The elite private schools are getting rid of grades altogether.

[Anonymous]

Elite New England colleges have talent-spotters on-site at elite New England boarding schools. For example, Bowdoin College and Andover. George Smiley was not recruited into the Circus on the basis of his grades or test scores.

[Anonymous]

It can definitely be done. My DH's prep school has never had grades and sends quite a few students off to top schools. Here's a selection from 2019's list (class size around 80):

Brown - 4
Columbia - 2
Cornell - 1
Harvard - 3
MIT - 1
Princeton - 3
Chicago - 5
Penn - 1
Williams - 2
Yale - 3
Stanford - 2

[Anonymous]

One unnamed private school sent a letter announcing the end of grades and the OP titled this thread "the elite private schools are getting rid of grades." I see no evidence that any "elite" private schools are getting rid of grades, let alone all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One unnamed private school sent a letter announcing the end of grades and the OP titled this thread "the elite private schools are getting rid of grades." I see no evidence that any "elite" private schools are getting rid of grades, let alone all of them.

One elite private school.
It was a speech, not a letter.
Please read the op.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t Holton doing this? I think there is a school in Ny that does this St Anne. My worry would be is if a school is doing this to make everything even and then they can push to college who they want. I am not sure what I think. Would need more info on how good students would not be penalized

[Anonymous]

These schools do nothing-nothing-if it doesn't improve their competitive position for college admissions. Any big change they contemplate has to be viewed through that lens.

They are abandoning grades because it will make it harder to perform apples-to-apples comparisons between their students and graded programs in public schools. All that admissions offices will have to go on will be 1)"portfolios" of academic work that can only be assembled through a labor-intensive instructional model more like personal coaching than regular teaching, and 2) extracurricular resumes packed with the sort of activities unavailable to a poor or middle class student focused on academics: "I see here that little Brimsby/Muffy/Preston/Chip/ founded an NGO and went to Peru to provide aid to earthquake-displaced capybaras. How enterprising!"

There was a time when simply graduating a "Philips Academy man" will be enough to demonstrate you were "Harvard material". We seem to be headed back in that direction.

[Anonymous]

Here’s another article on this topic

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/10/top-private-high-schools-start-campaign-kill-traditional-transcripts-and-change

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These schools do nothing-nothing-if it doesn't improve their competitive position for college admissions. Any big change they contemplate has to be viewed through that lens.

They are abandoning grades because it will make it harder to perform apples-to-apples comparisons between their students and graded programs in public schools. All that admissions offices will have to go on will be 1)"portfolios" of academic work that can only be assembled through a labor-intensive instructional model more like personal coaching than regular teaching, and 2) extracurricular resumes packed with the sort of activities unavailable to a poor or middle class student focused on academics: "I see here that little Brimsby/Muffy/Preston/Chip/ founded an NGO and went to Peru to provide aid to earthquake-displaced capybaras. How enterprising!"

There was a time when simply graduating a "Philips Academy man" will be enough to demonstrate you were "Harvard material". We seem to be headed back in that direction.

Op here-
That was my take away this morning.
“Your story is what gets you admitted”
That phrase was uttered more than once. Of course this isn’t the only change. They are really revamping how the kids learn and how their time is spent. Much more choice is being offered, even to the youngest students. They want them exposed to as much as possible and then diving deep.
And to be clear, our school isn’t leading the charge. They are gearing up for this change, and will move forward... right after the top ten schools fully adopt this methodology. Really interesting morning...

[Anonymous]

is this Holton? I missed convocation this morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is this Holton? I missed convocation this morning.

Not Holton. This is an independent K-12 not in the DMV. Smaller city than DC, with a long tradition of strong independent schools.
Head of school with speaking to the parents of the youngest students. So, I assume this is a long term plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got a speech from HOS at our independent school, grades will be a thing of the past.
They are following the example of Andover, Exeter, etc...
So not only are they dropping AP, they are going to get rid of grades entirely.

What say you DCUM hive?

BS

[Anonymous]

As someone with a DC who is going through the college process currently, I see no way a college admissions officer is going to be able to distinguish kids who can compete at their school without some sort of objective anchors such as SAT/ACT and GPA to at least begin a conversation about an applicant.

Every kid has a story, some are better at articulating them than others, but writing an essay should not be determineative of a 4 year academic record. It should complement it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is this Holton? I missed convocation this morning.

Not Holton. This is an independent K-12 not in the DMV. Smaller city than DC, with a long tradition of strong independent schools.
Head of school with speaking to the parents of the youngest students. So, I assume this is a long term plan.

So the title of this thread gets an F. Good job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One unnamed private school sent a letter announcing the end of grades and the OP titled this thread "the elite private schools are getting rid of grades." I see no evidence that any "elite" private schools are getting rid of grades, let alone all of them.

One elite private school.
It was a speech, not a letter.
Please read the op.

Fine, a speech. At an unnamed school that may or may not be elite and that isn't even in the DC area. Certainly nothing that can be generalized to "elite private schools" generally or the private schools attended by kids who live in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools do nothing-nothing-if it doesn't improve their competitive position for college admissions. Any big change they contemplate has to be viewed through that lens.

They are abandoning grades because it will make it harder to perform apples-to-apples comparisons between their students and graded programs in public schools. All that admissions offices will have to go on will be 1)"portfolios" of academic work that can only be assembled through a labor-intensive instructional model more like personal coaching than regular teaching, and 2) extracurricular resumes packed with the sort of activities unavailable to a poor or middle class student focused on academics: "I see here that little Brimsby/Muffy/Preston/Chip/ founded an NGO and went to Peru to provide aid to earthquake-displaced capybaras. How enterprising!"

There was a time when simply graduating a "Philips Academy man" will be enough to demonstrate you were "Harvard material". We seem to be headed back in that direction.

Op here-
That was my take away this morning.
“Your story is what gets you admitted”
That phrase was uttered more than once. Of course this isn’t the only change. They are really revamping how the kids learn and how their time is spent. Much more choice is being offered, even to the youngest students. They want them exposed to as much as possible and then diving deep.
And to be clear, our school isn’t leading the charge. They are gearing up for this change, and will move forward... right after the top ten schools fully adopt this methodology. Really interesting morning...

Such BS. If the story is all it takes, good luck catching up with the automation revolution.