Dear Prince George’s County Public School students, parents, teachers, and community members,

Since the beginning of the 2016-2017 PGCPS school year, Honors classes are now being weighted more than regular classes. This is helpful because now students who work hard in challenging courses can be rewarded with more credit (.5 more) than a regular class. The grading scale is posted below.

However, students who have worked hard previous school years are not going to have this new grading scale applied to their transcripts. This is unfair to those students who have put in great amounts of effort into their challenging Honors classes.

Why should the new grading scale be applied to honors classes from previous school years too?

1.  Honors classes are very challenging and time-consuming compared to regular classes. Since Honors courses do not compare to regular classes in terms of rigor, why are they still weighted the same on previous transcript grades? It is unfair for students who have worked hard in Honors classes in former school years to receive regular credit.

2. What makes honors courses different now than how they were in the past? Nothing. So why not apply the credit for honors classes now to previous transcript grades?

3. The transcripts of students who are currently in the 10th or 11th grade will be skewed since Honors classes will be weighted one year and not the other.

4. Grades 9-11 are what college admissions personnel look at in order to determine if a student can manage a difficult workload at their school.  Students in the past have taken a chance with their grades just to be able to show colleges that they do challenge themselves in learning. That in itself is enough reason for students to be rewarded with the same weighted Honors credit offered now.

5. Applying to college is a very stressful time for students and to be able to have the benefit of the new policy  effecting previous Honors transcript grades can give a student a boost on how their GPA will look to admission officers, opening more doors of opportunity for them.

6. The time and effort  it will take to make this policy equal among all PGCPS students is worth the benefit that students will reap in the future.

Please students, parents, teachers, and community members of PGCPS sign this petition to make our grading scale policy just for all students in PGCPS. With your help, students will  be compensated for the extra time and effort they have put into their Honors classes.

Thank you much for your time,

Adilia Espinoza-Jones and Keya Rozario

Eleanor Roosevelt High Seniors