James Bowie PTA - Citizenship and Legislation

Citizenship & Legislation Update

Dates to Remember:

Thursday, February 26^th

PTA Day at the Capital, Austin, TX

RISD Council PTA is planning to have transportation from the Richardson area. They will drive to Austin, spend the day at the Capital and make personal visits to our local Representatives.

Thursday, April 16^th

RISD Board of Trustee Candidate Forum at RISD Auditorium

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Presidential Candidates and Education:
Click here to see a comparison chart comparing positions of the PTA, McCain and Obama on educational issues.

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The New GPA Calculation Formula will affect your children. Please read about it below:

Proposed Method for Uniform Grade Point Average Calculation
The preliminary draft Commissioner Paredes released Wednesday, October 22, at a meeting of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board addresses several concerns expressed about previous drafts by including some arts, career and technical education courses in the GPA calculation that had previously not been included, and by giving students additional weight for more difficult classes, including Advanced Placement classes.

Under the proposal, students would earn grades on a four-point scale, in which an A in most regular-level classes would be worth four points.

All courses designated as academic in the Recommended High School Program, which outlines expectations for graduation, would count in GPA calculations. Those courses include:
o Four years of social studies, English, math and science classes
o Two years of a foreign language
o One year of fine arts
o 3 1/2 years of college preparatory electives
All AP classes and technical education courses that the board regards as preparation for college, such as accounting, would also be counted.
o AP, International Baccalaureate and dual-credit courses would be worth a full extra point.
o Pre-AP and pre-IB courses would be worth an extra half-point.
o A committee appointed by the board would have four years to ensure that all pre-AP and pre-IB courses are rigorous enough to merit the additional weight.

The preliminary draft could be approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in December or January.
Texas PTA will continue to monitor the Higher Education Coordinating Board's progress toward establishing a Uniform Grade Point Average calculation and will assist in evaluating its impact to Texas students, making that information available as well.

New GPA proposal would provide Texas
students more credit for some advanced
courses 1:26 PM CT
01:45 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 22, 2008
By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
tstutz@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN — State Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes today agreed to adjust his proposed uniform grade point average rules for Texas high schools in response to widespread complaints from superintendents, principals and teachers.

Under a plan recommended by Dr. Paredes to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, students would get a half point of extra credit for pre-Advanced Placement and pre-International Baccalaureate courses in the 4.0 grading scale for all students.

Dr. Paredes also proposed creation of an advisory committee to examine specific courses and recommend those that should be included in the calculations for student GPAs, beginning with incoming high school freshmen in the fall of 2009.

“We have made substantial adjustments in the proposal,” Dr. Paredes told board members, referring to his earlier plan that would have denied extra weight in GPAs for all pre-AP and pre-IB courses, as well as most classes in fine arts and career and technical education.

Critics had said that the plan would “dumb down” the coursework of students, discouraging them from
taking the more rigorous pre-AP and pre-IB courses because they would count the same as regular classes.

His proposal would still give an additional point for AP, IB and Dual Credit (high school and college)
classes so that an A in those classes would be equal to 5.0 and a B would be equal to 4.0 in computing
GPAs. Student GPAs are important in college admissions, particularly under Texas’ top 10 percent rule for automatic admission to flagship universities.

“I don’t want to dumb down courses. I want to raise every student to rigorous coursework that leads to
post-secondary success,” Dr. Paredes said. “Our goal is to promote rigor and higher standards for all high school students.”

Board members decided to postpone final action on the GPA recommendations until their next meeting in January.

The uniform GPA rules were mandated by the Legislature last year in response to widely different policies among school districts in calculating their student GPAs.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102308dntexgparules.13a6c7bc3.html