Friendswood High School enacts GPA changes for incoming freshman

The incoming freshman class of Friendswood High School will soon be experiencing changes to how their GPA is calculated.

The changes were voted on unanimously by the Friendswood ISD board of trustees at the Feb. 14 board meeting. They will fully go into effect for the incoming freshman who will graduate in 2026.

The first change is that only five classes will be calculated for students' ranked GPA. The classes include English, mathematics, science and social studies as the four core classes, and the fifth one will be languages other than English, such as French, German or Spanish. Any other courses will be included in a student's personal GPA but will not count toward their ranked GPA.

The second change is that all ranked GPA exemption policies will be removed. This means that any of the five classes mentioned above, regardless of the method taken, will count toward a student’s ranked GPA. These methods include dual courses, summer school and correspondence courses.

The final change is moving to a five-point weighted scale for cumulative and ranked GPA instead of a four-point weighted scale, which is what was originally proposed at the Jan. 24 board meeting workshop.

These changes also correspond with the elimination of class rank outside of the top 10%, as previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper. Ranked GPA will only be reported for those who fall in the top 10% as they receive automatic admission to public universities. The courses that count toward this GPA are five mentioned above.