A new cumulative weighted grade point average was added to all Oak Park High School students’ transcripts in response to recent parent and student concerns.

Some out-of-state public schools offer merit scholarships to applicants that have a cumulative weighted GPA on their transcript. Due to the growing number of applications to these schools, OPHS added this calculation to allow students to be more competitive towards these scholarships. OPHS removed cumulative weighted GPA from students’ transcripts in 2010 due to mental health concerns derived from pressure to get the highest cumulative weighted GPA which drove students to take as many advanced courses as possible. Additional pressures included having the highest class ranking and competing for valedictorian.

“It makes sense for us to report [the cumulative weighted GPA], because if we can find students a $10 thousand merit scholarship just on their GPA, we would want them to get [the scholarship],” Director of Curriculum Jay Greenlinger said.

In previous years, OPHS dealt with cumulative weighted GPA for merit scholarships on a case-by-case basis.

“We would send [colleges] a letter saying this is the student with the GPA, and then we would upload it into Naviance,” Principal Kevin Buchanan said.

One example of a school that no longer accepts letters, according to Buchanan, is University of Oregon, where many OPHS students have applied.

“That’s what precipitated [this discussion] that there were merit scholarships at the University of Oregon that could only be considered if the weighted GPA appeared on and that we put it on for everyone,” Buchanan said.

According to OPUSD parent and Oak Park resident Tina Wang, adding a cumulative weighted GPA to students’ transcripts has other benefits besides college admissions and merit scholarships.

“The transcript is widely used in the ‘first-cut’ process for other competitive programs including jobs, internships, summer programs, etc., and is not just important to current students, but also to alumni who may need to upload their transcript when applying for jobs,” Wang wrote. “While we cannot avoid the systemic issues that plague the current college admissions process, we can certainly assist our students by offering a clear transcript that makes it easy for others to quickly see the caliber of our students and schools in any competitive process.”

OPHS used to only offer three GPAs on seniors’ transcripts: OPHS’ unweighted, Cal Grant and UC/CSU. OPHS’ cumulative GPA is based on an unweighted 4.0 scale and includes every course that appears on a student’s transcript for credit. It is used for the calculation of OPHS Cum Laude with Honors program, which consists of three distinctions based on GPA and four honors recognitions based on the number of Honors and AP courses taken.

“We’re able to recognize students for the work that they’ve done and not just a handful of students who reach this crazy unreachable pinnacle,” Greenlinger said. “We stopped ranking students and we stopped having the valedictorian and salutatorian because it turned into, pretty much annually, a situation — it just wasn’t good for kids.”

According to the presentation shown at Oak Park Unified School District’s board meeting on Dec. 16, the Cal Grant GPA is based on a 4.0 scale for CP, Honors and AP courses and does not include PE or Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) courses.

“Many of our students are going to try to apply for Cal Grant status, especially if they have siblings that are already in school, [so that] their family can get help paying for college,” Greenlinger said.

UC/CSU GPA is based on a weighted 5.0 scale, where Honors and AP courses receive one extra point. It includes all “UC Certified” courses taken from grades 10-12, and only includes Honors courses that are designated as UC “Honors.”

Parents at the board meeting on Dec. 16 expressed their concerns about UC/CSU GPA. Greenlinger explained that including ninth grade GPA could look different for different students, potentially lowering some of them. To clear the confusion, OPHS administrators also added the word ‘weighted’ so that the title of the GPA is called UC/CSU weighted.

Although certain honors courses, such as English II Honors, are considered for OPHS honors credit but not for the UC/CSU system, there are multiple benefits to taking more rigorous classes.

“Let’s go outside the UC/CSU system — that school might give or weigh any honors class that way,” Greenlinger said. “Each of the [schools], especially private schools and out of state schools, public or private, do their own calculations. Some don’t do any weighing, some do their own weighing, so we can’t account on our transcript for all of those differences.”

Wang disagrees with the UC/CSU weighted GPA on transcripts, stating the ‘UC/CSU’ title excludes certain classes from being weighed into the cumulative calculation, UC applications often involve self-reporting of grades and out-of-state school applications are increasing. She advocates for a weighted academic GPA, in addition to a cumulative weighted GPA, that includes non-academic courses such as PE.
“Last year, our students applied to over 150 schools outside of the UC/CSU system; 130 of those schools were outside of California,” Wang wrote. “It is nearly impossible to gauge every single college’s true admissions process. Why not make it easy for each school to quickly choose what they need based on their own unique parameters?”
Greenlinger hopes that this discussion about transcript changes will prompt administrators to assess the district’s well being and make necessary adjustments more frequently.

“I think the other important thing is that we, as a school, continue to look at the transcript or the classes we have and not just wait ‘x’ number of years before we examine and revisit it,” Greenlinger said. “It’s easier to make small changes than go through something like this where there’s a large change with lots of emotion.”