“The global pandemic has forced many difficult decisions to be made, one of which is how to handle grading and GPA for high school students during this unique period,” HPISD Superintendent Dr. Tom Trigg said. “As we said from the outset of the discussion, there are no perfect solutions. We sincerely appreciate the patience of the board and the community as we worked through how to address this challenge. We received a lot of constructive feedback.”
Due to school closure, students who are taking Advance Placement classes will not be required--but are still encouraged--to take corresponding AP exams for potential college credit. In addition, the requirement of 50 hours of community service for the current senior class has been waived.
Graduation honors for the top ten students in the 2020 graduating class, including valedictorian and salutatorian, will be determined through the end of the 4th six weeks. Honors for cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude will be awarded through the higher of either the end of the Fall 2019 semester or the end of the 2020 fourth six weeks.
Students will receive credit or no credit for the remote learning period by showing proficiency on all of the Essential Learning Objectives (ELOs). Semester grades for high school students will be an average of the 4th six weeks grade and a grade for the remote learning period (100 for credit and 69 for no credit.) This average will be posted on the transcript and calculated into the cumulative GPA.
Similarly, middle school students who are taking courses for high school credit will receive numeric grades, also calculated with either a 100 or 69 for the remote learning period, on their high school transcript. In accordance with current practice, grades received in middle school will not be calculated into students' cumulative high school GPA.
As initially outlined, MIS and HPMS students will receive credit based on work collected each week by their teachers. Feedback on student work is being provided in Google Classroom. Teachers are using a variety of assignments and assessments during the remainder of the semester to determine proficiency on essential standards.
At the elementary school level, a modified report to parents will be used that will include standards/objectives for which students have been taught during the emergency remote learning period. The report will indicate whether a student is promoted to the next grade.