BY SAM MAILEY
[email protected]

Courses to require collegiate prerequisites to earn extra grade point weight

Revisions to programs for high school-transferrable community college courses policies, known as Academic Enrichment at Sierra College or Advanced Education at American River College, will result in some courses losing their GPA weight on high school transcripts in the Roseville Joint Union High School District.

While some community college courses can still fulfill graduation or UC/CSU A-G requirements, some without prerequisites in their departments won’t be weighted the same way as a high school AP course.

In the revisions, introductory courses currently offered as AE options such as Intro to Psychology at Sierra College, weren’t valued as challenging enough to reward a GPA bump. Only courses which had prerequisites of prior courses in their department will receive a grade bump.

The policy changes were approved last fall on Oct. 13 after being under review since April 2015. RJUHSD announced the changes in an informational flyer and online, which specifies that weighted courses need a prerequisite, but not that the prerequisites need to be within the same department.

Social science courses like History 17B at Sierra College, which fulfills the junior year United States history graduation requirement, which requires a demonstrated level of English proficiency equivalent to at least English 50 or English N, but still will not receive weighted credit because the prerequisite is not within the same department. According to Roseville High School counselor Gracie Fernandez, the lack of specifying the prerequisite policy could mislead students and families.

“Technically this has a prerequisite,” Fernandez said. “If I were a parent and I received this, I would be looking at that as ‘Well that’s got a prerequisite, so it would get weighted credit’.”

Counselors are lobbying to push the policy to take effect for sophomores in the summer 2016 term, and for juniors in fall 2016. This would allow juniors who were late to take a course to have the same GPA weight as students who took the same course before the policy was implemented. Junior Shayna Morgan believes this suggestion is reasonable.

“I think that’s fair, because they didn’t know that was the reason that [the other students] were taking it,” Morgan said. “So if they didn’t get a grade bump, that wouldn’t be fair.”

The policy could apply to current sophomores because none have enrolled in AE yet, so they would all be starting with the same criteria. If the policy applied to current juniors the same as sophomores, juniors who took courses before the summer 2016 term would receive weighted credit for courses that juniors who enrolled later would not receive.

With the current AE policy, students are able to get weighted Enrichment credit for courses equivalent to Roseville High School courses such as AP US History, AP psychology and AP Government. On top of those, students can also currently receive weighted elective credit for taking introductory courses such as Introductory Sociology.

With the new policy, students will receive weighted credit for the next-level course after completion of its introductory course. Courses that fulfill A-G requirements such as History 17B but do not have prerequisites in their departments will still count towards graduation credits, just without the same GPA weight as an AP course.

Morgan has taken three courses at Sierra College: History 17B, Intro to Psychology and Abnormal Psychology. Morgan sees the new policy as a potential deterrent for students considering AE.

“Obviously the grade bump is a big reason why people want to take it,” Morgan said.

To assistant superintendent of curriculum and instructional services John Montgomery, it’s tough to tell whether AE will lose student-interest after popular courses, such as History 17B, lose high school GPA weight.

“It is difficult to determine students’ motivation for college courses or weighted GPA,” Montgomery said.

Morgan mainly took AE out of interest and to free schedule space. After the policy changes are in place come the summer 2016 term, Fernandez, like Montgomery, believes interest in AE will vary on a “case-by-case basis.”

Sophomore Bailey da Cunha sees the changes as potentially obstructive for students like Morgan.

“Other students may have difficulty finding room in their schedules for AP classes they would normally take in the summer,” da Cunha said.

Montgomery worked with “several community colleges and state universities” to organize the policy changes.

While counselors are lobbying for the policy to apply to current juniors in the fall term, Montgomery sees the spring term as the final term for the current policy to apply.

“The policy was approved by the Board on October 13, 2015 and is in effect immediately,” Montgomery said. “Those students during the 2015-2016 school year are allowed to take classes through June 16 for weighted credit under the old policy.”