by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington school board recently passed a controversial proposal by WHS Principal Dale Adams eliminating the weighting of grades to determine the Valedictorian, Salutatorian and class rank.

In years past, WHS students who took designated “honors” and “college” courses were awarded extra points above the 4.0 scale. Now all classes will be the weighted the same. Thus, a college course is worth the same as a P.E. credit.

The system has also changed. Adams said Wellington will no longer have in school “honors” classes, and will base the top tier class rankings on curriculum based on the Kansas Scholars Board of Regents.

Adams sat down with Sumner Newscow to give his reasoning behind the scholastic moves and the changes ahead for WHS students.

Sumner Newscow: So what is your reasoning behind going with an unweighted schedule:

Adams: The problem with a weighted schedule is two fold. In Wellington, the curriculum has been pretty restricted. Freshmen have to take this. Sophomores have to take that.

I’m wanting to encourage people to think outside the box a little.

This all started when junior high students were wanting to take accelerated high school honors courses in junior high. But if they did so they would not get the weighted benefits as say someone who waited to take the same class in high school. So I saw students hold back and wait to take the class in high school.

My thinking is we don’t want to hold people back. If you want to take accelerated courses even at the junior high level go for it.

I will do everything in my power to provide a student with as many college courses opportunities he so desires.

Cow: And what is the second reason?

Adams: I felt there were a group of students who could not afford some of the college courses putting them at an unfair academic disadvantage to those who could.

Cow: But a student is eventually going to have to pay for a college course eventually anyway if he/she wants to get a college degree.

Adams: That is a double edged sword. It costs $220 a semester to take a college course in Wellington. I still argue that a Wellington High School student can take 18 hours of college courses here cheaper than taking those same 18 hours of courses in college.

Cow: So if some students can’t afford it why were college courses weighted in the first place?

Adams: Are we basing it on title or on difficulty? With college courses you have a specific curriculum that is set by the Cowley County Community College. They have a specific syllabus and outlines what teachers must teach.

But if a student can’t afford that class, then, again, he is being placed at an unfair disadvantage compared to the student who can afford these classes. I think the weighted class system has done a disservice on both ends of the spectrum for students going into high school and for students leaving high school.

Cow: My problem is that taking away the weighting of classes means you will be taking away the incentives in taking away those courses.

Adams: That is absolutely incorrect. The idea that we are dumbing down the curriculum is not true.

In order to become Valedictorian or be in the top 10 of your class, you must adhere to the Kansas Board of Regents curriculum which means you must take four years of English, four years of Math, three years of Science and three years of Social Sciences. And these are courses which are defined by the Board of Regents, which are difficult courses. (See standards here) http://www.kansasregents.org/kansas_scholars_curriculum

You won’t be taking easy math to become Valedictorian. You are taking Algebra, geometry, trig, pre-calc. Same way with sciences. You have to take physics, chemistry.

You must be a Kansas Board of Regent Scholar to be Valedictorian. You can’t take a bunch of P.E. classes your senior year and expect to finish in the top of your class.

Cow: So how will this work with the new schedule?

Adams: Actually the eight-period day (instead of block) has opened up the flexibility of the schedule so students can take these core curriculum classes.

That brings up another problem with the weighted classes. If say a weighted class was scheduled the same time as a class a student really wanted to take, he would take that class over the weighted one.

Well, now that student is behind the other student who took the weighted class as far as his GPA is concerned. The system that had been in place made it very hard for a student to catch up.

Cow: But now you have a system in which Joe Smart is taking a college English class and Joe Blow is taking a regular English class. What if Joe Blow gets an A while Joe Smart gets a B?Blow now has a higher GPA.

Adams: Joe Blow probably won’t be taking the difficult classes outlined by the Kansas Board of Regents so he will be ineligible to become Valedictorian or be in the top 10 of his class. What I have always found in your highly motivated students is they will do what it takes to get an A. I had this student in Central (Burden) where I was principal, who scored a 35 on his ACT. He took a college calculus class online and was worried to death it was going to mess up his GPA. He managed to get through it and got an A. Highly motivated students take challenging courses because it not only helps them with their college career, but because it is the right thing for them to do.

Cow: So what is going to happen to the honors classes in Wellington?

Adams: We won’t have classes titled as “honors.” We will still offer these kinds of courses. But they won’t be titled “honors.”

There was a lot of subjectivity to the honors classes provided at Wellington High School.

First of all, it was subjective what students could get in. To get into an honors course, you had to be accepted by a group of teachers. I don’t think that is right. I believe if you want to take a class you should be able to take a class.

Cow: There was a complaint in the “comment” section of this website about there not being that much difference in an honors English class and a regular English class.

Adams: And that is a problem. There were no specific guidelines what constitutes an honors class as opposed to one that wasn’t.

Listen, I’m not against having honors classes. But I want it where there are specific standards and a syllabus that outlines exactly why one class is an honors class and one that is not.

Cow: What do the teachers think? Are you alone on your view of the honors classes here?

Adams: Honestly we haven’t discussed this in great length. I will say there is vocal opposition amongst some teachers who feel that a class with just honors students is going to have a more intellectually driven dialog, than say a class that has a mixture of honors and non-honors students.

I don’t disagree with that assessment. It’s a valid concern.

Cow: So what is going to happen to the student going to college without these honors courses?

Adams: There are three things that colleges look at when determining if a student is to be accepted at their college of choice: your ACT score, your class rank and at the in-state universities whether you have completed the Kansas Scholars Curriculum.

Honestly, your ACT scores are the biggest thing colleges look at.

As far as the weighted GPA is concerned, it is a complete non-factor with colleges. If say a Wellington High School student has a 4.2 with a weighted GPA and an Argonia student has a 4.0 with a non-weighted GPA and they are both up for the same board of regent scholarship, the regents are going to throw out the weighted GPA and give the Wellington student a 4.0 just like the one from Argonia.

Cow: So you are saying the weighted schedule system is only valid in Wellington.

Adams: Absolutely. Listen there are some students who like to play the game. They will drop one class so their “weighted” class will be more significant and boost their GPA and class rank.

I’m going to get hammered for saying this, but I’m more interested in the self-motivated student than I am the one who is trying to get an extra point on his GPA.

Cow: So how does Wellington compare to other schools as far as the weighted schedule is concerned?

Adams: I’d say it is about 50-50. Some of the larger schools have weighted schedules so they don’t have so many Valedictorian classes. I don’t know of very many small schools that have weighted classes.

Cow: Anything else you want to add?

Adams: I just want to make sure people know that we are not trying to dumb down the curriculum. It is just the opposite. If you have questions come talk to me about it.