Grade Deflation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This notion that grades should be a bell curve is archaic and dumb.

School is intended to help kids learn. It's OK if there are a lot of As handed out if they learn. It's not like they should be rationed.

Especially if you have already screened admissions for high performers. If you are accepting kids who always got all As, why would you expect 75% of the them suddenly become poor students? And if your A students are also performing at the top of other standardized tests like APs or SATs, then you are not inflating. When your average SAT scores is above 1400, you should expect half the class to have A averages.

By your logic, the best professional sports leagues shouldn't have winners and losers because everyone who's made it that far is in the top 0.0001 percent of competitors already.

That is a terrible analogy. Your child’s education is not a sports game. It shouldn’t be a competition at all. That’s a really unhealthy attitude, and yet many of our schools do treat academics as a competition instead of an education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

GDS has what distribution?

I'd say 5% As, 60% Bs, and 35% Cs. And they grade tougher the first trimester or beginning half of the class. Room for improvement of course. Or the old, You have more potential and could have done better than this.

I have no connection to GDS, but without some more evidence than a random person's assertion on this board, I don't believe this in the slightest. There's no way GDS, the cuddliest of the Big 3, is giving out 7 times as many Cs as As in its classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

GDS has what distribution?

I'd say 5% As, 60% Bs, and 35% Cs. And they grade tougher the first trimester or beginning half of the class. Room for improvement of course. Or the old, You have more potential and could have done better than this.

I have no connection to GDS, but without some more evidence than a random person's assertion on this board, I don't believe this in the slightest. There's no way GDS, the cuddliest of the Big 3, is giving out 7 times as many Cs as As in its classes.

That's fine, same implies to your assertion based on a cuddly reputation.

My impression of going through two different Big 5 college app processes (incl GDS) and learning about the general GPA distribution and obviously our kids' grades on work and classes is that, yes, Cs are given out 7x as frequently as As in those schools.

Bulk of work gets a B-, B, or B+. Many teachers only give out B+ as a highest grade on graded, handed in work, but class grade may be based on improvement, trend, and/or final force rankings. again, As rare. GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

GDS has what distribution?

I'd say 5% As, 60% Bs, and 35% Cs. And they grade tougher the first trimester or beginning half of the class. Room for improvement of course. Or the old, You have more potential and could have done better than this.

I have no connection to GDS, but without some more evidence than a random person's assertion on this board, I don't believe this in the slightest. There's no way GDS, the cuddliest of the Big 3, is giving out 7 times as many Cs as As in its classes.

That's fine, same implies to your assertion based on a cuddly reputation.

My impression of going through two different Big 5 college app processes (incl GDS) and learning about the general GPA distribution and obviously our kids' grades on work and classes is that, yes, Cs are given out 7x as frequently as As in those schools.

Bulk of work gets a B-, B, or B+. Many teachers only give out B+ as a highest grade on graded, handed in work, but class grade may be based on improvement, trend, and/or final force rankings. again, As rare. GDS.

I could maybe believe Bs being the most common grade. I don't believe it, but could perhaps be persuaded. Absolutely no way that Cs are 7x more likely than an A. None.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This notion that grades should be a bell curve is archaic and dumb.

School is intended to help kids learn. It's OK if there are a lot of As handed out if they learn. It's not like they should be rationed.

Especially if you have already screened admissions for high performers. If you are accepting kids who always got all As, why would you expect 75% of the them suddenly become poor students? And if your A students are also performing at the top of other standardized tests like APs or SATs, then you are not inflating. When your average SAT scores is above 1400, you should expect half the class to have A averages.

By your logic, the best professional sports leagues shouldn't have winners and losers because everyone who's made it that far is in the top 0.0001 percent of competitors already.

That is a terrible analogy. Your child’s education is not a sports game. It shouldn’t be a competition at all. That’s a really unhealthy attitude, and yet many of our schools do treat academics as a competition instead of an education.

College admissions is a competition though, one that neither public nor private schools can avoid for all practical purposes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

GDS has what distribution?

I'd say 5% As, 60% Bs, and 35% Cs. And they grade tougher the first trimester or beginning half of the class. Room for improvement of course. Or the old, You have more potential and could have done better than this.

I have no connection to GDS, but without some more evidence than a random person's assertion on this board, I don't believe this in the slightest. There's no way GDS, the cuddliest of the Big 3, is giving out 7 times as many Cs as As in its classes.

That's fine, same implies to your assertion based on a cuddly reputation.

My impression of going through two different Big 5 college app processes (incl GDS) and learning about the general GPA distribution and obviously our kids' grades on work and classes is that, yes, Cs are given out 7x as frequently as As in those schools.

Bulk of work gets a B-, B, or B+. Many teachers only give out B+ as a highest grade on graded, handed in work, but class grade may be based on improvement, trend, and/or final force rankings. again, As rare. GDS.

Based on our recent experience GDS, I find this unlikely. I think a good number of kids are getting As. But since they don't share any information about the grade distribution, who knows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average Sat/ACT score at NCS is the 98th percentile. Meaning there are many kids in the top 2%. Yet most of these kids don’t get A’s and I don’t think anyone gets straight A’s

That is so "public school" thing to say. It's not about the scores, it's not about the grades.

?

Obviously, for many people, it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average Sat/ACT score at NCS is the 98th percentile. Meaning there are many kids in the top 2%. Yet most of these kids don’t get A’s and I don’t think anyone gets straight A’s

My daughter has straight As in high school at NCS and currently has close to 100% in 3 classes. She is very smart but more importantly, she has a crazy work ethic. there are a few others like her in her grade. They are just indefatigable. I was not half the student that she is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average Sat/ACT score at NCS is the 98th percentile. Meaning there are many kids in the top 2%. Yet most of these kids don’t get A’s and I don’t think anyone gets straight A’s

The claim here is not supported by NCS website.

[Anonymous]

I might be the cause of this thread. I complained to admin about 4 or 5 years that my daughter's grades were too high; her ERBs are 7 to 9s, so she's bright. But what the heck am I paying the school for if they cannot challenge this child. She should absolutely not get 100 in anything!!! All her scores are above 95, which is ridiculous. I told them there should only be 2 maybe 3 As per class. How else are the colleges going to differentiate the kids? Especially with this move against SAT/ACTs.

Now my little one is coming through. I don't have ERBs yet but her WPPSI was 140. She has exactly 0 As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I might be the cause of this thread. I complained to admin about 4 or 5 years that my daughter's grades were too high; her ERBs are 7 to 9s, so she's bright. But what the heck am I paying the school for if they cannot challenge this child. She should absolutely not get 100 in anything!!! All her scores are above 95, which is ridiculous. I told them there should only be 2 maybe 3 As per class. How else are the colleges going to differentiate the kids? Especially with this move against SAT/ACTs.

Now my little one is coming through. I don't have ERBs yet but her WPPSI was 140. She has exactly 0 As.

Lame attempt at nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I might be the cause of this thread. I complained to admin about 4 or 5 years that my daughter's grades were too high; her ERBs are 7 to 9s, so she's bright. But what the heck am I paying the school for if they cannot challenge this child. She should absolutely not get 100 in anything!!! All her scores are above 95, which is ridiculous. I told them there should only be 2 maybe 3 As per class. How else are the colleges going to differentiate the kids? Especially with this move against SAT/ACTs.

Now my little one is coming through. I don't have ERBs yet but her WPPSI was 140. She has exactly 0 As.

I think you have grossly overestimated your influence in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Funny how the boarding schools and my prior school would codify and oub,ish test, project and final grades scores so you knew exactly what the distribution looked like and where you were.
It was very motivating and also helped the clueless kids who thought doing their best was all that could be done. It pushed those the most to see that better work was achievable.

Nowadays sounds like the progressive schools don’t disclose anything to anyone. That’s rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny how the boarding schools and my prior school would codify and oub,ish test, project and final grades scores so you knew exactly what the distribution looked like and where you were.
It was very motivating and also helped the clueless kids who thought doing their best was all that could be done. It pushed those the most to see that better work was achievable.

Nowadays sounds like the progressive schools don’t disclose anything to anyone. That’s rich.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a progressive upper school in the DC area. Most of them are more traditional when it comes to their instruction, including the Cathedral schools and Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This notion that grades should be a bell curve is archaic and dumb.

School is intended to help kids learn. It's OK if there are a lot of As handed out if they learn. It's not like they should be rationed.

Especially if you have already screened admissions for high performers. If you are accepting kids who always got all As, why would you expect 75% of the them suddenly become poor students? And if your A students are also performing at the top of other standardized tests like APs or SATs, then you are not inflating. When your average SAT scores is above 1400, you should expect half the class to have A averages.

Except for the fact that their teachers- faculty that have seen excellent students come and go for decades- are the one's deciding who's work is truly " A" work. Unless its a math test or a science subject, that is.

Look at it this way: the Medici founded an Art studio and invited certain artists to join, but not others. At one time they had Michaelangelo and Botticelli along side each other in the same studio garden with a Medici deciding for himself who's work was worthy of his patronage. I am , of course, pushing the argument to an extreme example, but when faculty become accustomed to really, really bright kids AND very hard workers then who gets an " A" becomes rarified.

Still, the kids who benefit most from an STA education are the middle of the pack who might never get A's but just learn to work really , really hard while being humbled- the kind of self-discipline that serves them well for their lifetime.

Lol no this is not true. When kids get to college they realize what a waste of time high school was and wished they had gone to a different high school. These high schools are pressure cookers and burn kids out. The workload at these schools are ridiculous.