The deflated grading is just exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

[Anonymous]

Having gone through this process, I would much rather be a college applicant with a 4.5 GPA from Gonzaga/Landon/Bullis than a 88/89 GPA from St. Albans.

No, top grades are not sufficient for elite college admissions, but they are necessary. Almost no one gets into the Ivies without a near-perfect GPA, I don't care what fancy private school you attended.

The DC privates could solve this issue by simply changing the final transcript they send to colleges. We all know that a STA/NCS/Sidwell "B" is equal to a public school "A", so just alter the transcript to say that.

Just help the kids out when applying to college. Grades are just arbitrary, fake numbers anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:C = Average
B = Above Average
A = Excellent

Most students should not be receiving A's. If the majority is excellent, then it becomes the norm not the exception.

That's what it was like when I was a kid, too. I think less than 5% of my class even had an A average, but the world has changed since then. These grades no longer have the same meaning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having gone through this process, I would much rather be a college applicant with a 4.5 GPA from Gonzaga/Landon/Bullis than a 88/89 GPA from St. Albans.

No, top grades are not sufficient for elite college admissions, but they are necessary. Almost no one gets into the Ivies without a near-perfect GPA, I don't care what fancy private school you attended.

The DC privates could solve this issue by simply changing the final transcript they send to colleges. We all know that a STA/NCS/Sidwell "B" is equal to a public school "A", so just alter the transcript to say that.

Just help the kids out when applying to college. Grades are just arbitrary, fake numbers anyways.

So my first reaction was, what a great idea! But then I realized this could start an arms race. Soon kids from other schools will be applying with 5.5 GPAs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no grade deflation going on that I have heard of

Clearly you haven't read the threads where people are reporting that certain teachers at "Big 3"-type schools literally don't give out any As, and the best possible grade is A-/B+.

Agree. This time year, it’s especially difficult to find a privates forum thread without parents complaining about deflation, hard teachers, all the disadvantages of attending a pricey school. Really cannot miss it.

Thank you for your insight, pumpkin lattes are also a thing,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having gone through this process, I would much rather be a college applicant with a 4.5 GPA from Gonzaga/Landon/Bullis than a 88/89 GPA from St. Albans.

No, top grades are not sufficient for elite college admissions, but they are necessary. Almost no one gets into the Ivies without a near-perfect GPA, I don't care what fancy private school you attended.

The DC privates could solve this issue by simply changing the final transcript they send to colleges. We all know that a STA/NCS/Sidwell "B" is equal to a public school "A", so just alter the transcript to say that.

Just help the kids out when applying to college. Grades are just arbitrary, fake numbers anyways.

I know several that hit into Ivies from Big 3 within last two years with GPAs as low as 93

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having gone through this process, I would much rather be a college applicant with a 4.5 GPA from Gonzaga/Landon/Bullis than a 88/89 GPA from St. Albans.

No, top grades are not sufficient for elite college admissions, but they are necessary. Almost no one gets into the Ivies without a near-perfect GPA, I don't care what fancy private school you attended.

The DC privates could solve this issue by simply changing the final transcript they send to colleges. We all know that a STA/NCS/Sidwell "B" is equal to a public school "A", so just alter the transcript to say that.

Just help the kids out when applying to college. Grades are just arbitrary, fake numbers anyways.

I know several that hit into Ivies from Big 3 within last two years with GPAs as low as 93

And athletic recruits from big 3s with even lower.

For non athletes Maybe not ED but yes regular decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

I literally just told you that I pulled my kid out of a lax grading environment right? She is also much happier with the greater challenge, so it's not just that we are pushing her into something she doesn't want. Some people actually prefer higher standards and we don't want this option to disappear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

I literally just told you that I pulled my kid out of a lax grading environment right? She is also much happier with the greater challenge, so it's not just that we are pushing her into something she doesn't want. Some people actually prefer higher standards and we don't want this option to disappear.

DP. I fall somewhere in the middle of this argument but I think it is sort of strange you want to impose this on your child. I would be thrilled for my child to get easy A’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

I literally just told you that I pulled my kid out of a lax grading environment right? She is also much happier with the greater challenge, so it's not just that we are pushing her into something she doesn't want. Some people actually prefer higher standards and we don't want this option to disappear.

So, you would consider moving her from her current school if nothing changed except they implemented more generous grading? The challenge would still be there...nothing else would be different.

Did you ask the admissions folks if they had harsh/deflated grading when you applied? Of course not. Nobody has ever asked that question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

I literally just told you that I pulled my kid out of a lax grading environment right? She is also much happier with the greater challenge, so it's not just that we are pushing her into something she doesn't want. Some people actually prefer higher standards and we don't want this option to disappear.

DP. I fall somewhere in the middle of this argument but I think it is sort of strange you want to impose this on your child. I would be thrilled for my child to get easy A’s.

My kid was bored to tears at the previous school and is thriving at the current school which is a supposed "pressure cooker." They are an academic type who loves this kind of challenge. There are SO many options for schools where you can get an easy A. I don't get why people put their kids in places where A's don't come easily, and this is a known fact, and then they complain about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

I literally just told you that I pulled my kid out of a lax grading environment right? She is also much happier with the greater challenge, so it's not just that we are pushing her into something she doesn't want. Some people actually prefer higher standards and we don't want this option to disappear.

So, you would consider moving her from her current school if nothing changed except they implemented more generous grading? The challenge would still be there...nothing else would be different.

Did you ask the admissions folks if they had harsh/deflated grading when you applied? Of course not. Nobody has ever asked that question.

Everyone knows which schools have a higher standard of grading when they apply. The question is, why did you put your kid into a higher standard school and then complain about it when the As are difficult to come by? Especially when you had so many other options.

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Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

in 20
How long your student spends on something is completely irrelevant to the grade as I am sure you can understand. Does any supervisor you have ever had care about how long something took you or the quality of the work?

Whatever. You're being an ass and picking at the semantics of my post.
My reference to time was just to illustrate that my kid worked hard on this. It wasn't something she wrote in 30 minutes at 11pm. She gave best effort and it was very thoughtfully done and over the course of a week. Classmates were the same--they also all spent 5-15 hours on this---also all got Bs or Cs.

There is something messed up when you take kids who are actively trying to do their very best and are super bright and then you grade them to an average of a B-. And as another data point: this kid just got a 790 verbal SAT in October (1570 overall).

Just because some kid has a 790 verbal does not mean they can write beautiful essays or stories. Sorry, but there is usually a lot of room for improvement, even for kids who score 800. I got an 800 on the verbal SAT back in the day and got my writing torn apart in college whenever I took classes outside of my science major at a selective university. I wish my high school teachers had prepared me for the rigors of college level writing, so maybe your DC is lucky. Scoring well on a multiple choice standardized exam does not equal being a good writer. Writing is difficult and most people who want to be good writers need feedback and training.

I get that there is massive grade inflation elsewhere these days, and it's definitely true that any reasonably smart kid could breeze through and get an A at many schools without much effort. However, grade inflation is the PROBLEM, not the solution. This craziness has got to stop.

Ok, but it's hard when your child's school feels like the last holdout in America regarding not inflating grades. The DMV publics inflate like mad, the area Catholics and most of the other privates do as well (Bullis, Landon, Field being prime examples) and even to a lesser extent so do places like Maret and Holton. The NYC privates inflate like crazy as to the Baltimore privates. It was clear from data presented on last year that Harvard-Westlake inflates. I don't know enough about the top NE boarding schools to know how they grade.

There are really very few schools left in America who don't grade to an average of an A (or at least some form of an A).

I'm the PP you're responding to. I get that it's hard, but as many people pointed out, this is what you signed up for, and I do hope you can recognize that higher standards benefit your DC in many ways. I pulled my DC out of their previous school in large part due to the grade inflation and weak standards. It was a terrible and frustrating experience because she was learning very little.

Also, you don't have the data to make some of the claims about these other schools. I do wish that schools would be more transparent, though, and I wish more schools would publish their average GPAs.

The problem is you are rationalizing the environment in which you placed our kid. I get that you care about the weak standards and learning very little...but I doubt you would do anything if your current school adopted a more generous grading policy tomorrow.

They don't change one thing about your kid's experience, but simply tell teachers that they will curve their classes such that X% get an A, A-, B+, etc. that lifts the overall GPS of all students.

NOBODY at your school would complain.

I literally just told you that I pulled my kid out of a lax grading environment right? She is also much happier with the greater challenge, so it's not just that we are pushing her into something she doesn't want. Some people actually prefer higher standards and we don't want this option to disappear.

DP. I fall somewhere in the middle of this argument but I think it is sort of strange you want to impose this on your child. I would be thrilled for my child to get easy A’s.

At the expense of learning? At the expense of being truly prepared for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the expense of learning? At the expense of being truly prepared for college?

"Fake It Till You Make It" is the norm in our culture now.