A change in the GPA class rank system could be coming if the Frisco ISD Board of Trustees approves recommendations presented at Monday’s school board meeting. The proposals are a result of the work being done by district’s GPA for Rank Committee.

“In 2016, a committee was formed of principals, counselors, and district staff because there were identified concerns based on how we are currently calculating GPA for rank,” Frisco ISD Area Director for Secondary Instruction Dr. Angela Romney said. “The two main concerns at the time that were identified were that first students were selecting, or not selecting courses, based solely on improving their GPA for rank. We also saw an issue where the culture of over competition breeds academic dishonesty and there was also a lot of mental concerns like anxiety.”

It’s an issue throughout the district as students often discuss their course selection based on potential GPA boosts.

“I know plenty of people that have told me, oh, I would love to do political science, I would love to do culinary, I would love to do child development,” Heritage High School senior Rica Llagas said. “But that’s just another on-level class to add to my record and frankly I can’t afford another more than one on-level class. And with a mindset like that we have students that give up their genuine interests into taking classes that they don’t really care about for the sake of getting that 6.0 bump.”

Conversations like this reached the district’s radar and now proposals to change the system are under consideration, with one possibility allowing students to drop one on-level course, limited to  fine arts and sports, from their GPA class rank.

“I think that it’s ok since from my own experience, basketball and some other regular classes messed me up and I won’t have as high of a GPA as if i were to only take PAP/AP classes,” junior Rameez Hanif said. “Also for Health Science, I’m forced to take so many regular classes that are just required to take Health Science, so if I could take that out of my GPA, I would be better off.“

Along with this, students will no longer know their class rank unless they are the top 10 percent. Everyone else will only be told what quartile they fall in.

The goal: to promote the idea that school is not just or learning, but also for experiences.

“One of the biggest concerns I have with that is you have so many students who on paper that seem so smart but most of them graduate not knowing what they care about, not knowing what they really want to do, not knowing what their interests or passions are,” Llagas said. “They may be good academically, they don’t really know themselves and it’s because none of them have taken the time to really learn, what do I care about as a person because all of them have spent so much of their time into developing what their numbers are.”