Students who go to Chicago's public high schools: Why does grading system weights AP classes as a 6?

Applying to College
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I am having trouble with this discovery because I have found CPS high school handbooks dating back to the 2012-2013 school year that stated AP classes as being weighted as a 6, Honors classes as being weighted as a 5, and Regular classes weighted only as a 4. I am having trouble with this grade interpretation because then does that mean a student who gets all A’s in the Advanced Placement classes can achieve an astoundingly outstanding 6 on his or her transcript? And plus the valedictorians from their respective Chicago public high schools only score a 4.8-4.9 on their academics. I’ve rarely heard of cases where students can get that high of a GPA, because the highest I’ve heard and seen high schoolers are usually 5.0. It goes the same for College Confidential, a site where many students can ask questions about standardized tests, GPAs, and college lives. Also another question: Since when did CPS adopt this grading interpretation policy that gave their high schools the right to establish these weird-looking GPAs? I personally attend school at De La Salle Institute. If anyone knows De La Salle Institute or has attended this school, my grading school policy in amazing fashion weighted Honors classes more than AP classes. Honors is worth 5.0, the highest GPA attainment this school can give. Advanced courses, shockingly, are only weighted at a 4.5, half a point less than Honors. Second question is can someone explain to me why a school would have this kind of academic policy?

I know for sure De La Salle messed around with its grading systems because in most schools around the country AP classes are always going to be worth more or weighted the same as Honors classes. Here at De La Salle, there is a distinct difference that recognizes honors more importantly than these college-level courses. It doesn’t make sense to me but can someone explain to me as to why this would happen? There are only five AP courses at De La Salle.

In addition, are AP classes worth less than honors because of the possibility that my school’s AP teachers have not received an approved teaching certificate to instruct classes within this program from the CollegeBoard? I think that in order for a school to have AP courses, they must have been approved from CollegeBoard to be granted the official right to teach these college-classes, right? The fact that Honors are worth more than AP still outrages and confuses me. http://www.dls.org/apps/pages

Above was the link from my school’s website that I just attached. By the way going back to my first question why would a school district adopt such a high grading methodology that places the highest numerical attainment at a 6? I thought that usually schools around the country would go with 5 for AP, 4 for Honors, and possibly 4 for Regulars. But I am talking about the nation’s third largest-district here? How many school districts around the country adopt the same methodology as CPS does?

file:///C:/Users/181035WangC/Downloads/605.13%20(2).pdf
Here’s a copy of the CPS Public Schools Policy Manual for the 2013 school year for further clarification.

By the way I am a freshman.

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I think that you might be confused as to how colleges look at GPAs. Since each school does weighting differently, they will always look at your weighted GPA in the context of your own school. They won’t look at a school that weights to 6 and say “Well this person has a 5.5 GPA, and that’s higher than we’ve ever seen so they must be great.” Weighted GPAs usually determine ranking within your own school, so the administration has full discretion in whichever system they want, and if you don’t like it I feel as though that’s a problem for your principal, not college confidential.

When colleges look at your transcript they will look at your unweighted GPA out of 4.0, along with your class rigor, which essentially means if you took the hardest classes offered at your school. If you have a 4.0 unweighted and were in all AP classes, colleges will look at this better than if one had a 4.0 unweighted in all honors, regardless of how your school wants to weight them.

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Also, looking at De La Salle’s website. APs are weighted as 5.0 . Advanced courses are weighted as 4.5, but those are not APs. http://www.dls.org/pdf/curric_guide.pdf see bottom of page 6.
"H A PACC, A.P. or honors level course (A=5.0; B=4.0; C=2.75; D=1.0 quality points).
Students taking these courses are expected to do work of superior quality.

AA An advanced level course (A=4.5; B=3.5; C=2.5; D=1.0 quality points). Students are
expected to do above average work"

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@guineagirl96 I know that my school offers AP, Honors, College Prep(Regular), and General Courses, but I never knew Advanced Courses were in De La Salle, and I never knew the distinction between Advanced Courses and AP. Do you know the distinction?

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I have no idea. Usually advanced classes are like honors, but not in the same subject. That’s something you’d have to ask your school.