Someone posted 50 percent of HS Seniors have a 4.0?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It’s because they’re cheating.

My class has scores 20% above what they were before COVID. I thought the cheating would get better when we returned but the kids are still using their group chats. I’m not allowed to take their phones away and the administration doesn’t back me up when I catch them cheating.

- Teacher

Have you considered how dramatically the landscape has changed with the rise of AI study tools in just the past few years? Before COVID, these tools simply didn’t exist. I’d imagine that many students are performing well today not necessarily because they’re cheating (though I’m sure some do!), but because they’re studying far more efficiently. AI tools can now generate study guides, notes, practice problems, and more resources that give students a huge advantage. Even when teachers don’t fully cover the material, that’s no longer a barrier to earning an A. Students are supplementing any gaps with a combination of YouTube, Khan Academy, and AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please do more work to read actual sources of news, OP.

+1 And ask your high schooler about citation of sources to support your argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure source, if someone knows, I’d love to see. This is the problem, there is no way, if true, that there isn’t rampant grade inflation. Which does everyone a disservice, really.

At our non-DMV private (which has competitive grade-based entry), less than 20% has a 3.85-4.0. The notion that 50% of a school can have 4.0 or even that 40% could have 4.0 is pretty shocking.

I don't understand how colleges can compare GPA in context since grading systems are so different. I know school's send the school profile, and ours certainly does, but I'm not even sure that's enough given the discrepancy between schools on awarding As.

I can’t recall which Dean of Admissions said it, but she explained that the same AO typically reviews all applications from a given high school. Those applications are first compared against one another, and the AO screens out the ones they don’t plan to advance. So, if 100 students from a single high school apply to a college, it’s fair to assume their applications will be evaluated as a group, and only a certain percentage will move forward to the next round of review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure source, if someone knows, I’d love to see. This is the problem, there is no way, if true, that there isn’t rampant grade inflation. Which does everyone a disservice, really.

At our non-DMV private (which has competitive grade-based entry), less than 20% has a 3.85-4.0. The notion that 50% of a school can have 4.0 or even that 40% could have 4.0 is pretty shocking.

I don't understand how colleges can compare GPA in context since grading systems are so different. I know school's send the school profile, and ours certainly does, but I'm not even sure that's enough given the discrepancy between schools on awarding As.

For one grades are weighted. Two anything weighted 3.5 and above is technically an “A average”. It’s not shocking at all that half the teens in a high school have a 3.5+. You have to literally not show up to get less than a B at the average public school.

[Anonymous]

IS this really true, I don't believe it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It’s because they’re cheating.

My class has scores 20% above what they were before COVID. I thought the cheating would get better when we returned but the kids are still using their group chats. I’m not allowed to take their phones away and the administration doesn’t back me up when I catch them cheating.

- Teacher

Have you considered how dramatically the landscape has changed with the rise of AI study tools in just the past few years? Before COVID, these tools simply didn’t exist. I’d imagine that many students are performing well today not necessarily because they’re cheating (though I’m sure some do!), but because they’re studying far more efficiently. AI tools can now generate study guides, notes, practice problems, and more resources that give students a huge advantage. Even when teachers don’t fully cover the material, that’s no longer a barrier to earning an A. Students are supplementing any gaps with a combination of YouTube, Khan Academy, and AI.

The pp wrote that in 2021. Kids cheating in hs with AI was still a twinkle in Sam Altman’s eye at that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It’s because they’re cheating.

My class has scores 20% above what they were before COVID. I thought the cheating would get better when we returned but the kids are still using their group chats. I’m not allowed to take their phones away and the administration doesn’t back me up when I catch them cheating.

- Teacher

This is so unfair to kids who don’t cheat. My son has a difficult science class first period and kids are take screenshots or pictures of the exam during the test. Then they are sharing them with kids who have the class later in the day. My son has been pressured to do the same but refuses. He lost a friend over it who wanted him to get the test question and his friend who give him the math questions since that kid had math earlier in the day. How are teachers not realizing the class average is increasing as the day progresses?

Why would kids help others cheat? I don't get this. The other kids in their grade are their direct competition for college admits. Cheating really harms the ones supplying the test/answers.

If you help others cheat, they help you cheat. You both benefit relative to the non-cheaters.

[Anonymous]

I posted that certain higher income schools in Montgomery County have average WGPA's around 4.0. I know this from school profiles.

Montgomery County does a huge amount of weighting, and unlike FCPS, weights honors and AP classes the same.

So, a student who doesn't take a whole lot of rigor can still end up with 1/2 their classes weighted, which means a 3.5 UW becomes a 4.0 weighted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there is some cheating, but my kid has to claw and fight for every "A" he gets and does not cheat--he has said that he catches other kids trying to look at his answers. He goes to a private school, if that matters-- although I think cheating happens everywhere.

He recently turned in a partner project where he did all the work and had to put his partner's name on the final result. I can verify that because he spent an entire weekend stressing/doing the whole thing. I told him "that's life-- you'll have all kinds of people who won't pull their weight, and you just need to learn who they and deal with it."

There is a lot of pressure placed on kids now-- I can imagine why they feel they must resort to cheating.

Group projects always have different levels of contribution to the final project and that is life. I am sure teachers intentionally pair weaker students with stronger for many of these projects..i would do the same. It is a learning opportunity all the way around.

I have seen parent march up to the school and demand that their snowflake be placed with other strong students. Very short sighted approach IMO.

That is messed up. Do you think D students should get As and Bs for doing nothing? Should A students get a B because you expect them to do the work of two people rather than one? What lesson are you trying to teach the weak students - that freeloading works? What lesson are you trying to teach the strong students - being good at school is a punishable offence?

[Anonymous]

At our private, all essay writing is now done in class - to prevent AI, tutor help, etc. All research papers have a teacher-created Google doc and every outline, quote, draft and edit must be made within that doc...the history shows everything and kid can't cut and paste something pre-written into the doc. Math and science tests are all hand written in class. There are different questions if you take the test at a later date. Also, phones have been banned during the school day since fall 2024. Very smart.

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe this true. My DS went to a public CA HS with 2000+ students. 3.8 uw was top 10%. 4.2 w was top 10%. But the majority of kids weren’t taking APs, maybe some honors. Top 50% was probably around 3.3 to 3.5 w, not much higher for w because kids take less APs and honors the farther down you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe this true. My DS went to a public CA HS with 2000+ students. 3.8 uw was top 10%. 4.2 w was top 10%. But the majority of kids weren’t taking APs, maybe some honors. Top 50% was probably around 3.3 to 3.5 w, not much higher for w because kids take less APs and honors the farther down you go.

Even at so called most rigorous CA high schools, like Lynbrook in San Jose, 20% students have a 4.0 UW GPA. South Great Neck in Long Island have a unusually high percentage of straight A graduates as well. This is a nation-wide problem. Your HS is an outlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our private, all essay writing is now done in class - to prevent AI, tutor help, etc. All research papers have a teacher-created Google doc and every outline, quote, draft and edit must be made within that doc...the history shows everything and kid can't cut and paste something pre-written into the doc. Math and science tests are all hand written in class. There are different questions if you take the test at a later date. Also, phones have been banned during the school day since fall 2024. Very smart.

Love this.

[Anonymous]

A few public schools are drastically over-weighting schools compared to other public/private schools. This creates inflation on top of already inflated grades. For example, at my nephews public they give a 1.0 bump for just "honors" classes which are not even APs and should be weighted as standard classes because it's not that difficult.

Only APs should be weighted more and they should only be weighted 0.5 not 1.0 or 2.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It’s because they’re cheating.

My class has scores 20% above what they were before COVID. I thought the cheating would get better when we returned but the kids are still using their group chats. I’m not allowed to take their phones away and the administration doesn’t back me up when I catch them cheating.

- Teacher

Have you considered how dramatically the landscape has changed with the rise of AI study tools in just the past few years? Before COVID, these tools simply didn’t exist. I’d imagine that many students are performing well today not necessarily because they’re cheating (though I’m sure some do!), but because they’re studying far more efficiently. AI tools can now generate study guides, notes, practice problems, and more resources that give students a huge advantage. Even when teachers don’t fully cover the material, that’s no longer a barrier to earning an A. Students are supplementing any gaps with a combination of YouTube, Khan Academy, and AI.

I’d agree with this. Some of the teachers at our well regarded, highly rated Bay Area high school were horrible. DS got straight As using the AP College Board resources, Khan Academy, YouTube, and some basic AI. He also looked up reading lists for the same courses in private schools and got some of those texts. Lots of kids just cheated but then bombed their AP tests.

It really was a choice either go find the material outside of class and self learn or cheat.Teachers are that bad now.