In the month of May, a group of Jordan teachers and staff members, consisting of department leaders and the grading committee, organized a retreat to discuss the assignment weighting for minor and major assignments in AP classes. AP classes had been weighted like honors classes, with major assignments being 60% of the final grade and minor ones being 40%. However, the panel ultimately concluded that AP classes should switch from the previous 60/40 split to 70/30, starting in the 2024/2025 school year.
Many students were stressed when this new policy was announced and questioned whether taking APs with the new grade weighting would negatively affect students' GPA. Let's take a look behind the scenes to see why Jordan made this decision.
Mr. Finger, who teaches AP Physics and AP Research, explained part of the logic behind the shift from 60/40 to 70/30 at Jordan. He says that teachers have found that Jordan graduates were often “struggling when colleges used mainly 85/15 or 90/10, we felt like we weren’t adequately preparing our students.”
This big jump from high school to college is a major reason for struggle. A large part of this is because minor assignments are often so easy to complete in high school that it's very easy to get an A or B in a class, even if you fail the tests. Another reason for the shift was Jordan’s reputation and competitiveness.
“The way colleges do…admissions is they have profiles on schools [with strengths and GPAs] and we’ve heard from admission officers that…Jordan is weak because…it’s so easy to get an A, so when kids apply from Jordan versus other schools, they’re going to look more at other high schools because Jordan’s become too easy,” explains Mr. Finger.
Although this will make AP classes more difficult, the shift will hopefully make Jordan a more competitive school and help seniors look like better candidates when applying to colleges. Mr. McDonald, one of the department chairs for the Advanced Placement program, explains the final major reason for the change: “...to create a more consistent and organized grading system,” because there has been some “inconsistency in grading distinction between honors and AP classes.”
At Jordan, there is a clear distinction between academic classes, whose division between major and minor assignments is 50/50, and honors classes, whose division is 60/40. However, there is no contrast between honors and AP courses. Mr. McDonald expresses that he, and the rest of the grading committee, believe that it is crucial to have a level of difference between honors and AP “to create a more equitable system.”
However, this new system isn’t all perfect. Mr. Valder, an AP Pre-Calculus teacher, points out a very important flaw to the change. “It puts a big emphasis on kids' ability to take bigger assessments,” he states. “Data shows that a lot of kids are not good at taking tests, so I do think that there is a disadvantage there from the standpoint of [grades]. I do feel like in AP class[es] you want that grade to be reflective of knowledge,” not your ability to take a test.
This is a very critical point because according to The University of Western Idaho, “25–40 percent of U.S. students experience test anxiety” (2023).
Mr. Valder then goes on to explain “that oftentimes at Jordan we’ve offered opportunities for kids to do test correction. As an AP…program, that is looked upon differently.”
Therefore, if kids had been given opportunities to get points back on a test all the way up until AP classes, it could dramatically skew grades and overall GPAs.
Overall, the switch from 60/40 to 70/30 for Jordan AP classes is to better prepare students for college class weightings, make Jordan a more competitive school, and to create a more equitable grading system.
As the new school year completes its first months and the new AP class weighting system falls into place, we are curious to see how it affects students' test taking skills, study habits, and college admission rates.
Works Cited:
How to Overcome Test Anxiety: 8 Helpful Tips. (2023, March 14). College of Western Idaho.
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