GPA debacle: Montgomery Public Schools quietly changed a grading policy, upsetting parents

One day last month, just ahead of the deadline to apply for the National Honors Society, students at Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School noticed something off with the grade point averages appearing in their online grading system.

For many of them, the weighted GPA was lower than they expected, and for a few, that meant that they no longer met the minimum 3.7 weighted GPA for the National Honors Society.

As involved parents investigated the situation, they found that Montgomery Public Schools had quietly implemented a grading policy change across its high schools — without going through the board of education or announcing the shift to parents and students.

What changed

Before, all Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual enrollment, honors and advanced classes earned a 1.0 weight, or extra value, in GPA calculations. After the change, honors and advanced classes were only worth an additional 0.5 weight.

The change would apply across all of MPS, though the LAMP community took particular issue with it. In magnets specifically, the change could result in more students failing to meet the minimum GPA to stay in their schools. At LAMP, that requirement is a weighted 2.75.

“As a board member, I am not happy with this,” District 5 representative Pamela Cloud said. “LAMP is one of our shining stars. They can just keep their hands off.”

It’s unclear exactly who within the district signed off on the change, but Superintendent Melvin Brown has since assured parents that the weighting system has been returned to normal. He said the earliest a permanent change would be made would be at the start of the 2024-25 school year, and it would have to be formalized by the school board.

“The decision has not been made,” Brown said, addressing the LAMP Parent Teacher Student Association.

When asked why the district initially wanted to adjust the grading, promotion and retention policy, also called the GPR, Brown said the idea came out of a magnet committee that formed to address equity across high schools in the district.

“I know part of that is to make sure we’re on par,” he said. “We thought it would have potentially been with the rest of the state so we weren’t unfairly weighting courses.”

As far as comparison to other school districts, Mountain Brook Schools weights AP classes with an extra 1.0 and advanced and dual enrollment classes with an extra 0.5. Hoover City Schools adds 1.0 for AP and IB classes, and it adds 0.5 for dual enrollment and advanced classes.

Why parents say it’s a problem

On Monday, April 8, Superintendent Brown arrived at LAMP alongside a host of central office employees to hear parents’ concerns and answer their questions.

Parents complained that the change not only runs the risk of diluting the rigor at schools like LAMP, but it also could lead to fewer college scholarships for their students. Many colleges utilize GPA and standardized testing scores as the determining factors for who receives scholarships and who doesn’t.

Thus, if a new GPA weighting system results in lower GPAs for some students, that could be the difference in thousands of dollars in college scholarships.

Trina Cherry, a LAMP alumna herself, has two children in the magnet system. One chose to attend Booker T. Washington, valuing a well-rounded high school experience while still being able to achieve a high GPA, and the other chose LAMP, prioritizing academic intensity and college prep.

“We came understanding that honors counts as 1.0, so now to say that that's a consideration for being changed, it highly affects me,” Cherry said. “I think there should be a consideration to not even put that in place until the students who have accepted this program have matriculated out because we came here with that agreement, with that contract.”

Other parents worried that changing the grade point ratio could deflate LAMP's prestige, resulting in a loss of high-achieving students to other high schools where they can be at the top of their class, earning higher GPAs.

“There's a difference between treating all schools the same and treating them equitably,” LAMP parent Jim Dryjanski said. “When I think about how we look at education within Montgomery, it's important that we have a baseline of standards to operate a school system on, so I've got deep empathy for you on that. It's also important to recognize the uniqueness of each of the schools, what they represent and the opportunity to unlock potential in students.”

He and his wife, Celeste, are both retired military, and when they decided to stay in Montgomery, the opportunity for their kids to attend LAMP played an important role. He said comparing the magnet high schools to one another and to the traditional high schools should be of little importance.

“Take a system that's 40 years in the making, nationally recognized for most of those decades, a standout program and you’ve got to treat it differently,” Dryjanski said.

How the GPA weighting system looks now

According to Brown, the old GPA system has been reinstated, with all AP, IB, dual enrollment, honors and advanced classes earning an added 1.0 weight.

“It’s obvious that a perspective may not have been in the room, and now, that perspective is in the room,” Brown said.

No official changes have made their way to the Montgomery school board agenda yet, and in the meantime, LAMP leadership said its National Honor Society chapter would consider reopening applications in light of the GPA snafu.

Where the board stands

District 5 representative Cloud, District 7 representative Arica Watkins-Smith and District 1 representative Lesa Keith have all voiced concerns over the process that led to the GPA changes being implemented this year.

LAMP is in Watkins-Smith’s district, and she said she received an onslaught of calls from worried parents when they noticed the change. That was the first time she heard about the potential new policy.

“When that policy goes out and it does not come through us, it puts us in a bad light and a bad place because we get the blame first. Everything falls on us first,” Watkins-Smith said in the April board meeting. “If I’m going to take a lick, I need to know what I’m getting hit for. I’m making this plea to Dr. Brown because he’s y’all’s boss, but the seven of us are over him.”

Keith was among those at the LAMP meeting earlier this month, where a security guard threatened to remove her after she voiced her opinions, addressing both the room and Brown.

“Just looking at this and the diverse amount of people in here tells me how real the situation is,” Keith said. “We, as board members, see things as a little bit sneaky too.”

Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Why MPS changed its GPA weighting system, reversing it after backlash