Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Smith: Policy incentivizes taking more rigorous courses
WORLAND – Students attending Worland High School may find it a little harder to become a valedictorian or salutatorian beginning with the Class of 2017.
That’s because the Washakie County School Dist. No. 1 Board of Trustees endorsed a policy Monday night to add weight advanced classes on the 4.0 grade point average scale.
Worland High School Principal Kevin Smith said he hopes the policy will encourage students to take more rigorous classes. Currently, students who take easier classes can become valedictorians despite competing against their counterparts who take more advanced classes such as calculus.
Advanced classes would be worth five points on the traditional 4.0 scale.
The district passed a similar policy at a meeting earlier this year which only affected incoming freshmen. After receiving feedback from parents and students, school administrators decided to modify the policy to include incoming sophomores and juniors.
“We had some parents and some students wondering why it was taking so long, why we didn’t implement this process. My response to that was that we can’t do that with seniors (next year) because they don’t have the opportunity to take advanced classes over the next two years whereas the juniors do. So that’s why we decided to do that because this incoming junior class can, over two years, take those advanced courses and still have the opportunity to be a valedictorian or a salutatorian based on that weighted scale,” Smith said.
Smith said he also hopes the policy will help level the playing field for students in addition to incentivizing more rigorous curriculum.
“It’s definitely going to have an impact, there’s no doubt about it. It’s about making it fair for all students because right now we have students who are valedictorians who did not take as rigorous classes as some of the others who are eligible for the valedictorian award. That’s why we’ve included this advanced placement program. The kids who are valedictorians will be competing on the same level.”