Katy ISD four-year plan: course selection, GPA and endorsements

When course selection happens

Katy ISD plans next year’s courses in the spring. For 2026–27, parent course-planning webinars ran from November 2025 to January 28, 2026, courses went into SchooLinks in January, and counselors met each student one on one from February 2 to March 17, 2026.

Expect the 2027–28 round to follow the same pattern: webinars over the winter, choices in SchooLinks in late winter, then parent approval.

Students choose courses in SchooLinks and parents approve the four-year plan there. Pennantist doesn’t replace it: plan the four years in Pennantist with Katy ISD’s rules, then enter the choices in SchooLinks.

How Katy ISD weights GPA

Fundamental/Applied: In the handbook only; which courses carry it isn’t published.

Many colleges also recompute GPA without weights. Pennantist shows both: Katy ISD’s weighted GPA and a plain 4.0 unweighted one.

Class rank

Students see their rank in Home Access Center from spring of grade 9. In spring of grade 11, students in the top 10% are told their exact rank and everyone gets a quartile. Final rank is calculated at the end of the second six weeks of the spring semester of the graduating year.

• Uses semester grades from high school credit courses in grades 7–12, failing grades included.
• GPA-exempt courses and student assistant are left out; a course retaken after passing doesn’t count again.
• Ties to the fourth decimal are broken by averaging grades in common courses with the same catalog number.
• Top 10% automatic admission to Texas public universities also requires the Distinguished Level of Achievement (or ACT benchmarks or an SAT score). UT Austin admits the top 5% for 2027 and 2028 entry.
• Valedictorian and salutatorian: the same Katy ISD high school for the last four semesters, exactly eight semesters, and the Distinguished Level of Achievement.

Rank decides top 10% automatic admission. How the top 10% rule works

Summer courses

Summer term courses count in GPA and rank, like credit by exam, virtual and correspondence courses and high school courses taken in junior high.

Graduation requirements

Classes of 2025–2028: Foundation High School Program with an endorsement, 22 credits, or 26 with an endorsement.

Classes of 2029–2029 follow updated rules, which Pennantist applies by graduation year.

Endorsements at Katy ISD

Every endorsement adds a fourth math credit, a fourth science credit and two more electives.

Distinguished Level of Achievement: the 26-credit Foundation + Endorsement plan with Algebra II among the math courses. Required for top 10% automatic admission to Texas public universities.

Good to know

• Dual credit letter grades are recorded as A 95, B 85, C 77, D 72, F 65.
• Transfer grades get extra weight only when Katy ISD offers an equivalent KAP/AP course.
• GPA-exempt (2026-27): grades 10–12 with a GPA of 4.0 or higher may exempt eligible courses in the 2nd–4th year of a program, up to 3 credits; the grade still shows on the transcript.

Katy ISD high schools

Cinco Ranch High School, Freeman High School, Jordan High School, Katy High School, Legacy Virtual High School, Mayde Creek High School, Morton Ranch High School, Paetow High School, Seven Lakes High School, Taylor High School, Tompkins High School.