Email from Daniel Brown, a Berkeley Heights Resident and Parent with Children in the District, to the Berkeley Heights BOE and Administration

I am writing to express my concern about the 4.5-point GPA scale currently used at Governor Livingston High School and how it may be inadvertently disadvantaging students in the college admissions process.

When colleges convert GPAs back to a standard 4.0 scale, students effectively receive diminished credit for their grades. For example:

An A grade (4.0 on a 4.5 scale) converts to only 3.56 on a 4.0 scale.

A B grade (3.0 on a 4.5 scale) converts to only 2.67 on a 4.0 scale.

A C grade (2.0 on a 4.5 scale) converts to only 1.78 on a 4.0 scale.

This conversion penalizes students by making their GPAs appear lower than those of students from schools using a traditional 4.0 scale, putting them at a competitive disadvantage for college admissions and scholarships.

Unfortunately, this system had real consequences for my son. When his GPA was converted to a 4.0 scale, it ended up being lower than it would have been if a traditional 4.0 system had been used. As a result, he was denied admission to at least one college, despite meeting the academic qualifications when calculated under a standard scale. Had his GPA been evaluated on a true 4.0 scale instead of being unfairly reduced through conversion, he would have been accepted.

I urge the administration to consider how this system may be negatively impacting students and whether adjustments should be made to ensure they are not unfairly penalized in the college admissions process. I have attached a file with examples illustrating how the GPA conversion affects students’ GPA. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further and explore potential solutions.

Summary:

Essentially because we give 4.5 points for an A+ in the unweighted system it effectively diminishes the value of an A, B, C and D.  So a student from a 4 point scale school who averages 90s would have a GPA of 4.0. A student from our school who averages 90s would get a GPA of 3.56 once the college converts our scale to a 4 point scale.

This system has been in place for years.

More Comprehensive Examples:

02/06/2025 Update:

These are screenshots of Governor Livingston’s Profile Brochure which demonstrates a 4.5 Unweighted scale.

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