Class Rank
Redefining Student Success
Sparked by the FISD Strategic Plan, the work to redefine how we measure student success began in the Spring of 2019. Class Rank was removed for all students outside the top ten percent. The idea behind this work was to create opportunities for students that were about choice and individualized pathways based on learning, interests, and growth - not focused on comparison and rank. This change had a major impact on those students in the course selection process and the results for our students in the area of college admittances saw significant jumps. These outcomes were a celebration and left us with the question of how FISD can provide this level of freedom for our students within the top ten percent?
The Class Rank Focus Group (Phase 2) has been working diligently since September researching, learning, and having hard conversations to determine how we can create these same opportunities for the top 10-15 percent of our students. We began with the collection of data from the students themselves - this data provided the “WHY” that we needed to move forward with this work. The students overwhelmingly indicated that there was a clear barrier in place for them to make course selection based on learning and interests rather than comparison. This barrier was our system.
The Focus Group made up of teachers, students, parents, and counselors, has been researching other high-performing districts, gathering information from key stakeholders, and conducting multiple surveys to gather needed feedback as they worked step by step through their goals.
The goals were threefold: consider courses to be calculated within Rank GPA, consider Rank policies, and consider GPA scales that would support and align these outcomes with the goal of redefining student success.
On February 14, 2022, the FISD School Board approved these changes to the class rank system:
- CORE including World Language courses will be the ONLY courses calculated in Rank GPA
- FISD will implement a single 5pt weighted GPA for both Cumulative GPA (personal) and Rank GPA.
- All CORE and WL courses - regardless of the method taken (summer school, correspondence, Dual Credit, CBE, etc) will be included in Rank GPA.
It empowers students to pursue their passions when choosing electives without worrying about the impact on their GPA for Class Rank. I believe high school electives offer students an opportunity to explore different career possibilities and begin to consider what they might want to do after high school.
Melanie Crocker, cte
FISD GPA Scale
Class of 2026 and Beyond
|
NUMERICAL GRADE |
AP COURSES & COURSES THAT REQUIRE AP PRE-REQUISITE |
MAP/DUAL CREDIT/ OTHER DESIGNATED COURSES |
ON LEVEL |
|
97 & ABOVE |
6.0 |
5.5 |
5.0 |
|
93-96 |
5.8 |
5.3 |
4.8 |
|
90-92 |
5.6 |
5.1 |
4.6 |
|
87-89 |
5.4 |
4.9 |
4.4 |
|
83-86 |
5.2 |
4.7 |
4.2 |
|
80-82 |
5.0 |
4.5 |
4.0 |
|
77-79 |
4.8 |
4.3 |
3.8 |
|
73-76 |
4.6 |
4.1 |
3.6 |
|
71-72 |
4.4 |
3.9 |
3.4 |
|
70 |
4.0 |
3.5 |
3.0 |
|
BELOW 70 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
RANK GPA - 5 PT WTD SCALE INCLUDING CORE AND WL COURSES ONLY
PERSONAL GPA - 5 PT WTD SCALE INCLUDING ALL COURSES
The Class Rank Focus Group worked diligently to create a plan.
Beliefs
- Scale should honor the learning, growth, and choice of ALL students.
- Scale should value and highlight excellence among all pathway choices.
- Scale should lessen the impact between grade point differentials (narrow the bands and grade points assigned).
- Scale should not have a range between AP and Regular coursework that encourages choice based on points received instead of the quality of learning and growth.
- Scale should intentionally establish key anchor points:
- Points assigned at the lowest level AP should not be higher than the top level of regular.
- There should be an appropriate differential of the same GPA on an AP and regular scale: ideally between 15-20 points.
Student Voice
FHS students who participated in the focus group discuss the changes to class rank and why they believe the changes will benefit them in their educational pursuits.
*When Maren discusses having to take regular speech and health, the courses she intended to discuss were PE and fine arts.*