Standardizing High School Transcripts

The Problem: Not All Transcripts are created Equal

Every university's admissions department in America has to process thousands of high school transcripts. Part of the process is counting how many letter grades the student applicant has.

The current process for counting grades on high school transcripts involves multiple steps to ensure accuracy, often requiring each transcript to be counted twice, with a third verification step if discrepancies arise.

In the State of Texas, most public high school districts use a free transcript program called SPEEDE provided by the Texas Education Agency. It takes 6 to even 18 minutes to process 1 SPEEDE transcript where else private school transcripts take 1.5 to 4 minutes to process.

Ram Spear's

Strategy

Unity Transcript Coalition

Partnering with high schools and universities for transcript standardization in Texas.

Lobbying for Change

Speaking to Texas senate representatives to advocate change. The last time the Texas government improved the transcript software was back in 2006.

Pilot Program Launch

Implementing revolutionary software to improve transcript processing efficiency and accuracy at a participating school district.

Case and Point: Bush and Al Gore's Ballots

Formatting was one of the reasons why Al Gore lost the 2000 Presidential Election.

“Palm Beach County, Florida used something called the 'butterfly ballot' during the presidential election. On that ballot, the option voters pressed to mark their choices was misaligned with a given candidate’s row, which led some to accidentally vote for the wrong candidate. In fact, after George Bush was declared the winner by a 537-vote margin, the Palm Beach Post determined that the ballot design ultimately cost Al Gore the presidency.”

-The Guardian

Both the butterfly ballot and the Texas public high school transcript share a common issue: poor legibility and inefficient formatting, which cost Al Gore his chance at the presidency. Ram Spear is concerned about the potential risks this poses to the futures of 5.4 million students in Texas.

Join Our Effort