Honors courses and more advanced classes have been offered at schools all over the world since the conclusion of World War II. These kinds of classes are popular among students who want an extra challenge in school or seek additional learning opportunities. Another major reason honors classes are so popular is because they hold weight. Weight is an aspect of grading that makes sure that harder classes are more valuable on report cards and GPA Essentially, getting an “A” grade in a more difficult class, such as Honors Pre-Calculus, holds more weight and is more valuable than getting that same “A” grade in an Art class. This kind of weighting is necessary to make sure that GPA calculations are fair.

Many students, however, are complaining that these advanced classes do not offer enough weight. The risk of taking a far more difficult class does not outweigh the benefits offered in GPA. Students who perform well in academic courses are doing much better than students who are taking all honors classes and still doing very well. There should be more benefits to getting a 95% in an honors class in comparison to a 97% in an academic class.

One way that the unfair weighting could be detrimental is to valedictorian selections. On paper, a student who aced every academic class is much more likely to get valedictorian than a student who got low A’s while taking all honors courses. If no changes to weighting are made, students who took the easy path are going to keep getting rewarded for their minimal effort. Some colleges such as Duke or Clemson even guarantee various scholarships to valedictorians. Robbing hard-working students who challenge themselves of such a prestigious title and scholarship opportunities is very wrong. Not only does this upset students, but it also affects colleges who are awarding full rides to presumably hard-working students. In reality, some of these scholarships are being given to underachievers, which can negatively impact universities.

Speaking of college, almost all colleges take GPA into consideration when accepting students. Students who take these more difficult courses are risking their GPA and potential college offers while colleges are supposedly looking for students who can manage the challenge. It seems backward. Colleges are looking for a high GPA and difficult classes whereas students are made to choose between the two. They either have a high GPA or take more difficult classes. Why would students not be rewarded for doing well in harder classes?

Additional weight to the grades would have little to no consequences. Many more students would take harder classes and challenge themselves more. This would lead to an overall more intellectually sound district, and a district full of students willing to challenge themselves. 

Adding weight to honors courses would be a great change to make to both the school and grading system as a whole. The district should strive to encourage kids to challenge themselves, rather than rewarding them for taking the easy way out. This change would either lead to more students taking honors courses or it would keep the system fair for those students who already are taking more difficult classes. Either way, the increased weight would be a positive change.