By Drake Lucas
Staff writer
May 08, 2008 12:10 am NORTH ANDOVER — A policy at the high school that counted music electives in grade-point averages will change over the next two years. Principal Carla Scuzzarella said the current grading system gives an unfair advantage to students taking music electives because no other electives count toward GPA and class rank. Some music classes are worth honors credit. "Until such a time as we can support an honors level in other elective areas, it doesn't put our students in the best possible light if we are favoring one set over another," Scuzzarella said. Students who are presently enrolled in music will have those classes counted, but after the class of 2010, no electives will be counted toward GPAs. GPAs are one of the factors colleges consider when accepting students and giving scholarships. A GPA also is used to determine class rank, another way colleges choose students. Students who are sophomores and juniors now will have two GPAs and class ranks until they graduate — one that includes music classes and one that does not. Scuzzarella said the school will send a letter explaining why two different numbers were being sent. The GPA is calculated using the number of credits a student is taking along with the weight of the grades a student receives in each class. All core classes are counted, such as math, science, English, history, social studies and foreign languages. In the music program, students can take honors wind ensemble, honors concert choir, symphonic band, concert choir and chamber singers. The classes are counted toward the GPA. No other electives are counted in a GPA, including art, journalism, graphic design, accounting and bioethics. The honors band and symphonic band are worth six credits, making them equal only to Advanced Placement science classes in biology, chemistry and physics. Concerned parents said the system is unequal because students in music classes can bring up their GPA by doing well in a music class, especially if that class is honors, which is given the same weight as an Advanced Placement class. Students with comparable grades in core classes that take other electives instead of music do not have the same opportunity to bring up their GPAs with an elective. Cindy Jalbert, the parent of a high school junior, said having two GPAs for now is more fair because colleges have the option of seeing the GPA and class rank based on just the academic core classes. Colleges usually recalculate a student's GPA with just the core classes. Some colleges include honors classes, however, even if they are not core classes. The colleges have no way of recalculating a student's class rank. "For one small group to have a significant advantage is really wrong," Jalbert said. "I commend (the School Department) for getting it resolved." Ann Lu, a parent active in the music program, said having two GPAs for current students is a compromise. "This is a good transition," she said. She said honors music needs to exist, whether or not it is counted in the GPA, so that students can progress in music. Her hope is that the school will add enough electives so more of them will be offered at an honors level. Scuzzarella said she can revisit how electives are counted when more are offered. Because the high school only has six periods, students are limited as to how many classes they can take. And because teachers have been cut over the years, fewer are available to teach electives. Scuzzarella is working on a new schedule for the high school that she hopes will allow for more electives to be offered.
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