According to assistant principal Brad Sever, certain elective courses will be worth full weight next school year. These courses include Wind Symphony I, Camerata Orchestra, Theory of Knowledge and Advanced Life Science: Foods (a new dual credit course for the family and consumer sciences department for 2013-2014). In addition, radio, Pinnacle, HiLite, and television broadcast will be worth full weight for students in their third and fourth years of taking the classes.

Because these courses will be fully weighted, an A will be worth a 5.0 on the GPA scale rather than the previous 4.0.

“We wanted to reward students for taking upper-level classes with rigorous prerequisites,” Sever said. “Students put in lots of hours (for these classes), and in most cases, they have to go through an application process. The classes that are being weighted are already prestigious classes. They perform not only in school, but are judged outside of school.”

According to Sever, the change in weight for these elective courses could change the number of students who enroll. He said upperclassmen who might have chosen not to take certain electives because regular-weight courses could negatively affect their GPAs might now decide to take the classes.

However, Sever said he didn’t envision many changes in the way teachers teach these courses.

“(These courses) have already proven to be successful. In most cases, they’re award-winning. Teachers are already perfecting their crafts,” he said.

Sever also said there was a possibility of adding more fully weighted electives in the future. “If a teacher requests it, (administrators would) definitely be open to a conversation.”

According to Sever, courses should meet criteria in order to be approved to be fully weighted, which included internal and external assessments, formal writing, work required during and after school and prerequisites.

“It’s important to provide equity among departments,” he said. “I think it’s good to have weighted classes in elective departments.”