Grade-point average (GPA) is calculated on the basis of all
courses for which credit has been earned or attempted, including
repeated courses previously passed. (Please note that a GPA
will remain unchanged, or be lowered, unless the grade in the
repeat course is higher than the student’s existing cumulative
GPA.) This calculation includes grades for courses in foreign
language, algebra, and geometry for high school credit attempted
at the 7th and 8th grade levels. In schools
where students are ranked, ranking occurs at the end of the
sixth, seventh, and eighth semesters of high school. The student(s)
having the highest grade-point average at the time of graduation
is (are) ranked number one in the class. (For example, if four
students have the highest possible grade-point average, all
four are ranked first; the student(s) with the next highest
grade-point average would be ranked fifth, and so forth.) The
grades used to determine class rank are all final marks for
multi-credit, one-credit and one-half-credit courses. All grades
earned during the school year and in summer school are included
when calculating GPA.
Quality points are numerical values assigned to final grades
for the purpose of determining a numerical average. Quality
points are assigned to grades earned in all courses for which
credit is received, as follows:
A - 4.0 C+ - 2.5 D - 1.0 WF: Withdraw Failing (no credit)
B+ - 3.5 C - 2.0 F - Fail (no credit) WP:Withdraw Pass (no credit)
B - 3.0 D+ - 1.5 P - Pass (no credit) T: Audit (no credit)
Advanced Placement (AP) courses and specified International
Baccalaureate (IB) courses shall be weighted for students who
pass the course and sit for the appropriate AP or IB exam by
applying an additional .5 quality point to the quality point
value (.25 for semester courses) assigned to the final grade.
(An exception occurs if a grade of F is assigned.) For example,
a final grade of A in an AP course shall receive 4.5 quality
points for purposes of calculating grade point average.
The pass grade in a class which a student has elected to take
on a pass-fail basis is not included in the computation of class
rank; the fail grade is included. Courses dropped will not be
counted in class rank except when a final grade of F is received:
(a) for the fourth grading period of a full-year course, or
(b) for the second grading period of a semester course. A student's
grade-point average is determined by dividing the total number
of quality points earned by the number of courses included in
the transcript. The grade-point average is reported to three
decimal places (thousandths). Students with the same grade-point
averages are numbered identically in rank.
Class rank is not computed for Chantilly High School students,
per Fairfax County Public Schools policy allowing individual
schools to have the choice of whether to rank students.
