In the latest revisions of a prospective district grading policy released by the RJUHSD Continuous Improvement Leadership Team last month, weighted credit for community college courses and other classes taken outside of the district was eliminated.

The currently grading policy, last revised in 2015, grants weighted credit to college courses taken outside the district if it has “advanced college standards to meet college elective courses with prerequisites.”

According to RJUHSD assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Jess Borjon, the latest revision was done to address inconsistencies in the distribution of weighted grades versus the difficulty of a class.

“Online learning has proliferated so greatly that it’s really hard to ascertain whether this really is an advanced course,” Borjon said. “The district really has no ability to really determine whether that’s an advanced course or not. So we think that it’s creating an inequitable playing field for students that are amassing grade point averages in their four years here.”

Borjon hopes to continue revisions for the grading policy through December and present a final draft to the RJUHSD board for adoption. If it passes, the grading policy would be effective in fall 2018.

According to Roseville High School counselor Graciela Fernandez the purpose of academic enrichment is to “enrich your academics.” She said it serves as an opportunity for students to take courses available at a community college not available at RHS.

“So to me, it’s kind of like two-fold,” Fernandez said. “I can see sometimes where it might discourage a student from taking the courses because they were wanting the grade bump. Yet, at the same time I see other students that were taking it for other reasons anyway that they’ll probably still continue to take the courses.”

RHS junior Sydney Richardson took a Sierra college history class to fulfill her U.S. history graduation requirement. According to Richardson, the opportunity freed up her schedule at RHS and allowed her to take a different class in place of U.S. history.

“I don’t think it’s very fair that they’re taking this college credit away because we did work hard in the summer and took time out of our summer break to take the courses,” Richardson said. “So I think we should get the AP credit boost because they’re actual college courses. These AP classes we’re taking at school, although they are difficult, they aren’t actual college courses.”

RHS senior Jackson Mann hasn’t taken any community college classes.

“I think it’s going to be overall more fair for the students who don’t have an opportunity to take classes outside of school,” Mann said. “Like, for myself, I can’t drive, I don’t have a driver’s license. So I don’t have a way to get myself to Sierra college and take those kind of classes.”