Why California’s Public Universities Are So Good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I lived in CA, UC would be the only way to go with the instate tuition benefits.
Living OOS though, there is no way in hell the OOS costs are worth the underfunded overcrowded experience. maybe if the OOS costs were half what they are?…

But you don't live there so you don't really know what the experience is, do you? I'm the PP with a daughter at UCLA and I have spent a lot of time in LA around UCLA students. They all LOVE it there and the school spirit is incredible. DD has had amazing classes and professors and has learned so much.

Is it a place for students who need a lot of hand-holding and coddling? No way - you have to be a self-starter, advocate for yourself, and learn how to navigate a huge bureaucracy on your own. That's why it's filled with super-smart, ambitous movers and shakers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

As well as all of the cities which have gotten rid of D’s and F’s which include some of the largest school systems. If a C becomes the lowest grade, at least a third of the grades are going to be A’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

When the UC system looked into whether standardized tests should still be used for admittance; one of the findings was that grades were becoming less and less predictive of college success. That strongly suggests that grade inflation is an issue in CA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

You can sometimes get a sense of the amount of grade inflation by looking at the published HS profile of the school. When 35% of a class of 800 has a GPA over 4.4, for instance, it is a serious issue.

That having been said, some public schools in CA have stopped publishing this data recently, possibly because it makes the school look bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

You can sometimes get a sense of the amount of grade inflation by looking at the published HS profile of the school. When 35% of a class of 800 has a GPA over 4.4, for instance, it is a serious issue.

That having been said, some public schools in CA have stopped publishing this data recently, possibly because it makes the school look bad.

Schools do publish a "profile" which tells you the colleges that kids got into, sometimes the % who are attending 4 year vs CC and things like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

I am very familiar with one of those districts and it is mediocre at best. Students are passed through with little in the way of challenging coursework. No, not everyone gets A’s but I really don’t think that’s the case anywhere, is it?

I think the idea that “everyone gets A’s” just isn’t true. At my kid’s public school in CA they publish the percent of students who have a 4.0, and the percent who have between 3.8-3.99 (as well as the other GPA bands), and most kids are in the middle with B/B+ averages 3.5-3.7, with a decent portion below that.

Like with most places, the more affluent communities/suburbs will have better schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

You can sometimes get a sense of the amount of grade inflation by looking at the published HS profile of the school. When 35% of a class of 800 has a GPA over 4.4, for instance, it is a serious issue.

That having been said, some public schools in CA have stopped publishing this data recently, possibly because it makes the school look bad.

Schools do publish a "profile" which tells you the colleges that kids got into, sometimes the % who are attending 4 year vs CC and things like that.

Yes, but sometimes those profiles include grade ranges. Like 20% of the senior class had a final GPA between 4.2 and 4.6. Some omit that, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

You can sometimes get a sense of the amount of grade inflation by looking at the published HS profile of the school. When 35% of a class of 800 has a GPA over 4.4, for instance, it is a serious issue.

That having been said, some public schools in CA have stopped publishing this data recently, possibly because it makes the school look bad.

Schools do publish a "profile" which tells you the colleges that kids got into, sometimes the % who are attending 4 year vs CC and things like that.

NP. My kid’s school does that and it’s immensely helpful. I appreciate the transparency too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangest post on this forum in quite a while.

Let’s see where the Ca schools are in a decade after years of this test blind nonsense and rampant grade inflation in their k-12 system.

There is no grade inflation in public schools, you're taking a DMV problem and applying it to an areas you clearly have no experience with. We have kids in a Los Angeles HS and it is so much harder than it was at Whitman. Their grades are not just based on testing, they are based on contributions during class time, the content of their homework (not simply that it has been completed) and other projects. There's also a law that CA HS teachers can decide willy-nilly how to approach grading, without reproach. One teacher doesn't give an A in her class unless the kid is getting a 92% or higher. So they get a 90-91.75% and they have a B on their report card.

Grade inflation in California public schools has been well documented. Here’s just a few sources. https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/grade-inflation-in-california-high-schools.pdf, https://reason.com/2023/01/11/los-angles-public-schools-are-increasingly-passing-students-who-dont-meet-grade-level-standards/; https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-22/la-student-reports-card-grades-are-high-test-scores-are-low-why-the-big-disconnect

Incredibly, post Covid, some CA public schools have done away with the grades of D and F. A C is the lowest possible grade at those schools. https://edsource.org/2021/why-some-california-school-districts-are-changing-how-students-earn-grades/664226. ; https://newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/why-some-california-schools-are-changing-student-grades/

Thanks for the links. It is interesting that what has been "documented" is not in our current experience at all.

NP. I’m another Californian and in our local public high school (which is huge), nearly half of last year’s seniors had over a 4.0 cumulative. It’s a serious issue because admissions was like a lottery last year, and the administration is talking about grade inflation as a very serious issue.

I think it varies from place to place. I know Santa Monica HS and Palisades High (and Beverley Hills High) are very likely candidates for grade inflation, while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena & South Pasadena are not. If you're up in Silicon Valley I can similarly see that being a possible issue.

You can sometimes get a sense of the amount of grade inflation by looking at the published HS profile of the school. When 35% of a class of 800 has a GPA over 4.4, for instance, it is a serious issue.

That having been said, some public schools in CA have stopped publishing this data recently, possibly because it makes the school look bad.

Schools do publish a "profile" which tells you the colleges that kids got into, sometimes the % who are attending 4 year vs CC and things like that.

Yes, but sometimes those profiles include grade ranges. Like 20% of the senior class had a final GPA between 4.2 and 4.6. Some omit that, though.

Yes, I understood when you said this the first time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:California invested a shit ton of money into its public university system prior to California property tax reform in the late 70s. They took the top students from California, tuition free. I think that investment is still paying dividends.

The student surveys for UC schools on teaching and commitment to undergraduate education are not good relative to other public universities.

Do you have a source / link ? TIA

Princeton Review and Niche are student surveys. US News undergraduate teaching rankings are also available but are not from students.

[Anonymous]

Interesting to see all these posts about variations in grade inflation.

And California has gotten rid of standardized tests since they don't give the results they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see all these posts about variations in grade inflation.

And California has gotten rid of standardized tests since they don't give the results they want.

It is to level the playing field across all socio-economic groups, which is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting to see all these posts about variations in grade inflation.

And California has gotten rid of standardized tests since they don't give the results they want.

It is to level the playing field across all socio-economic groups, which is a good thing.

The UC systems own report said standardized tests were the single best predictor of college success across all the groups they analyzed. Interestingly the scores predicted success irrespective of household income. In other words, a poor kid with a 1200 performed the same on average as a rich kid with a 1200. Their own researchers recommended not eliminating standardized tests. But the UC system did anyway.

The PP was correct; they got rid of them not because they couldn’t get the classes they wanted using objective measures like standardized tests.