Overview of the Grade Point Average Calculation
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There are many ways that districts can control the student Grade Point Averages (GPA) calculation, but the basic GPA calculation divides the student's total quality points (grade points) earned by the total attempted credit.
GPA = Total Quality Points / Total Attempted Credits
This topic explains the terms related to calculating GPA, discusses how the time that GPAs are issued affects the marks and credits used for GPA, and describes options to calculate weighted GPAs.
Understanding GPA-Related Terms
The following terms are important to understanding the GPA calculation.
Quality Points | Point value earned for the student’s mark. Your district may refer to these as grade points.
The quality points for a mark are calculated by multiplying the point value by the attempted credit. For example, if the credit for a full year course is 1.0 and the credit for a half year course is.5, then quality points for the mark would be calculated as shown:
Your district can define non-weighted and weighted point values, if students taking Honors and AP courses should receive higher point values than students taking other courses. In eSchoolPlus, the point values for marks are defined within the level table. | |||||||||||||
Attempted Credits | Credit value for the student’s mark. In eSchoolPlus, credits for course-sections are defined in the Master Schedule and then stored in the student's Mark Reporting records. For example, a Full Year course = 1 credit and Semester course = 0.5 credits. The attempted credit value used for courses is based on the GPA Setup. Your district can set up the GPA calculation to use a credit of 1.0 for all courses or use the attempted credit specified in the student’s mark reporting record. Additionally, the mark type selected for the GPA type affects the credit for a mark. For example, if a full year course has a credit of 1.0, the GPA is based on a semester mark type that is issued twice a year, and partial credit is used for the calculation, then the semester 1 mark will be.5 credits. | |||||||||||||
Add-On Points | Add-on points can be assigned to marks in the level table to weight marks earned in Honors and AP courses. These points are added to the GPA after it is calculated versus using weighted point values for marks which are added before the GPA is calculated. | |||||||||||||
Weighted GPA | Marks can be assigned a greater value for students taking advanced courses, like Honors and AP courses, to reflect that these courses require more effort than others. As a result, two students can receive the same marks, but receive different GPAs based on the difficulty level of courses. For example, a student receiving all A marks for Honors and AP courses may have a 5.0000 GPA, but a student receiving all A marks for non-weighted courses would have a 4.0000 GPA. |
Determining When GPAs Are Issued
For each GPA type, your district can select to issue the GPA by report card run, term, or year. Your district may refer to terms as semesters or trimesters.
This option controls the number of times the GPA is issued per year and affects how course marks and credits are included in the GPA calculation. Refer to the following table for more information:
Report Card Run | Students have a GPA record for every report card run for which they have report card records. For example, if your building has marking periods 1 - 4 associated with report card runs 1 - 4, students will have four GPA records for the year. The current GPA information in the record includes marks received during the report card run. For more information on how marking periods are associated with report card runs, refer to Marking Periods Page. |
Term | Students have a GPA record for the terms for which they have report card records. For example, if your building has marking periods 1 - 4 and marking periods 1 and 2 are part of term 1 and marking periods 3 and 4 are part of term 2, students will have two GPA records for the year. The current GPA information in the record includes marks received during the term. For more information on how marking periods are associated with terms, refer to Marking Periods Page. |
Year | Students have one GPA record for a year for which they have report card records. The current GPA information in the records includes marks received for the year. |
Weighting GPAs for Advanced Courses
If your district policy is that students taking Honors or AP courses should receive a weighted GPA, you can use the level table to weight marks for these courses. You can weight marks in one of two ways:
- Define weighted point values for marks. For example, an A in an Honors class may have a point value of 5.0.
- Define add-on points for marks. These points that are added to the GPA after it has been calculated. Add-on points can also be weighted based on course credit.
Typically, most districts use weighted point values to calculate weighted GPAs. But, some districts use add-on points to adjust GPAs to prevent students from being adversely affected when taking a combination of non-weighted and weighted courses.
Consider the following example:
In this school, an A in an honors course has a point value of 5.0 and in a non-honors course has a point value of 4.0. 33 quality points / 7 credits = 4.7143 Jose takes 5 weighted courses and receives all A marks. His GPA is calculated as follows: 5 x 5 = 25 quality points 25 quality points / 5 credits = 5.0000 Jaxon's GPA ends up being lower than Jose's because he took the two non-weighted courses, but his work load included more courses. Using add-on points to adjust the GPA could result in these students getting equal GPAs. If instead of a weighted point value of 5, the A mark was defined with a 4 point value and.2 add-on points are added for each honors credit, then the GPAs would be calculated as: Jaxon: 28 quality points / 7 credits = 4.0 + (5 x.2) add-on points = 5.0000 GPA Jose: 20 quality points / 5 credits = 4.0 + (5 x.2) add-on points = 5.0000 GPA |