Given the focus Mounds View district administrators are placing on what they’ve identified as a struggling middle school math program, is it appropriate to have certain courses appear in the high school Grade Point Average calculation of a seventh grader?
Let’s back up for a moment. Each May, Mounds View presents its District Operational Plan to provide 621 residents a road map of sorts. Particularly useful is the emphasis on what lies ahead for the following year.
For the 2013-14 school year, conducting a Middle School Review Program was determined to be a high priority goal:
“It’s no secret we’ve had concerns … about the performance of our students in mathematics at the middle level,” acknowledged Supt. Dan Hoverman. “We’ve been focused on that for the last 2 or 3 years, and we want to look at it and see if there is something we can do more broadly,” he added.
To help address the challenged program, the superintendent said District 621 has contracted with a nationally-known, outside consulting firm to get its middle school math program back on course, after a few years of flat or declining scores in the performance of its 6th, 7th and 8th graders.
The firm has been charged with producing 3 or 4 “high-yield” recommendations that are financially-neutral and whose impact has been illustrated at other districts.
Results of the firm’s work will be made available for board members and the public as they head into the deliberations around the next annual budget process, likely next December, January, or February.
Many people who have had or do have middle schoolers in the Mounds View schools are aware that the grades of students enrolled in Intermediate Algebra (and perhaps other courses) appear in their respective High School Grade Point Average (GPA) calculations. And according to district-issued information, since such courses include high school level standards, they are included in the GPA calculation per district policy. Seeing as the school board uses a policy governance model approach, excluding/including various courses from GPA is within the board’s purview. (Note: The basis for Intermediate Algebra accruing high school credit is per state statute.)
These things taken together generate a few questions:
1. How do students benefit from including a course grade on their transcripts for
a curricular program the district has identified as needing considerable improvement?
2. Is it appropriate for future college admissions officers to be reviewing the performance
of a 7th grader when a comparable applicant is being judged on the basis of 10th grade work?
3. Should the Mounds View district suspend the policy of including middle school math grades on transcripts until a later date?
Elect John Hakes as your next school board member if you would like these kinds of curricular questions addressed. The previous link provided represents a start.
John Hakes for Mounds View School Board '15 
As a school board member in a similarly high-performing district, I think this is a good discussion to have. We need schools to focus on achievement and somehow to track that achievement. We have a 10-12 HS and are presently discussing including 9th grade GPA as part of the HS grades. There are pros and cons. The con to using MS grades focuses on the idea that MS should be a “safe” time for kids to experiment, and if their grades count that may “throttle” their willingness to experiment. 1. Is the plan in MV to include all 7th grade math grades or only those of advanced kids who are taking HS classes? For under-achievers counting those grades would hurt. 2. A college admissions officer will go looking for those math results regardless of district decision. 3. I don’t have any opinion on this local issue.
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1. How do students benefit from including a course grade on their transcripts for
a curricular program the district has identified as needing considerable improvement? [If student took HS math, of course it need/should include in the transcripts. I am so glad MV now has middle school HS math program so MS kids do not need to commute to HS. Please do not try to make those kid’s math class not count. )
2. Is it appropriate for future college admissions officers to be reviewing the performance
of a 7th grader when a comparable applicant is being judged on the basis of 10th grade work?[Yes, college admission requires high school math, that student need to be reviewed HS math course and it does not matter which grade the student took this class. Also no one force any 7th grade take intermediate algebra]
3. Should the Mounds View district suspend the policy of including middle school math grades on transcripts until a later date? [NO, it is not middle school math, intermediate algebra is high school math. student who has took the HS course should get into transcript and should not need to retake it in HS!! ]