Is a public school A = private school A- (or B+)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in nyc where there are plenty of private schools that are pretty well known for grade inflation.

Here's an example of grade distribution:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1662473043/packer/jqwg5zprhm5kuweelfde/2022-23SchoolProfileBrochureforCollegeOffice.pdf

I 100% do not assume public schools grade more leniently than private schools. Usually it's the opposite. Public schools kids can actually get a C or a D

I'm in a NYC suburb and totally agree.

I’m in the Bay Area and this is true here, too. I’m not disputing some privates absolutely provide a better education than some publics but grade inflation at the privates is a huge issue in my area.

[Anonymous]

Colleges want your school's profile so they can tell what that a particular GPA means at your high school and what the most rigorous curriculum offered is at your high school. Only parents compare GPAs among kids from different high schools. So, there is no advantage or disadvantage to whether a high school grade inflates or deflates other than it used to fool parents into thinking either their high school is doing a good job because your kid's grades have improved or the high school is really hard and that must mean it is doing a good job. Neither actually mean the high school is doing a good job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:same. parents who are paying 50k are making calls if their kid gets a B.

Lol!! Public school parents showing their ignorance in this thread.

Public school teacher, and my kids go to private. Private school kids have more academic rigor and no retakes. Private schools do not change grades for parents. I’m fact, most teachers really won’t even speak to parents because the privates are very focused on kids being main point of contact (college prep aspect of school). The parent is actually paying for a better quality education…not paying for good grades. Colleges are aware of the grade deflation.

what's a retake? (kids at private and public ... no retakes, whatever that is!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in nyc where there are plenty of private schools that are pretty well known for grade inflation.

Here's an example of grade distribution:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1662473043/packer/jqwg5zprhm5kuweelfde/2022-23SchoolProfileBrochureforCollegeOffice.pdf

I 100% do not assume public schools grade more leniently than private schools. Usually it's the opposite. Public schools kids can actually get a C or a D

This!! You never hear of this with the prep schools, but public’s don’t think twice about giving out what you earned and not a penny more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in nyc where there are plenty of private schools that are pretty well known for grade inflation.

Here's an example of grade distribution:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1662473043/packer/jqwg5zprhm5kuweelfde/2022-23SchoolProfileBrochureforCollegeOffice.pdf

I 100% do not assume public schools grade more leniently than private schools. Usually it's the opposite. Public schools kids can actually get a C or a D

This!! You never hear of this with the prep schools, but public’s don’t think twice about giving out what you earned and not a penny more.

No one is paying 50k for their kid to get a D. Parents wound be freaking out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges want your school's profile so they can tell what that a particular GPA means at your high school and what the most rigorous curriculum offered is at your high school. Only parents compare GPAs among kids from different high schools. So, there is no advantage or disadvantage to whether a high school grade inflates or deflates other than it used to fool parents into thinking either their high school is doing a good job because your kid's grades have improved or the high school is really hard and that must mean it is doing a good job. Neither actually mean the high school is doing a good job.

What a college would really like to see is a high school that has significant differentiation among individual student GPAs, so they knew who truly were the top students. That would suggest the grading is really meaningful. A school that has bunched together students at lower grades with very slight differentiation is no better than a school that bunches together students at higher grades with very slight differentiation. Both are an indication that the high school wants to tell colleges that the vast majority of their kids are special, which the colleges know is BS whether this is a private or public school. Ranking students on extremely small differences in GPAs is a way for schools to try to thread the needle by identifying their top students without making anyone feel too bad, but that really just hurts the top students because the colleges can see that the top students' grades are so close to the next group that it doesn't really tell them much.

[Anonymous]

no grades are weighted at stuy.
46% of kids qualify for free/reduced lunch
mid 50% SAT is 1490 - 1560
and there's no grade inflation, kids get Cs and Ds. having a low 90s average is considered good (they use actual numbers, a 93 isn't a 4.0, it's a 93).

https://stuy.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2013/3/7/37096823/Class%20of%202023%20profile%20FINAL_compressed.pdf?rnd=1663685856736

[Anonymous]

No grades are weighted at our private school. No parent calls when you get Bs. B's are considered at standard. No one gets grades changed.

Our college matriculation record is very strong but there is a variety of outcomes. Not all private schools are a monolith in terms of grading. Some are stingier and hold kids to a higher standard to get that A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=Anonymous

I’m in the Bay Area and this is true here, too. I’m not disputing some privates absolutely provide a better education than some publics but grade inflation at the privates is a huge issue in my area.

Where in the SF Bay are you? I'm in SF and can say that there's no grade inflation within the cluster of schools that my DS and his close friends go to - Urban, Lick, Nueva, University, etc. But that varies across schools.

[Anonymous]

it all comes down to the school itself, not if it’s public or private. I would think privates would deal with significantly more pressure to inflate grades from parents but it doesn’t mean they all do. Something to look out for, though.

[Anonymous]

Private schools typically don't weight GPA for honors classes. Some do only for APs and some don't at all. Perhaps that is what an OP means by saying an A- average (unweighted) would equal an A (weighted for honors and/or AP) at a public school?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think grade distribution or the “curve” is a good measure of whether there is grade inflation. At publics that you test into and privates that you apply to, the caliber of work being performed by students or test scores may be higher by far more students because the schools have selected students who performed higher on tests and in previous grades to get in. The kids are also self-selecting in that they chose to go the school and generally have the support and motivation to master their academic subjects. So, if 60% of the class score a 95-100 on a math test then there is no reason they don’t all get As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in nyc where there are plenty of private schools that are pretty well known for grade inflation.

Here's an example of grade distribution:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1662473043/packer/jqwg5zprhm5kuweelfde/2022-23SchoolProfileBrochureforCollegeOffice.pdf

I 100% do not assume public schools grade more leniently than private schools. Usually it's the opposite. Public schools kids can actually get a C or a D

This!! You never hear of this with the prep schools, but public’s don’t think twice about giving out what you earned and not a penny more.

No one is paying 50k for their kid to get a D. Parents wound be freaking out

My private s school kid got a D in chemistry and one in pre-calc. That’s what he deserved. I was just happy he passed and didn’t have to take them in summer school. These grades reflected his mastery of the subject. Looking at the report his school sends to colleges, his gpa of 3.3 was right around the middle of his class. An A was very difficult to get in a class there but he got a few in English and history classes.

[Anonymous]

Our DMV private claims they do not provide grade distributions to the colleges and it is not on the school profile. Not sure if something about where a student stands in the counselor letter

As far as grades go, there are at least a handful of teachers who are absolute d-bags who grade more harshly..and my DC has been unfortunate enough to get at least one a year who has messed up their GPA. That’s why I for one am glad AP exams exist (5’s across the board) and 36 on ACT to counterbalance the grading disparities that exist among teachers. A kid getting a 5 on the AP Calc exam clearly doesn’t deserve a B+ in the class and has proven they’ve mastered the material based on a nationwide standard.

[Anonymous]

^^^Meant to say-not sure if an overall class standing is mentioned in the counselor letter that is sent-we really have no idea what data the college is getting regarding grades and class standing as none of it is mentioned in the school profile parents get to see publicly.