MCPS Board Approves Halving the GPA Boost for Honors Courses, Starting Fall 2027

The Montgomery County Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved a plan that cuts the extra grade-point weight for honors courses in half, from 1.0 to 0.5, beginning in fall 2027. Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and dual enrollment courses keep their full 1.0 weight.

Superintendent Thomas W. Taylor’s memo to the Board says honors courses cover grade-level standards in greater depth, while AP, IB and dual enrollment courses “address standards above grade level,” and that the weights should reflect that difference. The change is part of the 2027-2028 Program of Study, the districtwide guide to courses and sequences that Taylor recommended and the Board approved. The plan also drops teacher recommendations as a requirement for placement in honors and advanced courses, retires about 475 course listings and adds about 550 new courses.

The Board approved the resolution as Taylor presented it, by a show of hands that the presiding officer called unanimous, according to the meeting video. No Board member proposed changing the honors weighting or its fall 2027 start. Before the final vote, the Board rejected, 3-5, an amendment from member Natalie Zimmerman to strike the words “standardized and updated” from the resolution’s description of course offerings and sequences.

What changes for honors

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) currently weights honors and advanced-level courses the same. Under MCPS Regulation IKC-RA, an A in an honors, AP or IB course counts as 5 points in the weighted GPA, compared with 4 points in a regular course. B and C grades also get one extra point. D and E grades get none.

The approved plan splits those courses into two tiers. Honors courses will carry an “Additional GPA Weight” of “0.5 (currently 1.0).” Advanced-level courses, a category that includes AP, IB, dual enrollment and advanced courses in Career and Technical Education (CTE), world language and STEM sequences, will stay at 1.0.

The memo says the new weights would require MCPS to revise Regulation IKC-RA. “Regulation revision will occur in spring 2027 and course weighting changes will begin in fall 2027 for all students taking high school credit bearing courses,” the memo states. The memo does not say whether honors grades earned before fall 2027 would be recalculated, and it does not include a revised point scale for each letter grade.

MCPS’s reasoning

“Currently, Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and other advanced-level courses carry the same GPA weight of 1.0. However, these courses differ in the level of standards they address,” the memo states. “Honors courses explore grade-level standards in greater depth and complexity, while advanced-level courses, including AP, IB, and Dual Enrollment, address standards above grade level.”

The memo lists “the development of true honors courses that extend on-level learning” among the plan’s local changes and says the recommendations “establish clearer, more consistent course category definitions and align GPA weighting with these distinctions.” Under the approved definition, honors courses “do not follow an external, standardized curriculum or exam like Advanced Placement or IB courses.”

Placement without teacher recommendations

The plan makes student interest “the priority” in deciding whether a student takes the on-level, honors or advanced version of a course, “supported by specific coaching for students and families.” A student can be automatically enrolled in the honors or advanced version when any one of five criteria is met: passing the state assessment, being identified as having AP potential, earning a B or better in the previous year’s on-level course, earning a C or better in the previous year’s honors course, or “Parent or student choice.”

“Teacher recommendations will not be required,” the memo states. The Board resolution says a “consistent, criteria-based process for placement into honors and advanced courses will support student access across all content areas.”

About 475 courses out, about 550 in

The plan inactivates “approximately 475 course listings.” The largest groups are about 96 first-in-sequence CTE courses replaced by new program-of-study courses, about 62 that duplicate other options and about 60 not running in any school or no longer used.

It also adds about 550 new courses, “primarily for the new center programs and for CTE programs of study.” Center program offerings include dance, music and recording, theatre and stage design, animation, and graphic art and design. The memo says several changes respond to updated Maryland State Department of Education policy. “Because the state has redefined work-based learning, high schools will be significantly limited in offering internal internships,” the memo states.

How the plan reached the Board

MCPS presented the Program of Study to the Board at an Oct. 8 work session, where a slide listed “Honors and Advanced Course Weighting” among the high school changes without giving the 0.5 figure. A timeline slide lists rounds of feedback from Sept. 16 to Oct. 16, from principals, the MCEA Labor Management Committee, the Curriculum Advisory Assembly, MCPS’s cabinet and other groups, ahead of the Oct. 22 vote.

Bethesda Magazine reported on the Oct. 8 session, where MCPS delayed a separate decision on expanding class time for core content in middle school.

Still unanswered

• Will honors grades earned before fall 2027 keep their 1.0 weight on transcripts, or be recalculated?
• What will the revised weighted scale be for each letter grade, and will D grades in honors courses still receive no added weight?
• How does the change apply to high school credit courses taken in middle school?
• Does MCPS use weighted GPA for class rank, honor rolls or scholarship criteria, and if so, how would those change?
• Will the spring 2027 revision of Regulation IKC-RA include a public comment period?

We have not yet put these questions to MCPS; this story will be updated with any response.

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