GPA Requirements and Penalties

[pyroslev]

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.

[Whippet]

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?

[MechEng83]

From the school policy:

To remain eligible for clubs and organizations students must pass 5 full credit subjects in the previous semester and maintain passing grades in the current semester determined by nine weeks grades. Semester grades will take precedence at the end of the semester. Audits do not count as subjects. First semester freshmen are exempt from this rule. In order to participate in any club or organization, the student must sign up for the school’s DAT (random drug testing) Program.

From our team handbook:

Team members are expected to maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 prior to build season and have no failing grades. Grades are scrutinized weekly by the coaches during Build Season. Any student with a GPA lower than 2.0 will be on Academic Probation and will be barred from participation in build activities Monday-Thursday during build season so they can focus on their school work. Any student with a failing grade will not be permitted to work on the robot or other team activities until the grade is improved. Exceptions may be made for grades due to illness. Every effort will be made to offer tutoring during robotics meetings. Doing homework alone or in groups is encouraged during any robotics team activity.
Any student with an F in the 3rd Nine Weeks will be barred from travel to all events.

For clarification, we meet 7 days a week during build season, so students on academic probation are able to meet F-Sun

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.

[M.Kong-Sivert]

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.

[Shrub]

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.

[mathking]

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.

[BBray_T1296]

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.

[Trey178]

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.

[DonRotolo]

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.

[SoulianPride]

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.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

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.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

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). ...

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.

[Fusion_Clint]

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.

[Caleb Sykes]

To that end, Team Fusion members are required to have below a 3.2 in all classes.

That is certainly an interesting requirement.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

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.