Austin ISD recalculating high school seniors' GPA and rank after discovering inconsistencies

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin Independent School District is recalculating the GPA and class rank for hundreds of high school seniors after discovering inconsistencies in its ranking process. The review of grades has already changed the rank of some students in the top 15 percent of their high school class. 

The issue dates back to a pandemic-era policy to mark students as pass or incomplete rather than provide a numerical grade. The practice was only used during the Spring 2020 semester, but according to district officials, there were inconsistencies in how the system interpreted or assigned the value of “P” for passing. 

KXAN obtained three letters the district has already sent to Anderson, LASA, and McCallum High School parents, saying, “We acknowledge the potential implications of this situation and apologize for any impact it may have on your child.”

The district caught the issue after a family raised a concern about their student's rank in the fall, which led staff to initiate a review.

According to the district, correcting the scores has already resulted in some students’ GPAs or rankings going up and down. In some cases, there have been no changes. The recalculation will impact every high school in the district. 

It's unclear if the changes have impacted any students' automatic admission to the University of Texas at Austin. The top 6% of every graduating high school class is eligible to be automatically admitted to the school under Texas law.

A team of nearly a dozen registrars and counselors spent three days recalculating the GPA and rank of the top 15 percent of Anderson’s senior class, according to district officials, which in total is 83 students. The district sent students who had changes in their rank and GPA an additional letter and an updated transcript.

“Because of the new rank GPA numbers, there were some adjustments on the ranking of the senior class,” district officials told KXAN.