Study begins on whether GPA requirements affect students, dropout rates
Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007
An appointed district committee met for the first time Wednesday afternoon to start its task of reviewing Fayetteville High School’s minimum grade-point average requirement for graduates.
Committee facilitator Judy New, an assistant superintendent for the district, described the meeting as mostly organizational. The committee consists of 19 people, including teachers, counselors, FHS Principal Jim Price and Kirk Sutton, principal of the school’s alternative program.
Fayetteville Board of Education member John Delap served as the board’s representative.
“ It takes this diversity to represent every area, ” New said.
The committee was designed to review the school’s requirement that students maintain at least a 2. 0 GPA to graduate and whether that adversely affects dropout rates. A 2. 0 GPA amounts to a C average.
New declined a request for a reporter to observe the meeting. Appointed advisory boards are generally not subject to the state’s open meetings law, and the presence of one school board member did not constitute a board meeting.
The Arkansas Department of Education does not set a minimum GPA standard, but schools can establish requirements in addition to state mandates.
New said the committee’s plan is to review achievement data on students who have dropped out in recent years at its next meeting. It will look at whether the GPA requirement affected the general population of dropouts or a specific school subpopulation or had no effect.
“ They want the evidence so they can be sure that can affect these students, ” she said.
The committee is scheduled to meet again on Jan. 16.
Members may be ready to make a recommendation to the school board after reviewing data at that meeting.
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