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WPHS to Adjust How GPAs Are Calculated

WHEELING — Starting next year, Wheeling Park High School students will see different ways in which their grade point averages will be calculated.

At Monday’s Ohio County School Board meeting, the board voted unanimously to adopt changes in WPHS’ grade point average structure. The “Audit Your A” program, which allowed some students to take some classes as pass/fail without it affecting their GPAs, will not continue next school year. And starting with the freshman class entering Wheeling Park next fall, students will have fewer weighted honors classes from which to choose on their course schedules.

Students currently enrolled at Wheeling Park will continue to operate with the same number of honors classes from which they have been able to choose.

These changes, Wheeling Park principal Meredith Dailer said Monday night, will help level the playing field for all students at the school.

Wheeling Park conducted a survey of 500 students and Dailer said 32 percent of those students polled said they didn’t take classes they wanted to take because they weren’t worth five points for an “A” and they didn’t want their GPAs dinged because of it.

“That’s the thing we’re wanting to fix,” Dailer said.

“We have a third of our students wanting to experience ‘The Park,’ and they’re not because of this five-point/four-point differential in the electives.”

The solution, Dailer said, was to leave the five-point honors designations for Advanced Placement, College at Park/dual-credit and core honors courses, where an “A” would be worth five points instead of four. Elective courses would be weighted at four points for an “A.”

As an example, Dailer said AP and honors biology would be weighted at five points because biology is a graduation credit requirement. Classes like botany, zoology and genetics are electives that would be weighted at four points, but could have a designation as an accelerated class, which would show colleges how rigorous the classes would be.

These changes also would benefit WPHS students in career and technical education, who weren’t able to audit classes to help their GPAs.

“Depending on the path students want to take determines right off the bat if they’re going to have a strong and competitive GPA,” Dailer said, “and we don’t feel that’s fair.”

Another complication with Wheeling Park’s “Audit Your A” program was that the school would need to fill out a waiver every year for the West Virginia Department of Education to allow it to continue. The school’s first attempt at a waiver was accepted, but Dailer said it was a difficult process.

Dailer said that, as with any change, adjustments would need to be made. She wanted to make sure that fine and performing arts courses, which often would get audited, are protected so that students would still be motivated to choose them. County superintendent Kim Miller said the district will keep a close eye on the process to make sure it is best for Wheeling Park’s students.

“As with anything, when you make a change, we’ll make sure to monitor it closely, adjusting sails when we need to,” Miller said. “We want to make sure we support this initiative, because it’s going to be what’s best for our kids. We want to make sure we monitor our kids, and the paths we’re taking and how we can make this a successful experience.”

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