Dennis Minott: Campion administration using an incompetent approach in order to derive the grade point average (GPA) of its students. - File

The board of Campion College has expressed outrage at allegations made by well-known education consultant, Dr. Dennis Minott that the school has been issuing academic transcripts that are prejudicial and inaccurate.

In a public notice published in The Sunday Gleaner recently, Dr. Minott, who also owns and heads the education consultancy institute A-Quest, said the results represented on students' transcripts were "grossly erroneous".

"Dr. Dennis A. Minott and A-Quest wish to advise parents, students and recipients of Campion College (High School) transcripts that we are neither associated with nor in agreement with the derivation or production of academic transcripts now being issued by Campion College (High School)," the notice read.

Dr. Minott told The Gleaner that the school administration was using an incompetent approach in order to derive the grade point average (GPA) of its students, relying only on the child's performance during grades nine to 11, while zero-rating his performance during grades seven and eight and underrating grades 12 and 13. He opined that this was not fully in line with the American system and so, the students were often left at a disadvantage.

Unwise Approach

"They are being made by a very unwise approach to transcript translations and GPA rendering which makes the average Campion student come out far worse than their colleagues in other high schools," he said.

But the school board has maintained that its methodology of deriving students' GPA is sound and is widely recognised in North America.

Principal Grace Baston said that, while adding a student's performance from grades seven and eight will increase his GPA, the school was not interested in inflating grades.

"Here, the concern is truth and integrity and you are not interested in inflating grades, and if including (grades) seven and eight is going to give us a grade point average that we know is not going to be as valid ... we are not going to do that," she continued.

Malicious

Mrs. Baston was of the opinion that Dr. Minott's move to publish his concern in the paper was malicious.

"It (the public notice) didn't in any way indicate that the concern was for underrepresenting our students. To suggest that our transcripts are grossly erroneous ... we resent it very, very much," she said.

But the school's confrontation with Dr. Minott can be linked to a wider issue, both sides agree, of an absence of a standard grading system for schools across the country.

Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Chief Education Officer Jasper Lawrence said while the ministry recognised this was needed, a unified grading system was not one of its priorities at this time.

"While it is a very good and useful proposal, there are some other nitty-gritties that we are dealing with like improving of the facilities dealing with teacher and students'; further putting in place the teacher-performance evaluation; and, principal and counselor performance regime," he said.

He said nevertheless, steps would be taken to address the problem. He noted that the ministry was making a first step by consulting with the Association of Vice-Principals and Principals through Dr. Minott.

"It is not far-fetched, because once the people have a system in place, we can get them to understand that what they have in place is a platform on which we can build. It is not because what they have is bad, but because we want a common reference point," said lawrence.