We have spoken with many Loyola families regarding their disappointment and dissatisfaction with spring semester GPA/Grading policy that was sent on May 5th by Loyola. Based on numerous discussions with parents, students, counselors, and college counselors, there is an overwhelming consensus that Loyola factor spring grades into the cumulative GPA. Loyola will include spring grades in their transcript but will NOT calculate grades towards cumulative GPA.

We believe that the current policy should be changed to a "Hold Harmless" policy or something similar which is a solution that will be more equitable to all. Below we have outlined several supporting reasons to amend the spring grading policy.

We hereby respectfully request that if you agree with and support this petition, please indicate by signing. Any additional support or comments please include them in the comments section. This is an urgent matter that requires immediate attention. Please forward this petition to any Loyola families that support this position. We will continue to collect signatures and comments and thoughtfully try to appeal to Loyola

Concerns

• Loyola adopting a policy that ONLY benefits students who have not fared well this semester and hurts achieving students
• Negatively affects most students that are on an upward trajectory where this is their strongest semester

• Loyola students are at a disadvantage by not being able to properly compete against those schools who have included spring grades into overall cumulative GPA
• No incentive or motivating factor for students to continue and finish strong
• Loyola families have paid their tuition for the year, and regardless of the devastating circumstances we find ourselves in with Covid-19, Loyola is still accountable for finishing off the semester with a grading system that is equitable to ALL students and competitive with not only other Los Angeles high schools, but high schools across the country.
• If Loyola doesn’t value spring semester grades enough to include them in GPA, why should we expect a university to value the grades
• Loyola is not the only school affected by Covid-19, therefore they should adopt supporting policies like comparable competing schools that WILL be including spring semester grades into cumulative GPA

• Students who had good GPA’s prior to shut down, and were counting on working hard to improve their GPA’S for their overall cumulative, were blindsided by policy only 1 month before the end of school
• Students who have been working hard under the impression that their grades will count toward their overall GPAs are disappointed and disheartened, adding a layer of stress to their already stressful lives.
• Students were told by their teachers to treat their classwork and distant learning like regular school at the beginning, and now the administration is not treating the classes, etc. the same. Misled the students.
• Loyola Survey results presented in Protocols 1, 2 and 3 (i.e. data used to support policy) were not from a majority of the students, parents, teachers so they should not form the basis for the policy

Policy options that are equitable to EVERYONE, so GPA can be calculated:

• Hold Harmless policy; Grades cannot drop lower than they were before schools shut down. Only improve. (Most schools are doing this and would be best option)
• Slide the grading scale down (A= 88-100%, B=75-87%...) this helps all students and is currently being done by Palisades Charter High School as well as others
• Optional for student to take Pass/No Pass
• Those negatively affected by distance learning have the option of petitioning not to have GPA included in cumulative based on stated hardship (i.e. family circumstances, no wifi, personal situations)

Negative effects of not including spring GPA outside of university admissions:

• Honor roll, cum laude, valedictorian
• Athletic recruiting, where coaches do take counselor’s word for GPA as they are culling prospects before sending them to admissions office
• Applying for competitive summer internships or summer college programs where most often minimum GPA is required
• Meeting GPA requirements in school for sports, debate, clubs
• Seniors going into freshman year in college will need high school GPA for rushing sororities and fraternities and joining university clubs and groups.

Examples of public and comparable schools calculating GPA for spring semester

• All LAUSD High Schools have adopted a hold harmless policy and are including grades for spring GPA.
• Bellarmine, Jesuit school in San Jose, including GPA for spring semester and not changing grading
• Crespi, all boys Catholic High School in Encino, including spring grades into GPA and adopting hold harmless policy.
• Notre Dame, Catholic High School in Sherman Oaks, including spring grades into GPA and adopting hold harmless policy.
• Saint Francis, Catholic High School in La Canada, including spring grades into GPA
• CREIGHTON PREP, Jesuit High School in Omaha, Nebraska, including spring grades in cumulative GPA

Independent Private Schools calculating GPA spring semester

• Harvard Westlake, hold harmless policy
• Brentwood School, hold harmless policy
• Archer, hold harmless policy
• Marymount
• Marlborough School
• Polytechnic School