N. Clarion looks to adjust grade weights

Clarion News writer

Fairness in academics is something the North Clarion High School administration is hoping to achieve in the near future.

North Clarion High School Principal Ed Baumcratz made a presentation about figuring out class rank to the North Clarion School Board March 7.

Baumcratz believes there needs to be a more updated way to figure out class standing.

“The current system we use is so archaic that to use our new CSIU System (to figure out class rank), we are going to have to spend $2,000 to $4,000 for it to calculate for us,” Baumcratz said. “This might be a good time to look at it and to determine how we figure that out. Do we want to add more classes that are weighted?”

North Clarion High School Guidance Counselor Erika West, who attended the meeting via Zoom, believes updating the system is the correct course of action.

West detailed that if student earns a C grade or better in one of the weighted classes they receive an additional .05 added to their unweighted grade point average (GPA). But West believes there is room to improve this system which has been in place for over a decade.

“The issue is that the way we do the weighting system is different than the way most schools do it,” West said. “Most schools add a quality point. And that particular system of weighting would be feasible with our CSIU system of weighting classes we (recently) adopted and it would be free.”

West continued, “All it would do, essentially, is instead of adding that .05 to a weighted class would be we would provide five quality points for each weighted course. So there is an additional quality point added in the weighting of their grade point averages. So it’s still weighting the courses that we have currently selected as our weighted courses, it’s just changing the system in which we weight it with quality points.”

Currently, the high school offers six weighted classes; calculus, Advanced Placement (AP) Biology, Chemistry II, 10th-grade Honors English, 11th-grade Honors English and AP 12th-grade English.

Baumcratz mentioned he talked with science teacher Bill Guth about adding the high school physics class Guth teaches to the weighted class list. The reasoning behind adding the physics class as a weighted class is because Guth provides college-level instruction and lab work for the course.

Baumcratz also mentioned weighting some of the math classes like the upper-level English classes as well as making Chemistry I a weighted class.

More classes would give those who challenge themselves an added benefit.

Baumcratz said he has seen students adjust their schedules to take easier classes where they could get a higher grade and it would count the same as taking the higher level course where the student would be more likely to get a lower grade.

Board Vice President Jeff Barron asked Baumcratz what would be the criteria for a class to be a weighted class.

Baumcratz said the high school would have to do a complete reboot of the curriculum beginning with the 2022-23 freshman class.

Baumcratz said by adding additional weighted courses to the curriculum would give the district five accelerated math classes, four science classes and three English classes. Baumcratz also said they could add an AP social studies class but it wouldn’t be put into the curriculum until 2023-24 at the earliest.

North Clarion Superintendent Steve Young said the district will have to adjust its policy regarding weighted classes and curriculum before they can move forward.