Following an update in how classes are assigned point values on the Grade Point Average (GPA) scale in 2025, D225 is finalizing and ironing out the new system of academic levels, which was started with the class of 2029, Principal Dr. Barbara Georges said.
Students can take classes in three different academic levels, which determine how their GPA is calculated: College and Career Readiness (CCR), graded on a 4.0 scale; Advanced Honors (AH), graded on a 4.5 scale; and Enriched Honors (EH), graded on a 5.0 scale, Georges said.
“It started with last year’s Freshman Class, and does not apply to juniors or seniors,” Georges said. “So far, the freshmen are doing great with the GPA scale change.”
Changes to academic levels and weighted GPA’s stem from the Accelerated Placement Act, an 2017 Illinois law which states that Illinois students who exceed state standards in core areas of the academic curriculum are to be automatically moved up to a more rigorous course level, Dr. Joyce Kim, Associate Principal of Teaching and Learning, said.
If a student’s standardized test scores fall below a certain benchmark, they are placed into a lower-level class, and if they exceed a certain score, they then have the option to be placed in a higher-level class, Kim said. The following year, if the student improves their score, they can again choose to move up to the next level, Kim added.
“Students will be automatically placed into the next most rigorous level,” Kim said.
To calculate a student’s weighted GPA, each letter grade is assigned a different number, depending on the academic level of the class, and the weighted GPA is the average of all academic classes, Kim said. Unweighted GPA’s are the average of all classes, regardless of subject or academic level, Kim said.
Another adjustment comes for students and their families, Georges said. Families who may have older students whose classes are not weighted this way may have difficulties understanding this system simply because it is different, Georges said. However, families whose oldest child is a freshman have been doing well with the change, Georges said. The main question parents have been asking is how the systems compare to each other, Georges added.
“There is absolutely no disadvantage between one system or the other,” Georges said. “They both accomplish the same thing.”
