GPA Representations on StudentAcademicRecord

Summary of outcomes for Data Standard 3.2

• Problem Addressed: Grade point average can be cut many different ways that the CumulativeGPA and SessionGPA elements do not cover.
• High-level Reasoning: The initial design was to replace (deprecate) the existing GPA elements on StudentAcademicRecord with a new common type that would allow a designated weighted system descriptor, Cumulative boolean, and GPA value. After review by the Course Transcript SIG, these changes were updated per DATASTD-1423.
• Changes Made: Deprecate SessionGradePointAverage and CumulativeGradePointAverage on StudentAcademicRecord and ReportCard. Create a new common GradePointAverage with a GradePointAverageWeightedSystem descriptor, IsCumulative boolean, and GradePointAverageValue.

Original ticket description follows:

How do we store the current GPA, when using term code, instead of cumulative GPA?

How do we store the weighted GPA and the unweighted GPA. Which one does Ed-Fi use, why not both?

At our district, in general, the GPA is calculated by assigning quality points to each current grade based on a 4-point scale (A=4.0, B=3.0, etc). The total points are divided by the number of courses attempted. There is no column to store the quality points in this table.