepted into top ranked colleges and 2) they are not competitive for merit and other aid. The students in the advanced classes essentially just have much more work to justify the definition of "Advanced" (as opposed to more challenging work) with extremely punitive teachers so it is very hard to do well in those classes and 2) they benefit very little (GPA points) for all that extra work.
Unfortunate that a petition had to be made for rightfully action to come
This needs to be changed so HHS students are not at a disadvantage for college acceptance and merit aid.
Thank you, I was unaware of this. This is unfair and should be changed!
I believe kids at Hingham High are under enough pressure and stress in attaining the grades they feel they should get but to be unfairly disadvantaged like this makes no reason. Why should a child feel below potential when their grade average is not truly reflected and this system only encourages mediocrity by rewarding more points for C and below.
Unfortunately this comes too late as both of our children have graduated from HHS in the past two years. For them to have been rejected from some of their target schools and to have lost out on additional merit aid is unconscionable. The policy needs to be changed for all future students so that they are on par with their peers at other schools.
The lack of transparency at HHS is troubling
Show both? That raises more questions than it answers. How do you explain two GPAs? Why does anyone think it is justified to deflate the GPAs of the top 51% while at the same time artificially inflating the GPAS of the bottom 49%?
There is absolutely no reason not to show both. Transparency and full disclosure should be the rule, not something parents have to fight for.
This subject will be addressed at the School Board meeting on Monday night, June 20th (tomorrow) . The meeting will be held in the School Department Conference Room at 7:45.
Thank you for this information I was not aware of this until now
Appreciate the research!!!
Thank you for this enlightening report on HHS GPAs. I am glad it was distributed to the sophomore class but think all Hingham students and parents deserve to have this well researched material. Your time, energy and dedication is much appreciated. The question remains... Why does HHS administration not want our kids to be on an even playing field??
Thank you for your initiative!
In response to the comment below, HHS has been describing our GPA system as a 4.0 scale for years. While some high schools have custom scales, there is a commonly accepted definition of a 4.0 scale which is not what we are using. College Board, Princeton Review, Peterson's and other authorities on the college application process agree that the 4.0 scale we are recommending is the commonly accepted scale. Many colleges will use this scale to re-weight all of our students, whether we put it on the transcript or not. We are not proposing using an arbitrary system, but the one that is used by the majority of high schools and colleges in the country. It is also used by 18 of the 20 Massachusetts schools that we consider our "benchmarking" set. In spite of providing a description of our full scale on our school report, many college are still confused and are misinterpreting our information. Transcript GPA is one of the key measures used for merit consideration and we feel that our students deserve full credit (as they would get at almost any other high school) for the A's they are able to achieve. http://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/gpa-college-admissions http://www.collegeboard.com/html/academicTracker-howtoconvert.html https://www.petersons.com/college-search/college-admission-requirements-gpa.aspx
While I agree that an EXPLANATION of the grade scale should be included with every transcript, (and I am shocked that it is not), I feel it would be entirely UNFAIR to ask the school administration to do anything that would benefit ONLY the top tier students and hurt a HUGE portion of the rest of the students in the process. Someone quoted that as 49 percent!! One comment actually referred to these students as Hingham's "worst students." Getting grades of B or C in lower level classes at Hingham High does not constitute a bad student. Their are some kids who have to work hard to maintain that! I believe what you are asking - only posting that second GPA if it would benefit a student is inherently unfair, misleading and not something we should be asking our school officials to do. It ought to be all or nothing. And if it would actually hurt half the students in the class, maybe it's not such a great idea... a simple explanation would be enough for any college admission board. They'll know how to figure it out.
Support!
Seems pretty obvious!
Showing two transcripts would not hurt a student but clarify a system and reward those who choose the more difficult path
I worked at a college for thirty three years and do feel Hingham's grade scale be included with every transcript sent to a college.
The issues are far beyond simply GPA calculation: 1)Hingham High School students are generally not accepted into top ranked colleges and 2) they are not competitive for merit and other aid. The students in the advanced classes essentially just have much more work to justify the definition of "Advanced" (as opposed to more challenging work) with extremely punitive teachers so it is very hard to do well in those classes and 2) they benefit very little (GPA points) for all that extra work.