Grading policies

Academic achievement policies are defined by board policies and district regulations. These policies were set based on feedback from teachers, administrators, district leaders, parents and community members. For specific details, see

• Policy EIA (Legal and Local)
• EIA (Regulation)

Grade point system

The grade point system is a process for weighting courses based upon the difficulty of the courses. In our grade point system, more rigorous courses receive additional grade points resulting in a 5.0 scale compared to the traditional 4.0 scale. The collection of grade points begins in 9th grade for most students.

Student GPA is calculated several times each year during their high school career. A student’s most recent GPA calculation is normally reported on the student’s report card at the end of each grading cycle.  

A student's GPA shall be calculated at the end of the fall semester of the student's senior year to determine class ranking for local honors purposes and for the graduation ceremony. This ranking will be used to determine the highest-ranking graduate.

The highest-ranking graduate (HRG) program provides the student graduating at the top of their high school class a tuition waiver for their freshman year of college. Student grade point averages earned after the fall semester will continue to be calculated until the end of the year.

Texas law provides automatic admission to the Texas public college or university of a student's choice if that student graduates in the top ten percent of his/her senior class, so a student’s GPA and rank in class is very important for college admission.  See the section below regarding GPA Calculation for more details about this process.

Because other institutions sometimes ask for students’ grades in other formats, we can produce a student’s GPA based on a universal 4.0 scale and a student’s overall numerical grade average, but the weighted GPA described below is the official GPA used for all GISD designations.

Grade points

The following designations indicate the type of grade points available for a particular course.

(IB), (IntH) International Baccalaureate grade points (only offered at Garland HS)
(AP), (PreAP), (Adv CTE), (H), (MST)*, or (AMS)* Honors grade points
(DC) Dual credit grade points
(R) Regular grade points
(B) Basic grade points
(NGP) Does not receive grade points

*Only offered at North Garland HS

The following grade point table indicates the grade point system to be used for all high school courses. The course descriptions found in the course guides indicate (1) whether grade points are awarded for each course and (2) if grade points are awarded, what level of grade points are awarded. Not all high school courses earn grade points. For example, students enrolled in many of the athletics, physical education and music courses are not awarded grade points.

Evaluation of student effort will be numeric grades with grade points awarded in the following manner:

A student who transfers into a district high school with higher-level course credits, such as International Baccalaureate (IB), International Honors (IntH), Advanced Placement (AP), Pre-AP/Honors, or Dual Credit, shall receive similar credits counted toward the GPA according to the list of higher-level courses offered to other students in the same graduating class at that district high school and the grade point scale used for credit earned in the district.

Grade Point Average (GPA) calculation procedure

1. Multiply GPA Credits by the GPA Points to calculate the grade points earned for each semester.
2. Divide total GPA Points by the total GPA Credits to calculate the cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA).
3. Calculations are rounded to 5 decimal places.

To see the breakdown of the GPA averages and examples for students graduating in 2022 or before, see our 2022 and before grade point table page.

To see the breakdown of the GPA averages for students graduating in 2023 and after, see the 2023-24 Course Guide.