Re: Grading scale in Texas (2025)

As a new resident to Texas, I've notice that the report card isn't asscoiated with a grade.

90 - 100 excellent
80 - 89 good
70 - 79 fair
below 70 failing

How would you figure GPA on that scale?

90-100 = 4.0
80-89 = 3.0
70-79 = 2.0
60-69 = 1.0 failing

This is if your on the 4.0 scale. Many districts do different things.

I recently learned how my son's high school assigns a letter grade to a numerical grade. He gets a numerical grade on report cards. This does not take into account any weighting for Honors or AP classes.

90-100 = A
80-89 = B
75-79 = C
70-74 = D
Below 70 = F

I was surprised that there is only a 5 point span for a C.

My son just dropped out of the top 10%, with a 99.99% average.

KD ~ I've had several students graduate from KHS as Texas Scholars with 4.5 or better GPA's and not be in the top 10%.

Something's just not right with that.

you have to respect the student athletes who maintain their grades as well as all the sports, practices, private lessons, etc. My son is currently in the top 8%. It seems the kids above him do nothing but study.

Another problem we have is loss of students. My son's class lost 60 students between Christmas and now. School expects his class size to drop even more by the time he gradutes. So what really sucks is he works hard, raised his GPA last semester by a few tenths of a point only to lose ground in the class ranking.

Do other schools experience this reduction in class size? School officials say we live in a mobile area. Seems like most are mobile out of the district.

i can understand using GPA as a reference. Its the whole class rank thing and confuses me. All class demographics are not the same. Why punish some kids because they happen to live in a district with a large population of kids who would rather study than anything else.

I have even heard of parents moving to certain school districts just so the kid can graduate in the top ten.

quote:

Why punish some kids because they happen to live in a district with a large population of kids who would rather study than anything else.

That's a bizarre quote to me. Studies are first, everything comes in second behind that. At least in our house. As an example, at Texas Tech you can get a $20,000 Scholarship for being in the top 10% and getting a 31 on your ACT. Now if you can earn that and swing a bat, now you're talking! The rankings are hard to keep up with, the AP classes are weighted (as they should be), but you get to keep what you learn a lot longer than you get to keep anything else.

My problem with the top 10% rule...

Let's say I go to Collikar High School and am on the path to graduate #1 in my class. I get to apply to the University of Texas and I am accepted due to my class rank.

TBirdDad goes to Jesuit High School (just an example)takes more challenging courses, makes better grades, but doesn't land in the top 10% due to the number of brilliant minds at the school to begin with. He doesn't get the opportunity to attend UT, even though he's been more challenged and is academically exceptional.

Where's the logic?

quote:

Originally posted by collikar:
but doesn't land in the top 10% due to the number of brilliant minds at the school to begin with. He doesn't get the opportunity to attend UT, even though he's been more challenged and is academically exceptional.

Where's the logic?

my point exactly

quote:

Originally posted by Redhead:
Screwball - We are in the same situation. Son actually moved up a couple of spots in the ranking - but about 50 kids have dropped out of his class since May. As a result he has slipped down to the next quartile. Kids at the top of the class don't drop out. It's the ones on the bottom who most likely will not graduate or have just lost interest.

what school if i may ask?

According to the April 12, 2006 Dallas Morning News....

"Applicants in the top 10 percent of their classes made up 75 percent of of all Texas students receiving acceptance letters from UT-Austin this spring." (this spring refers to 2006)

According to a DMN article dated March 31, 2005 ....

"Officials at the University of Texas' main campus in Austin say 80 percent of the freshman entering this fall will have entered under the 10 percent law. In a few years, that number will be almost 100 percent, said UT President Larry Faulkner."

If you are not in the top 10% it is extremely difficult to get into the University of Texas. The only other ways to be admitted are to have extremely high SAT scores or enter via an athletic scholarship. Another option is to attend one of the other UT schools (Arlington, Dallas, El Paso, etc) for one year and maintain the required hours and GPA then transfer to Austin under the CAP program (Coordinated Admission Program) for your sophomore year.

As dtiger and Collikar mentioned, if you go to a private or public college prep school (for example, Jesuit and Highland Park HS) where the majority of the students are high achieving you can have very good grades and an excellent education and still not be in the top 25% much less the top 10%. I understand the need for the rule but it does seem to benefit some students/schools more than others.

The figures quoted in the articles for A&M are more in the range referred to by Redhead....A&M does not appear to be as greatly impacted by the 10% rule as UT.

You can fix all of this by homeschooling.

Its not for everyone, but it works. Child #1 attends an Ivy League college & child #2 has been offered the presidential scholarship at 3 different liberal arts colleges in the east.

dbg_fan - I am truly impressed by the students and parents that can make homeschooling work so well! That is a huge commitment for the parent and in most instances the student shows great maturity by being teachable. I could probably do it through 8th grade then I would be lost...especially in science!

Congrats to child #1 and #2!

collikar-

thanks for shining some light on the rigrorous (sp)courses at jesuit.

quote:

Originally posted by jesuitbaseball:
collikar-

thanks for shining some light on the rigrorous (sp)courses at jesuit.

Thanks for shedding some light on the rigorous courses at Jesuit.

You're welcome.

Cheapseats- Jesuit does not make the top 10% list made known, but there are ways of finding out someone's ranking-I've done so because on all the questionaires I've filled out, they ask for class rank. Jesuit is unique in that they won't send it to any colleges UNLESS it can help i.e. Texas/Texas A&M (mainly just Texas schools). At a college "conference" the junior class attended last week, it was said that they basically don't send it to out of state schools. If they didn't send any rank to the Texas schools, that could hinder the process of being accepted. In general though, the top 10% at Jesuit isn't by let's say for example we have 300 kids, top 10% would be 30. Well, what if one person leaves, does the number go down to 299? No, in the eyes of the school, each student still attending Jesuit is still competing against the student that left, the student that left just isn't competing against them. If I haven't confused anyone too much. Also, it's very easy for a student to know what general percentile they are in because at the meeting, they told us that above a 94 is top 10%. That number does fluctuate, but not much.

Disclaimer, all this talk about school might bring out the worst, I MEAN best speling

. Had to collikar. I'm sure there are some other mispellings in there.