GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Yes, it has been discussed before . . .but not in a bit. I am curious as to what your team does.

1) Do you have a GPA or grade requirement to remain on the team?
2) How often is GPA determined if so. . If not, why not?
3) What are the penalties for not fulfilling this obligation?

Best. . .

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We do not have a GPA requirement, however you are not allowed to be failing any classes. I don't think we check that often. And if you're failing anything you just can't be at the meetings or events until you're passing again.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

No GPA requirement, but we do make sure that students stay on top of their work. If it seems like they are slipping down to poor grades, we request they take a few days off to catch up on homework. If they really fall behind and start failing and such, we ask them to leave until the grades get better.

That kinda answers all 3, I suppose.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Members of 2220 are held to the same standards as participants in any other sport or competition at the school-- minimum 2.0 GPA, cannot have failed or be failing any classes in the current trimester.

Failure to meet these requirements means a suspensions from team activities (as it is school policy).

In practice however, due to peer tutoring and similar internal programs that support students in getting whatever help they need to stay involved with the team, it is very rare for a member to be suspended from the team (as in, out of the ~150 students that went through the program between 2011 and 2014, I can only remember maybe a single person that had to take a leave from the team).

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We have the same requirement as many of the other athletics and extracurricular organizations at our school; you must be passing all your classes at all times, if you're failing, you need to bring them up before you can participate in any further robotics activities.

However, for as long as I can remember we haven't had this rule apply to anyone on the team.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We have the same minimum GPA requirement as sports teams, which, if I recall correctly, is around a 2.0. The numbers are officially updated every quarter and mid-quarter. We submit a list of student members, and our teacher automatically receives notification if a student drops below the minimum. There are school policies in place about dropping below that cutoff, and, for us, they dictate that students cannot travel with the team but may still attend meetings.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

My team is not just a club, but also a class, so we cannot restrict team participation to those enrolled in the class. Those in the club are not necessarily held to the same standard. We do have a GPA requirement, and that is applied to competition days that occur on school days. If a student with a GPA below 2.0 or has a D or F in any class, regardless of having a > 2.0 GPA, they are not allowed to go to a competition, except if a competition day lies on a weekend, holiday, or break. The exception to this is for travel out of state or far away regionals, where the student must fulfill these requirements to travel, even if the trip takes place over school off-time.

Furthermore, to qualify to go to competition for our drive team, they must not only fulfill the minimum GPA requirement, but also have a minimum of 50 hours outside of class for the school year by the end of the build season. These hours are for out of class time activities such as build work, fundraising, and community service. We have a total 50 hours required first semester, 100 hours second semester for a total of 150 hours requirement outside of class for all students, in order to have a good grade in the robotics class. Because of this, whoever is on the drive team already has good standing in the class. This also restricts drive team members to those enrolled in the class. If there is someone exceptional who is only in the club, who puts in lots of time and knows the bot, we can be flexible with this.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We don't meet often/ long enough for it to be a problem, but some peoples' grades to take a toll during the season (4.0 to 3.5). Mostly strict parenting and culture gets people to keep their grades good.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Decade plus I've been involved, worst I've seen is a "What's going on?" talk and one student lose their spot at backup driver.

I think we also have the same GPA setup as sports teams. Never had to enforce it overly strictly. Even being a small team, there's often on student that won't be working on the robot or related projects. So it's an unofficial rule that they work on homework.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We don't have any grade requirement for participation, but we do require that anyone traveling to regionals with us be currently passing all of their classes. We do try to time our regional attendance so that they happen close to the beginning of a grading period so that everyone will be passing.

The way I see it, the people who FIRST would help the most are the ones who are not fairing well academically, so why should we prevent them from participating due to their academic standing?

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Our requirement is that "students must remain in good academic standing in accordance with their parents expectations." This is a talking point at both fall parent meetings, is a line on the parent page of the FRC team application, and then is confirmed again prior to selecting drivers and pit crew. There's a school requirement as well (minimum 2.0 and not failing any classes or something similar) but it's way more lax than any of our parents' expectations so it's not particularly useful for much of anything.

Primarily we (mentors) try to maintain a united front with parents so that they know we'll back them up with whatever the family rules are for each student. Our expectations are made clear to prevent any room to play games (i.e. - students going to a parent and telling them "but I have to do xyz it's mandatory" when it's really an optional meeting that they just want to go to, or a student coming to us and saying "but my mom said I have to do homework tonight so I can't come to meeting" when really they just wanted to go socialize). We haven't really had any grade related problems so far (only going into our second season) so we haven't had a reason to flesh out policies on academic performance yet.

Super conveniently, their first semester ends before winter break so we go into build season with a brand new semester and thus we aren't balancing week 3 of build with finals. It also gives a nice basis for comparison between a semester with just general meeting once per week, and a semester with build and competition season. It seems like so long as everybody maintains their performance between second semester and first semester we're all satisfied.

I suppose the answers to your questions are...

1) No. It's based on family expectations rather than a hard number.
2) It's not. We communicate with parents pretty regularly though.
3) None specified.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

From the school policy:
From our team handbook:

With a large team, you start having to enforce this. It's not unheard of us having to bar a student from travel because of failing grades. Several years ago, we had students blaming their poor performance in the classroom on build season, which of course endeared us to the teaching staff... It's one of the reasons we are so attentive to grades now.

We check grades regularly and have meetings with every one of our students to talk about grades, whether they're straight A's or have D's and F's.

We used to have a higher GPA requirement of 2.5 and had a big debate when we lowered it to 2.0. I actually had parents advocate for leaving it at 2.5, because the higher requirement (compared to sports teams) motivated their kids to do their school work and bring up grades.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

I don't know how strictly it was enforced, but last year, we instituted a "no pass, no play" policy, and everyone had to get all of their teachers to sign a form every week that said that they were meeting the requirements of all their classes and, if not, how they intended to change that. If the form wasn't signed, we couldn't participate.

More importantly, though, we maintain a policy of leaving a one-hour gap between when school lets out and when the meeting begins to leave time to finish homework.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Our team's policy is the same as listed above. You have to be passing all your classes to travel and you're encouraged to do your homework rather than come to the meeting if you are.

We also get an hour before meetings to do homework, which is really helpful.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We have a district policy regarding eligibility for extra-curricular activities. So students have to be passing at least five credits and have a 2.0 GPA. Students can get one waiver (for a quarter) in grades 9-10 and one waiver in grades 11-12. Sometimes FRC can bring a bright unmotivated student around and get them to start taking school more seriously, so we will work with kids to get them on the right track in classes. I also coach track & field and cross country, and the eligibility standard is the same. We definitely look at how kids are performing in class and if kids are at risk of not being eligible we will meet with them (and often their parents) to try to make a plan to get them back on track.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Our district policy is modeled after the UIL policy of no pass, no play. (failing any class and you cannot compete) While you are allowed to be in the club, work on the robot, etc, we cannot take anyone who is failing on field trips, which include regionals and demos.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

The coaches give what they define as a portfolio to every student. It's a Power Point template where each member keeps track of what work he/she has done throughout the season. A couple years ago, a second one was added so now each student has one fore pre-seaon and another for the regular season (build, competition, etc.).

The objective of the pre-season file is for the students to get a feel for tracking their effort within the team so when the time arrives for them to log their regular season activity, the coaches will have an accurate understanding of who is allowed to miss school to attend competition (though forming the NEFirst district has eliminated a good portion of that issue).

The above, and academic grades, are the two deciding factors of building our potential travel team for the season.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

We also follow the school's extracurricular policy. I don't have a copy, but basically you need a 2.0 (of 4) average, checked at the end of each marking period when grades are delivered. Less than 2.0 means you cannot participate.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

1) Do you have a GPA or grade requirement to remain on the team?
It is required that you have no less than a C in all of your classes and that you maintain a 2.5 GPA at least. With a new principal this is really being enforced.

2) How often is GPA determined if so. . If not, why not?
GPAs and grades are checked a week before any competition and at the start of build season.

3) What are the penalties for not fulfilling this obligation?
No competitions if you do not meet the requirements.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

WildStang has been a class in the district for more than fifteen years. It carries a grade that is applied to your GPA. To remain on the team every member must having passing grades in all classes, robotics included. To travel, grades in other classes should be better than just passing and robotics grade should be C or above (In addition to a variety of other factors). To be on pit crew or drive team, all other classes should be C or higher and robotics should be an A. Some pit crew members and at least one drive crew member over the years, thought they were more valuable than grades. They were pulled from their respective teams until grades rose to minimums. One of those included a Champs trip.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

I don't mean to derail the thread but how do you structure your course? If you have I whitepaper I'd be interested to read it.

I've heard of schools having a robotics class and having people work on an FRC robot during the season but it sounds like this is more the other way around - that being in the class is an essential part of being on the team. I was poking around on the Wildstang website a bit and it looks like there are three different high schools involved, so I assume that you don't meet during a normal class period.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Below is an excerpt from our team standards. At our school a 3.2 equates to 80% (B-), a 3.4 is 85% (B) and a 3.8 is 95% (A) with 4.0 being 100%.

________________________________


All members of Team Fusion are required to graduate High School, become a problem solver, a lifelong learner, and productive member of society. To that end, Team Fusion members are required to have a 3.2 in all classes. During the first four weeks of any marking period, the previous marking periods final grades will be the grade of record. During the last five weeks of the marking period, the current grade as of Tuesday of each week will be the grade of record.

Should any member of Team Fusion fall below this academic standard, they are prohibited from participating in any community outreach, build sessions, competitions, or travel with the team. These members are highly encouraged to still come to team meetings to receive tutoring in the subject that they require help. These restrictions will remain in place until they meet the 3.2 standard.

_______________________

We are not concerned with the "athletic team" requirements; very few of those students go on to practice their "sport" in college, let alone follow it into the professional realm.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

That is certainly an interesting requirement.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Eric,
Until this year we were considered a "ninth period" class. Students have to register to be part of the team and to be included in the class. Obviously that is needed to be included in grading. This year we have migrated to being a night school class, which opens more possibilities, takes admin out of the hands of a principal, and officially opens the program to home schooled students in the district. (Their parents pay taxes to the district afterall.) It changes the way teachers operate as they no longer are given any day time planning and it pays them through a different stream. We started the year with 74 students and will lose from 5-10 by the beginning of the build season. Some people will come on board thinking this is a social club and don't want to work as hard as we require for grades or participation. Only about half of those still on in April will actually get a chance to go to Champs.
This class started when several students approached the school board with a formal presentation to make this a class (ca 1998). They agreed if we had a class plan, grading rubriks and attendance. While this is one of the largest classes we have had (mostly we kept to around 60) we have almost 30 freshmen this year. During the fall we teach fundamentals in electrical, pneumatic, mechanical, software, animation, work on Woodie Flower's submission and plan and perform Chairman's events. In addition every student not on the software team, must be involved in an FTC or VEX team. We run both an FTC and a VEX tournament in November/December. Additionally, we will teach a safety course and every student must be checked out on power tools (drill press, band saw, hand drill, etc.) The curriculum changes each year to respond to student requests and needs.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

I'm with you there. 3.2 is certainly an interesting GPA to have required.

I agree 100% on this. That is why I'm not a fan of policies that set a high GPA requirement for team members. It limits access to the program for those who could need it the most.

As long as students are passing (2.0 in most cases) I'm okay with having them participating on a team. This is the policy our team has had since its inception.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Sorry, it was a bad cut and paste, thanks for the help.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

A 3.2 is a B- in our grading system (2.8 is a C-), with the addtional burden of build season, students that are barely passing may run into serious trouble with grades. If a student is serious about FRC they can maintain a B- average.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

OK that makes more sense to me. That is different than the grading scale than I'm used to. (In most grading systems the difference between an A and a C- is more than 1 point)

A....3.8
A-...?
B+..?
B....3.4
B-...3.2
C+..?
C....?
C-...2.8
D+..?
D....?
D-...?
F.....0

Our requirement is similar to a lot of other teams at our school. The student must maintain a C average with no F in any class. If they fall below that requirement they are put on "probation" until they get that grade back up.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

For us it seems to encourage the students that are below to improve. We have had many students who entered the program thinking about just getting out of school with no future. they left headed to a good school and a promising career. Tracking our grads finds more than 96% heading off to additional school. Most of the remainder are heading to military life. We have had some students who were the first in their extended family to graduate high school. One of those received a full ride scholarship to Kettering.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

For our team you have to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 to be considered a member. This is the standard for sports at our school as well. However, if you want to be on the board of directors (our leadership structure) You have to have at least a 3.0. And on top of that, if you want to go to competition and travel with the team, you have to be there for 61% of team meeting time. This is a weighted scale however: 35% Fundraising 30% Build Season 20% Pre/Post Build Season Work Meetings, and 15% Team Bonding.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Our team has a policy of requiring a C or better in all classes in order to be on the travel team. Parents may still bring them to events (on Saturday typically) to watch with us in the stands but they do not participate as part of the team.

We also make sure to let students know they are welcome to bring any schoolwork they may be struggling with to meetings to get help.

Re: GPA Requirements and Penalties
 

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. Each year, we have tweaked our standards so I wanted to see what everyone else had in place.

Here is our standard as it stands now: