Should Schools Acquire Weighted Classes?

Most importantly, adding weighted grades into honors classes will help Jordan High School, the school board, and some teachers. For example, students who take these honors classes tend to earn higher test scores. This helps the school receive a better reputation, and by giving these students weighted grades, it is rewarding them for taking these challenging and rigorous courses for receiving those excellent test scores. In addition to higher test scores, JHS may be able to expand their classes by offering more honors classes for students who are interested in them. This will give students more information about a subject due to a faster pace. For example, at Jordan High School there is not currently any honors science classes. Science classes usually only make it through the state standards
because of the pace they have to go at. If an honors class gets added, the students who understand concepts will be at a faster pace and go through more. This may increase test scores since those students expanded their knowledge. Additionally, because there may be more honors courses offered or more students may join a certain honors class, there may be a need for more teachers or for a teacher to add another section of honors. If teachers already teach a section of honors, they most likely will drop a regular class, which could be picked up by another teacher.
They also will not have to make a new set of lesson plans for this section since they already have it, which will create more time for that teacher. If JHS adds a new honors class, the teacher would only have to change his/her course for a year and adapt to it. That new course will stay consecutive for multiple years. Also, when honors classes where decided to be added to the school, teachers had to redo their entire curriculum to make a new classes. This proves that an honors class is different than normal classes and more is expected out of the students in these classes. Moreover, by offering weighted grades for honors it may entice students to stay at a JHS, so they can be given the challenging courses they need and their GPA won't go down. As well, whereas an advanced placement and college in the school classes obtain a weighted grade of ten percent their normal grade, an honors class would not need as big of a bump. Due to the fact that AP and CIS classes have college-level thinking involved, they deserve a bigger raise in their
grade. Where honors classes are only preparing a student for college, but they are still a difficult course to enroll in. Additionally, if teachers decide that they need to push students harder because of the weighted grades, the students should be prepared and completely okay with that because those are the expectations of an honors course.