Sunrise Pine

Grading, Grade Point Average (GPA), and Credit Requirements

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An overview of the grading system, including credit definitions, annual course load, graduation requirements, and GPA scales (weighted and unweighted).

Credit Definitions

  1. Course Length and Credit Value

    • Year-long course: 1.0 credit

    • One-semester course: 0.5 credit

  2. Earning Credit

    • Credit is awarded for final grades of A, B, C, or D.

    • A final grade of F (below 60%) earns 0 credit.

Annual Course Load

  1. Core Subjects
    Each student must enroll in four core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.

  2. Electives
    In addition to the core subjects, students must select a minimum of two elective courses. Electives may be one-semester (0.5 credit) or year-long (1.0 credit).

  3. Minimum Credits per Year
    Students must earn at least 6.0 credits each academic year.

Graduation Requirement

To be eligible for a diploma, students must earn a minimum of 24.0 credits over four years of high school.

Grading Scale

Final course grades are assigned according to the following percentage thresholds:

  • A: 90–100%

  • B: 80–89%

  • C: 70–79%

  • D: 60–69%

  • F: Below 60%

GPA Scales

Your Grade Point Average is a number that represents your overall academic performance. We calculate this in two different ways for college transcripts.

Unweighted GPA (4.0 Scale)

  • This scale assigns a standard number of quality points to each letter grade.

  • A equals 4.0 points. B equals 3.0 points. C equals 2.0 points. D equals 1.0 point. F equals zero points.

  • Your Unweighted GPA is calculated by adding up all your quality points and dividing them by the total number of credits you attempted.

  • Calculation:

Unweighted GPA = ∑(quality points × course credits) ∑(attempted credits)

One-semester (0.5-credit) courses contribute proportionally to the calculation.

Weighted GPA (Honors and Advanced Placement)

  • Sunrise Pine awards additional quality points for taking advanced courses. This rewards students for challenging themselves.
  • Honors Classes: 0.5 points awarded to the base value of your passing grade.
  • Advanced Placement (AP): 1.0 point awarded to the base value of your passing grade.
  • Your Weighted GPA is computed using the same formula as the unweighted GPA. Because of the extra points, a weighted GPA can exceed a 4.0.

Academic Mastery and Course Failures

Because of our personalized one on one teaching model, failing a course is very rare. We focus on true academic mastery. If you perform poorly on an assessment, you are encouraged to work with your teacher and request retakes until you truly understand the material.

However, if a student ultimately finishes a course with a final grade of F, they earn zero credit and zero quality points. The student will then need to work with the Principal to retake the required course and recover the missing credit for graduation.

Two successfully completed single semester courses are equivalent to one full credit toward your annual and graduation totals.