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Getting an A will be a bit more meaningful for Winchester High School students now that the School Committee approved the new grade point average scale recommended by the GPA Committee and WHS Principal Dennis Mahoney.
“I just thought this was a very collaborative process that then came back to us with recommendations from the dean of student life and the principal and came to a good outcome,” said School Committee Chair Karen Maruyama Bolognese. “I think this was a model for what we are trying to accomplish.”
During its Jan. 23 meeting, the School Committee approved the new GPA scale that keeps the current weighted scale, but bumps up an A on the college prep scale to a 4.0 and an A+ to a 4.3. The new scale will be implemented in summer of 2025 with retroactive recalculation for the classes of 2026 and ‘27.
The GPA issue was raised when a parent asked why an A in a college prep class didn’t equal a more traditionally recognized 4.0 rather than 3.7.
Dean of Student Life Anna Paradis headed a GPA Committee tasked with taking a hard look at that question and the numerical values given to various grades for college prep and honors level classes.
After studying the issue, which included looking at 16 area schools, the GPA Committee made a recommendation to Mahoney, who accepted the plan and suggested the School Committee do the same.
The recommendation included:
• Assign a 4.0 to an A on the college prep grade point average scale.
• Maintain its current 2-level weighted GPA scale.
• Continue to offer A+’s and assign it the highest numerical value on the GPA chart.
• Grant an A+ and an A their own distinct numerical values, 4.3 and 4.0, respectively.
Since the vote was taken, School Committee member Chris Nixon said he received a lot of positive feedback from parents about the change. However, he said some were concerned about how the changes would be communicated to various colleges and universities and their admission departments.
“I think that’s a thoughtful question,” he said.
He also said he thought that while the webinars held by the GPA Committee made clear the change was not being made because of any curriculum changes, “I appreciate that parents are coming back with some questions about how this might reflect on the, let’s say, the rigor of education at Winchester High School.”
Nixon said he didn’t want to put Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett on the spot for an answer since he hadn’t mentioned he planned to raise the subject, but he wondered how they would in fact address this concern and how it could be communicated back to parents.
“I think we’re in luck,” said Hackett.
Mahoney is scheduled to attend the Feb. 13 School Committee meeting and Hackett said he should be able to address Nixon’s concerns at that point.
