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Is St. Albans Grading Fair? I Heard NCS Isn't.
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Anonymous
. Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well. |
Anonymous
Isn’t multivariable taught at NCS? Do STA students experience the same issues there? I’ve not heard that. |
Anonymous
And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have. |
Anonymous
Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point? |
Anonymous
Walls is free? |
Anonymous
True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education. The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination? |
Anonymous
I posted what you quoted. The case is the latter. The teacher would not give a grade higher than a 90 on this particular assignment. I am NOT making this up nor am I misunderstanding. Apparently it is, as another poster stated, so the students have an opportunity for growth. I’m not an educator so this pedagogy is not something I am familiar with. The incredulity people here have (and the insistence that I am lying or trying to bad mouth the school, I am not doing either) might help explain why I was surprised by this too. |
Anonymous
I've given exactly one A+ on a paper in my years of teaching at the university level, and that was to a paper that was an exceptional, almost professional quality work. Totally unexpected. Otherwise, there is always some critique that I could give the students to make their research papers better. Even the best student papers have a long way to go. Nowadays we have to enter numerical grades into canvas, so that means I don't enter 100s for papers. Would you consider this unfair? I never really thought of it as a "cap" but I guess it is one, and I am surprised people who want a good education for students think it is unfair that I don't hand out perfect scores for imperfect work. What I find weird is the notion that the point of an education is to get "perfect scores." I spend a lot of time giving students feedback on how to improve. If I gave 100% all the time, I wouldn't have to spend so much effort writing thoughtful critiques of student work. I could just say, "oh, fine good enough, here is your 10/10" and be done with it! It is actually a lot more work for the teacher to be "hard" but the point of being a hard grader is that the students learn so much more, and are motivated to improve. Is the so-called "cap" only for assignments or for course grades? If the teacher, as a policy, never gives A's on report cards, and all students receive B+'s or lower, even really great students, then yes that would upset me too as a parent. But otherwise, teachers being very critical and thoughtful graders on assignments means your kids are getting a great education. My daughter is at a school also known for rigor and she has a mix of teachers this year. Some are extremely tough graders. Her history teacher is particularly tough, and she has spent a long time on assignments and still not gotten high marks. I would say she's learning the most in this class, though, and it's partly because the teacher is so difficult. |
Anonymous
The Emirates version of a private school? Would that be one perpetrating human rights abuses? Limiting free speech? What kind of school is this? You really should have gone with KLM. |
Anonymous
Lol—my analogy is based on which company provides the safest, most consistent, and most luxurious experience. I’ve flown both KLM and Emirates—I stand by my original post. If given an option, I’m flying Emirates (elite private) over (break your) Spirit every time! Look, I understand many people don’t have this option. You’re not getting to your destination at all if you’re not flying Spirit. Everyone should have the freedom to do their best with the tools (and options) available to them. |
Anonymous
| I recall my kid have assignments where 90 points would be available for the substance of an assignment and 10 points would be available for process (ie the thesis statement, the outline, along the way) or where 90 points were available when the whole semester was an accumulation of points (ie so 85/90 would be an A) but I don’t think there was ever a 90 point cap so no one could get an A. I didn’t pay that much attention or ask, but my impression was that As were rare, but still a possibility. |
Anonymous
Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them. |
Anonymous
| NCS sells itself as the second rate school for girls. You failed to have a boy, so your child can go to the other school that gets second dibs on everything. I don’t get how any parent would choose that for their child. Teach your child they aren’t second class for being female. That certainly won’t happen at NCS. |
Anonymous
NCS makes it very clear. Girls get boy scraps, period. Of course the boys are doing better. |
Anonymous
Yes. And the boys have access to the teachers and the fields. This is a school dedicated to women getting the dregs. I walked out of the open house it was so disturbing. |