KOKOMO - The Kokomo School Corporation is planning to change the way it calculates grade point averages and do away with valedictorians and salutatorians.
Starting with the class of 2021, Kokomo High School will no longer operate on a 12-point grade point average scale, going back to a 4-point GPA scale. The school also will no longer choose valedictorians and salutatorians, and will instead honor students in a similar way to colleges, with summa cum laude and magna cum laude.
Kokomo High School Principal Angela Blessing spoke to the school board at a work session Wednesday about plans to make the changes. She met with groups of students and parents about the decision, which she said will be more in line with what colleges are looking for on high school transcripts.
Currently, students at the high school who take weighted classes, such as Advanced Placement classes, need to convert their GPA back to a 4-point grading scale, Blessing said, because most colleges do not accept 12-point scales.
The district moved to a 12-point scale years ago in an effort to encourage students to take weighted classes, Blessing said, but an unforeseen consequence is that it sometimes encourages students not to take certain electives that could bring their GPA down, which often affects who ends up as valedictorian or salutatorian.
The changes will be included in the updated student handbook, which will be approved by the school board later this year. The changes will not affect any students currently in high school, they will only affect students currently in eight grade and below.