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I understand and appreciate the challenges
facing the ongoing viability of the HOPE Scholarship program,
and I appreciate the legislature's efforts to remedy the pending
budget shortfalls. I do not disagree with the majority of the
proposed changes to the HOPE program. However, the pending
requirement to attain a 3.7 High School GPA to qualify for the
prospective Zell Miller Scholarship is problematic for the
following reasons:
- A student already enrolled in a
Georgia College who has previously failed to achieve a 3.7 High
School GPA would never be eligible for the Zell Miller
Scholarship, even if—in the extreme case—they scored a perfect
1600 on the SAT and held a 4.0 GPA in college.
- How grades are awarded vary
widely from school to school, so GPA is an unreliable indicator
of ability. Most
universities focus on aptitude tests such as the SAT and ACT for
this reason. Georgia
Tech, for instance, requires that the student self-report their
grades. The state’s
premier technical university realizes the problem with GPA and
focuses on aptitude tests and extra-curricular excellence.
- The 3.7 GPA requirement penalizes high
school students who take honors and AP courses. Weighting points are removed and if a student gets an A
in an AP class, they are unable to get the 0.5 point bump and
achieve a 4.5 score.
So the highest weight a student can obtain is 4.0. Without
weighting, there is no distinguishing between Honors and
remedial classes.
So, perversely, students are motivated to take the easiest
possible core curricula to maximize their potential to achieve a
3.7 GPA.
- Finally,
the 3.7 requirement to maintain the scholarship is completely
unreasonable. The
average GPA at Georgia Tech is approximately 3.08 (see chart). To graduate with an engineering degree from Georgia Tech
requires a 2.0, and the average GPA of Tech Presidential
Scholars (the top 150 in each class) is 3.68 (source:
https://www.me.gatech.edu/docs/ME%20low%20res%20proof.pdf,
page 9 ). Student’s in Georgia Tech’s Honors Program have
average GPAs of less than 3.5 (see chart. Source:
https://www.me.gatech.edu/docs/ME%20low%20res%20proof.pdf, p
21). Given these statistics, the bulk of Georgia Tech’s
students, including its Presidential and Honors
awardees, would fail to
qualify for the proposed Zell Miller Scholarship.
These facts relating to the GPA requirement
are in conflict with the stated intent of the Zell Miller
Scholarship. We
should not be penalizing students who pursue the most
challenging curricula in our high schools and universities. And
we should not be creating perverse incentives to take easier
classes or attend less challenging Universities.
I hope the Georgia legistature will consider these arguments
persuasive and work to eliminate the GPA requirement from the
Zell Miller Scholarship and focus instead on the SAT/ACT
requirement.
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