do B's matter in elementary school?
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Anonymous
B means “good.” C means “average.” Average is fine. Your kids are going to be anxious af. |
Anonymous
My child's teacher once told the class that a C is 'average', so that is what he repeated to us when he got a C in something that he just didn't put the effort in. My husband told him to go look up what an 'average' salary was in the US. |
Anonymous
Average is average! It is by definition better than half of people!!!! |
Anonymous
| Omg. I cannot even. |
Anonymous
You’re wrong. Students can get into a decent college with multiple AB’s on their high school transcript. This is why many schools don’t give grades until middle school. They have terms like “meets expectations” with other choices and they write paragraphs on the child’s strengths and weaknesses. They also get onto more details, not just Math - B, Science - B. Parents stressing their kids about not getting all A’s in the 2nd grade is wrong. |
Anonymous
A child in elementary school? Probably the first of many. |
Anonymous
I am not the poster that made the post but I would guess that the child wasn’t completing work in class and so is not earning an A. Or getting the right answer on a test but not showing their work. Something along those lines. There are good reasons for Bs when a kid is Acing tests. My brothers never turned in homework and were pains in their classes and got Bs even though they had perfect scores on tests. |
Anonymous
But the work gets harder. That doesn't make any sense. |
Anonymous
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B's in ES is often due to lack of maturity, focus, and follow through. I mean, they're in elementary school. Everyone matures at a different rate. It does not mean that they will get all B's in HS.
Our ES doesn't give letter grades in ES. Probably for this reason. |
Anonymous
Dp. A grade is only a proxy for understanding the materials. A grade is given based on a child's performance according to a grading rubric. A child therefore can master the material and still get a B if the child does not meet the standards the teacher set by the teacher, e.g. the above poster's example of showing one's work. Alternatively, a child could master the material late (maturity issues, difficulty understanding a particular teacher, needs a different approach, missed lessons, etc) and still go on to do well in higher grades, where the grades matter more and there's more freedom for a child to learn on their own. |
Anonymous
Maturity plays into this so much. Getting an A in ES is really about good behavior and following instructions. Things like differences in intellectual curiosity, varied experiences and developing organized thinking make a big difference too; and these are cumulative contributions to intellectual development that may not be accessible at the ES level just yet. |
Anonymous
So you think that grades are a bell curve where half the kids get better than a C and half the kids get worse? That's not how it works...at all. But good luck! |
Anonymous
Your ignorance is appalling. The average high school GPA for high school students is 3.30. There are thousands of colleges to pick from with a B average in high school. |
Anonymous
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I taught in an elementary school where we used a grading scale of 1-5. On the report cards it said that 5 meant “above and beyond.” Since this isn’t Lake Wobegone, I was comfortable grading students at 4 when that’s where their written work placed them, and few were showing achievement/knowledge that beat the standards. Parents freaked out that 4=B, which isn’t good enough. The number of phone calls and meetings I took that winter taught me that it was better to give inauthentic assessment scores than provoke parental anxiety.
In a lot of contexts (from reading remediation to professional certifications), a grade of 80% or better indicates mastery. Also, elementary assessments are short. Kids with attention issues and learning differences (15-50% of any classroom) often miss a couple of questions. It can be hard to keep an average above 90% in those situations. However, short frequent assessments are much more developmentally appropriate and less overwhelming than long assessments. I’ve taught a lot of high-achieving kids, and so many of them are discouraged and experiencing low self concept because their parents pick apart every less-than-perfect grade they bring home. |
Anonymous
Shows what you know. The median graduating GPA in Loudoun county where we live is over a 4.0. FCPS is similar. This is due to weighting of Honors and AP classes, and grade inflation in general. A "B" is not what it was when we were kids. At our elementary school an A = "exceeds the standard", a B = "meets the standard", a C = "progressing toward the standard." So, a C means you don't understand the material and a B means you understood exactly the minimum requirement and nothing more. In spelling for example, a B means you knew how to spell the assigned words, but could not spell the bonus words that followed the same pattern. Same idea in math. You can regurgitate what was taught but you cannot apply the principle to something similar but not the exact same. |