The deflated grading is just exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The point of going to a top 3 school is to get a demanding, rigorous education.

If you’re not happy with it, switch to public or Maret or field or someplace like that.

Was your child admitted early, like in kindergarten or elementary? Maybe it’s not the right fit.

Bs are one thing by getting multiple scores like 75 or 65 could be a sign your kid shouldn’t be of the school.

I tire The people who get their kids into super progress schools and then complain that they are too rigorous.

OP here. No, kid was admitted in 9th. Has straight As (some version of them) so far but at such a high cost.
The 65s and 75s are class averages. My kids is above average but still below an A. Will probably eek out As again with a little luck and an immense amount of work.
But the stress getting to that point is so, so high and most peers are not getting As. Playing this game is getting old. Studying for hours and hours
and still getting a B or C on every exam because that is how things are written. When essay exams are graded so that the average is an 82 and only 2 kids get above a 90 (had one of these recently). I guess I get it if a math exam an 82 average. But why grade an essay exam to an 82?
(when your entire cohort can write and has read ALL the material and discussed it in class for weeks, etc).

The problem is that you are expecting your kid to get a public school gpa, probably because he was in public school through eighth. Stop putting that pressure on him. It is fine to get As and Bs at a big three. Aiming for straight As at a big three is unrealistic and ridiculous for most kids. Get over that goal.

yes, but a couple of Bs and a GPA quickly trends down to a 3.5 or thereabouts...
and kids at the 75th percentile or below in the class are increasingly having a hard time getting into decent colleges.

what i don't understand is why the schools don't help out their own kids. They are in charge of the grading. They don't have to grade an essay to an average of an 82 and give half the class a final grade of a straight B or lower And then turn around and wonder why their kids with under a 3.5 can't get into Penn State.

You didn’t understand when you sit your kid to a big three that they have higher academic standards than a public school?

You just seem to want the name of the private school in the education of the private school but without actually having the education record of the private school. The point of the schools is do you have to work really hard and that they are very rigorous. If you didn’t want that for your kid, you should’ve stayed in public. These are hard schools. That’s the point.

There's a difference between "higher academic standards" and assembling a super strong cohort of kids and then structuring the grading so that only a tiny percentage of this cohort (that you took because they were at the very top of their respective cohorts elsewhere) is able to get As. We never knew that was what we were in for. My kid was floundering in DCPS--getting high As (lending the year with 98s and 99s in the top classes they offered) and she really wanted to move. We're not from DC but went to "college prep" schools elsewhere. Sure, you had to work hard; 3-4 hours of homework per night was normal. But there wasn't any gatekeeping of good grades. It was possible to get strong grades and they were fine with doling them out, even if 1/2 the class met this standard. They weren't creating tests so the average is a 70. I think what is so demoralizing in our experience here is that a kid give 200%, know the material backwards and forwards (eventually getting a 5 on the AP exam) and still routinely get a B in the class.

[Anonymous]

I’ll be honest - I thought the “should have sent your kid to Maret” barb was pretty rude initially. After reading all these posts, i agree wholeheartedly. As a maret parent, i don’t think the school is particularly easy, but no one is curving grades to make fewer As, or generally grinding the kids down as you’re all describing.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of classes like this in public school. APUSH, AP sciences. Average grades are B at end of year.

[Anonymous]

Is Sidwell really like this? We are exploring it for middle school, and it's really one of our favorite schools based on the offerings, campus, and feel of the place. Now I'm wondering if we should look elsewhere...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of classes like this in public school. APUSH, AP sciences. Average grades are B at end of year.

I went to a big three and my kids are in MCPS and…no. Just no. They are taking lots is APs and it is very doable to get all As or close to all As.

I would have preferred them to be at my alma mater or similar but 100k plus per year for two kids is not in our budget

[Anonymous]

I have zero sympathy for rich people who spend tens of thousands a year to send their kids to private schools because they think they’re either too good for public schools or are afraid of brown, black or poor people and because they’re obsessed with getting their kids into colleges that impress their friends and then complain about how hard their kid has it.

They don’t. You don’t. Cry me a friggin River.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have zero sympathy for rich people who spend tens of thousands a year to send their kids to private schools because they think they’re either too good for public schools or are afraid of brown, black or poor people and because they’re obsessed with getting their kids into colleges that impress their friends and then complain about how hard their kid has it.

They don’t. You don’t. Cry me a friggin River.

what if the public school is just not providing any challenge? That was our issue with DCPS. We're actually at the private on aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of classes like this in public school. APUSH, AP sciences. Average grades are B at end of year.

I went to a big three and my kids are in MCPS and…no. Just no. They are taking lots is APs and it is very doable to get all As or close to all As.

I would have preferred them to be at my alma mater or similar but 100k plus per year for two kids is not in our budget

Agreed. It's very possible to get APs in MCPS. You do the work, there is a good chance that you get an A. Plus they don't gate keep who takes the APs. You have a lot of kids in these classes who shouldn't be taking them. Right there is plenty of the 50% of the class that doesn't get an A.

The private being talked about gate keeps the student body and then they further gatekeep the AP (or other top) classes (it's really hard to even be approved to take them) and then they gatekeep the As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did you not know this when you decided to have your child attend this school? You literally signed up for this and could have easily avoided it. Not sure why you’re asking for things to change now.

I don't think you can fully understand it (or any school) until you experience it. sure, we heard "school is rigorous". We did not know "in some courses, no As will be given" or "the course grading will be curved to give 2 As out of 20". That is what we've seen happen and that wasn't even anywhere on our radar to ask when touring high schools. Our younger kid saw this go down at our house and prior to 9th grade literally told us, "uh, thanks but no thanks--no way am I signing up for that"

Do you have a freshman? Because if you don’t you signed up for this year knowing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero sympathy for rich people who spend tens of thousands a year to send their kids to private schools because they think they’re either too good for public schools or are afraid of brown, black or poor people and because they’re obsessed with getting their kids into colleges that impress their friends and then complain about how hard their kid has it.

They don’t. You don’t. Cry me a friggin River.

what if the public school is just not providing any challenge? That was our issue with DCPS. We're actually at the private on aid.

There are plenty of other schools that provide balance. Or, teach your kid to seek challenge rather than to passively wait for it to be served to them on a platter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of classes like this in public school. APUSH, AP sciences. Average grades are B at end of year.

I went to a big three and my kids are in MCPS and…no. Just no. They are taking lots is APs and it is very doable to get all As or close to all As.

I would have preferred them to be at my alma mater or similar but 100k plus per year for two kids is not in our budget

Agreed. It's very possible to get APs in MCPS. You do the work, there is a good chance that you get an A. Plus they don't gate keep who takes the APs. You have a lot of kids in these classes who shouldn't be taking them. Right there is plenty of the 50% of the class that doesn't get an A.

The private being talked about gate keeps the student body and then they further gatekeep the AP (or other top) classes (it's really hard to even be approved to take them) and then they gatekeep the As.

Gatekeeping as in admitting kids based on hooks rather than merit? Oh ho, the system you initially benefited from is now coming around to bite you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The point of going to a top 3 school is to get a demanding, rigorous education.

If you’re not happy with it, switch to public or Maret or field or someplace like that.

Was your child admitted early, like in kindergarten or elementary? Maybe it’s not the right fit.

Bs are one thing by getting multiple scores like 75 or 65 could be a sign your kid shouldn’t be of the school.

I tire The people who get their kids into super progress schools and then complain that they are too rigorous.

OP here. No, kid was admitted in 9th. Has straight As (some version of them) so far but at such a high cost.
The 65s and 75s are class averages. My kids is above average but still below an A. Will probably eek out As again with a little luck and an immense amount of work.
But the stress getting to that point is so, so high and most peers are not getting As. Playing this game is getting old. Studying for hours and hours
and still getting a B or C on every exam because that is how things are written. When essay exams are graded so that the average is an 82 and only 2 kids get above a 90 (had one of these recently). I guess I get it if a math exam an 82 average. But why grade an essay exam to an 82?
(when your entire cohort can write and has read ALL the material and discussed it in class for weeks, etc).

The problem is that you are expecting your kid to get a public school gpa, probably because he was in public school through eighth. Stop putting that pressure on him. It is fine to get As and Bs at a big three. Aiming for straight As at a big three is unrealistic and ridiculous for most kids. Get over that goal.

yes, but a couple of Bs and a GPA quickly trends down to a 3.5 or thereabouts...
and kids at the 75th percentile or below in the class are increasingly having a hard time getting into decent colleges.

what i don't understand is why the schools don't help out their own kids. They are in charge of the grading. They don't have to grade an essay to an average of an 82 and give half the class a final grade of a straight B or lower And then turn around and wonder why their kids with under a 3.5 can't get into Penn State.

You didn’t understand when you sit your kid to a big three that they have higher academic standards than a public school?

You just seem to want the name of the private school in the education of the private school but without actually having the education record of the private school. The point of the schools is do you have to work really hard and that they are very rigorous. If you didn’t want that for your kid, you should’ve stayed in public. These are hard schools. That’s the point.

There's a difference between "higher academic standards" and assembling a super strong cohort of kids and then structuring the grading so that only a tiny percentage of this cohort (that you took because they were at the very top of their respective cohorts elsewhere) is able to get As. We never knew that was what we were in for. My kid was floundering in DCPS--getting high As (lending the year with 98s and 99s in the top classes they offered) and she really wanted to move. We're not from DC but went to "college prep" schools elsewhere. Sure, you had to work hard; 3-4 hours of homework per night was normal. But there wasn't any gatekeeping of good grades. It was possible to get strong grades and they were fine with doling them out, even if 1/2 the class met this standard. They weren't creating tests so the average is a 70. I think what is so demoralizing in our experience here is that a kid give 200%, know the material backwards and forwards (eventually getting a 5 on the AP exam) and still routinely get a B in the class.

Super strong ninth grade admits plus a few lifers/siblings/legacies/URMs/big donor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero sympathy for rich people who spend tens of thousands a year to send their kids to private schools because they think they’re either too good for public schools or are afraid of brown, black or poor people and because they’re obsessed with getting their kids into colleges that impress their friends and then complain about how hard their kid has it.

They don’t. You don’t. Cry me a friggin River.

what if the public school is just not providing any challenge? That was our issue with DCPS. We're actually at the private on aid.

Every jurisdiction in the DC area has public schools capable of challenging kids. In DC, BASIS or SWW should be plenty challenging

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have zero sympathy for rich people who spend tens of thousands a year to send their kids to private schools because they think they’re either too good for public schools or are afraid of brown, black or poor people and because they’re obsessed with getting their kids into colleges that impress their friends and then complain about how hard their kid has it.

They don’t. You don’t. Cry me a friggin River.

This is such a boneheaded, virtue signaling take. Lots of the public schools in this area are absolutely atrocious for kids who are on grade level academically (or would be if they were at better schools) not to mention the kids above grade level. And it is often because the rest of the student body is so far behind academically that they need handholding, and/or don’t speak English, and/or have severe discipline/attitude problems that make it impossible for teachers to teach and non-troublemakers to learn. It has nothings to do with being “afraid” of anyone (except in those cases where there IS violence in the schools… you do realize that happens, don’t you?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero sympathy for rich people who spend tens of thousands a year to send their kids to private schools because they think they’re either too good for public schools or are afraid of brown, black or poor people and because they’re obsessed with getting their kids into colleges that impress their friends and then complain about how hard their kid has it.

They don’t. You don’t. Cry me a friggin River.

what if the public school is just not providing any challenge? That was our issue with DCPS. We're actually at the private on aid.

Every jurisdiction in the DC area has public schools capable of challenging kids. In DC, BASIS or SWW should be plenty challenging

This is such stupid and tired advice because these schools are lottery only.
We tried to get into both and didn't. Missed the 5th grade cut-off at Basis (were not in DC) and did not get into SWW (left under 5 on the waitlist).
I know so many smart kids who were shut out of SWW.