Click Here to See Larger Image

By Robert Salonga

DAILY BRUIN STAFF

rsalonga@media.ucla.edu

High school students looking to the University of California will not have honors points padding their grade point average if the state approves a new approach to public education.

Ending the practice of adding additional weight to honors and advanced placement courses is among the recommendations of the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education, which consists of state senators and assemblymembers.

“The primary reason for the recommendation ... is to increase the rigor of all course offerings in all academic courses,” said Charles Ratliff, senior consultant to the committee.

Ratliff added that students at schools with few or no advanced classes are automatically at a disadvantage since they have few opportunities to score these points.

“If you begin to reduce this inequality, you’re closer to a level playing field,” he said.

UC admissions already looks at GPAs differently from school to school to account for the disparity in teaching quality among the thousands of high schools in

California.

Eliminating the extra grade points awarded to students will urge high schools to increase the difficulty of their entire curriculum rather than just honors classes, according to the latest draft of the report.

Some UCLA students are concerned that getting rid of the extra points is the wrong approach to improving high school academics.

“(The state) should push so that more schools offer (honors) classes, rather than the quick solution of taking away all the points,” said Sameer Sampat, a third-year electrical engineering student.

However, proponents argue the change is necessary to increase the number of underrepresented and lower-income students in college.

“Minority enrollments have been pitiful at the UC. They haven’t kept pace with high school graduation rates,” said Paul Mitchell, higher education consultant to Assemblywoman Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, committee vice chair.

In 1960, the state established the Master Plan for Higher Education, which defined the roles of the UC, California State University and community college systems.

According to the original plan, the UC was designated the primary institution for research and doctorate degrees, the CSU for four-year degrees, and community colleges for vocational education.

A similar plan for K-12 education is in place, and the goal of the joint committee is to establish a uniform plan for public education statewide. The committee has not set a completion date for the redraft.

Second-year marine biology student Johnson Khuu supports the policy move, and said high school students should take honors courses even without the extra weight to their grade point average.

“You get a feel for the level of intensity,” Khuu said. “You don’t want to take an easy class (in high school) and be shocked by the difficulty of a college course.”

The UC has not taken a stance on the new Master Plan draft, but “encourages students to take the most rigorous courses available to them,” said university spokeswoman Lavonne Luquis.

Mitchell also dismissed any concerns that changing an admissions requirement such as GPA would infringe on the UC’s autonomy. According to the California Constitution, the university system operates independently of the rest of the state regarding its policies, including admissions.

“The UC is still autonomous. This recommendation would affect high schools in how they calculate their own GPA,” Mitchell said.

With reports from Noah Grand, Christina Jenkins and Kelly Rayburn, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.