With a proficiency-based diploma how will colleges be able to evaluate a student's grades?

Answer:

This is a common question and an appropriate concern for parents to have.  There is a misconception out there that colleges and universities will not know how to interpret a proficiency-based transcript.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  

We have spent a considerable amount of time consulting with admission officers at top tier schools around New England and they have been consistent in their responses to us.  Colleges and universities accept students from all over the world.  Students from public schools, private schools,  charter schools, home schoolers, international students, etc...  Admissions officers see a wide variety of transcript formats.  They see transcripts with and without class rank, GPA (weighted or unweighted), traditional letter grades and a variety of standards-based formats.  They consistently report that the transcript format is a non-issue.  The important piece is the school profile.  A well written school profile describes how admissions officers will interpret the wide variety of transcripts they review.  The following is an excerpt from an email sent to Dr. Dunn from Caroline Weaver, Admissions Officer at Harvard:

"In a nutshell, we have no preference in how schools choose to evaluate their students.  We have every single variety of evaluation possible represented in our applicant pool.  As long as your school profile is comprehensive and explains how students are evaluated, which classes they are eligible to take in what years etc... we have all the information we need.  We are far less concerned with GPA and rank than we are with rigor of the curriculum.  We simply want to see students challenging themselves and doing well in those challenging classes.  Nearly half the schools represented in our applicant pool have done away with class rank.  And with today's crazy weighting systems GPAs mean very little if we don't have the "key" (school profile).  

The bottom line is, we have 36,000+ applicants - 70-80% of whom are academically qualified to do the work at Harvard.  When we look at academics we are simply trying to decide whether or not a student will survive academically on our campus.  For the majority of students, the answers is "yes" and we move on from academic credentials very quickly.  I think you will find this sentiment repeated by many of our peer institutions." 

This is consistent with the feedback that we receive from the public and private colleges and universities that have connected with.  Although affirmations like this from top tier schools are reassuring, it's important to note that there have been no decisions made about what the transcript or diploma will look like at York High School.  This transition has far more to do with teaching and learning than it does with how we report.  There is much work to be done in regards to the instructional model before final decisions can be made about a transcript.  The school district will never adopt a transcript that puts our students at any disadvantage when applying to colleges.