EPHS raises GPA scale to 6.0

• Reprints

Kim Hagen, a senior at Elmwood Park High School and number two in her class believes that raising the school's GPA is a good idea and the Advanced Placement classes she's taken has prepared her for college and made her more attractive in terms of being accepted a major colleges and universities./Photo by David Pollard

Article Extras

Related Stories

• Salutatorian makes AP classes pay off for college

Updated: March 3, 2012 8:12AM

In an effort to motivate more Elmwood Park High School students to take challenging college level classes, School District 401 is increasing the high school’s grade point average.

At its Jan. 18 meeting the school board approved changing grade point average scale from 4.0 to 6.0. The change in scale will be implemented at the beginning of the next school year.

Elmwood Park High School Principal Jim Jennings said students are taking more Advanced Placement (AP) classes to prepare for college, and the grade-point average should reflect the added weight of those classes. The classes are a step above honors classes.

“More and more students are realizing that getting into the school (college) they want is becoming more and more competitive,” he said.

He said more students are taking AP classes to make sure they get in.

Advanced Placement is sponsored by College Board, a national not-for-profit membership organization representing colleges, universities and schools to make sure students successfully enter higher education. The College Board also owns the SAT and PSAT tests which is one of the benchmark tests for students need to take if they want to go to college.

Next year students will be given the opportunity take at least one AP course in their sophomore year. Usually, AP classes were reserved for juniors and seniors.

Teachers who take on AP classes receive weeklong training on how to present AP material and must have their class syllabus approved prior to teaching the class. There are several teachers at the high school who already have the necessary training.

Jennings said AP classes are much more rigorous than other classes offered at the high school and emulates a college credit course. At the end of the semester after a student completes an AP course they take an AP test and on five-point scale. Students who score a 3 or better often can get college credit for the class.

Jennings said there is a deliberate push to get more students to take AP classes, especially if they want to go to a four-year college.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for average students, but AP courses seem to be highly sought after by students in the high school. Jennings said four-year universities are looking less at class ranking and more at what courses the student took.

District 401 Superintendent Kevin Anderson believes the change will be a positive one for the school. “It shows the student has done the vigorous coursework to get to that point,” he said.

“The honors level courses would be considered college track but not the highest level of college track,” he said. “You get a B in an AP course, it’s like getting an A in an honors course.”