{"id":4379,"date":"2025-10-01T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T05:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/?p=4379"},"modified":"2025-10-01T00:02:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T05:02:48","slug":"weighted-or-unweighted-mmsd-earns-an-f-in-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/4379\/opinions\/weighted-or-unweighted-mmsd-earns-an-f-in-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"Weighted or Unweighted, MMSD Earns an \u201cF\u201d in Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring, MMSD launched an \u2018extensive\u2019 review of GPA calculation to decide whether to switch from unweighted to weighted grades.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an unweighted system, all classes count the same. A student taking two APs and one honors class who earns Bs in APs and As elsewhere has a 3.71 GPA.<\/span> A <\/span>common strategy<\/span><\/a> for weighting caps regular classes at 4.0, honors 4.5, AP\/college-level 5.0, meaning that that same student would have a 3.71 <\/span>unweighted <\/span><\/i>GPA, but a 4.0 <\/span>weighted <\/span><\/i>GPA. This is because an A in an AP is a 5.0, a B is a 4.0, and a B in an honors course would be a 3.5, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have two main issues to talk about. First, the decision was wrong, and second, MMSD\u2019s \u201creview\u201d lacked honesty. The second matters more – even if I may disagree with the outcome, that would be easier to accept if there was a genuine review where public input was considered, but they did not.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Decision Itself<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The district chose not to adjust GPAs, a choice many students and families view as unfair. But I need to explain how this whole conversation started. In 2024, <\/span>Wisconsin Act 95<\/span><\/i><\/a> was enacted, with the goal of boosting in-state admissions to the UW-Madison, UW-Eau Claire, and UW-La Crosse. It is <\/span>not<\/b> the same as the new <\/span>Direct Admit<\/span><\/i> system, which is much more broad, and has lower standards for automatic admission to all of the smaller Universities of Wisconsin schools. Act 95 created the <\/span>Wisconsin Guarantee<\/span><\/i>, wherein the top 5% and top 10% of <\/span>each high school class<\/b> from around the state gain automatic admission to Madison (5%), and La Crosse & Eau Claire (10%). The legislation has drawn criticism as critical implementation details were overlooked, but MMSD exacerbated that by failing to respond.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defenders argue advanced students will \u2018get in anyway,\u2019 but inequity remains fundamentally wrong. What happens in an unweighted GPA system with Act 95 is that a student who takes zero honors or AP courses in their entire high school career and gets all As will have a 4.0 GPA, putting them in the top 5% and earning automatic admission. But a student who takes twelve APs (sometimes more) and gets a single B will not get that same recognition. Even students outside a weighted top 5\u201310%, likely myself included, notice the inequity. The point is that it should not be possible for students to simply coast, whether intentionally or not, through four years of high school and gain admission without any review process to a prestigious state university, while someone who goes above and beyond in rigor and gets one \u201cimperfect\u201d semester grade does not. Throughout all of the correspondence I have had with the district, and their public-facing statements, they have simply refused to acknowledge that fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns remain that weighted GPAs may push students into unsuitable courses or reduce arts participation. Those both certainly could be true, and I won\u2019t pretend otherwise. However, Act 95 allows for the school districts to determine a class ranking based solely on GPA, and there is nothing stopping MMSD from simply creating that ranking based on a weighted system, even if that is hidden on transcripts, and still using the unweighted system for everything else. The only thing that would be impacted is the Guarantee, as MMSD themselves concede, as UW and <\/span>every other school<\/b> weight grades themselves<\/span><\/a>, and have their own systems for doing so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Lack of Transparency & Honesty<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When it was first announced that this review was taking place, the district said it was working with college representatives to learn how they use weighted grades in admissions. We were told district leaders would make a recommendation by this summer. At the time, MMSD Spokesperson <\/span>Ian Folger said<\/span><\/a> that \u201cthose recommendations could include maintaining current practice\u201d. Everything suggests that the outcome was predetermined.<\/span><\/p>\n

On August 22nd, the district\u2019s Executive Director of College, Career & Community Readiness, Mary Jankovich, signed <\/span>an email<\/span><\/a> sent out to families saying that the final decision was to stick with unweighted GPAs, without any specific details on what led to the decision. The district simply listed the following factors that \u201cthe review process included\u201d:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n