College Tidbits

Brian at AcceptedToCollege.com helps to unravel the mystery behind calculating your high school GPA.

Many High School juniors who are trying to figure out their chances at competitive schools are confused about what their GPA actually is.

Between “unweighted” and “weighted” GPAs — and also with many high schools now calculating the grades of AP courses, honors courses, and standard courses differently — students are often presented with two or three different numbers to represent their GPA.

Even more confusing, many colleges use their own formulae to calculate GPA, meaning that the numbers your high school reports may all be different from what the university actually considers.

So what is a confused student to do? First of all, you should understand the process…Click here to read the entire post

A recent report issued by America’s Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students attending public school systems in the nation’s largest cities receive diplomas.

APA’s report clearly shows that how we do school in America, especially within our inner cities is obviously broken and needs fixing.

Hopefully, bringing attention to this issue will heighten our awareness and help gain support for resolving this growing problem.

This report seems to be gaining a great deal of attention. However, I always find it ironic how the most critical, most controversial and most negative stories always become such hot items, see for yourself by clicking this link.

So, instead of focusing on the negative, today I have chosen to draw attention to the positive — Community Links High School, located on Chicago’s Westside, is celebrating a 100% graduation rate.

They have been able to accomplish this through:

1. Smaller class sizes
2. Parent participation
3. Community involvement.

In a recent interview with ABC-Chicago, Community Links Principal, Francisco Borras said this regarding the 100% graduation rate:

“That takes a lot of work. And really I think what helps us is working, really, alongside parents, community, a student’s family along the course of their high school career.”

Just as a small light has the ability to brighten an entire room…The success of a common few, can inspire us all…

Seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, issued by America’s Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation’s largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said…more

Question — What can be done to fix this problem? Please share your thoughts…