I think GPAs should be standardized
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Anonymous
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There is no way to make life "fair" as much as I would like to. It's just not how it works in a large society.
Small group, tribal society is the only way to make things more fair. |
Anonymous
| I think GPAs should be dropped. There should be standard, final, cumulative exams in the five core subjects that everyone takes, plus the SAT. They should be so hard that college students majoring in the subject wouldn't get a perfect score so that it becomes pointless to aim for a perfect score in high school. Anyone getting a perfect score in high school is not admitted to college because obviously they don't need to go to college. |
Anonymous
Only post Covid.Pre-Covid there was a large body of material which showed HS GPA to be slightly more determinant. With COVID induced grade inflation early work is showing SAT scores are now a better predictor for performance. |
Anonymous
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also for the nationalized school cut off.
in nyc, some public school kids go to school at 4 while private school kids go at 6. it's ridiculous . |
Anonymous
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GPA is becoming less and less meaningful. I do think moving to a number system would help things.
what's the stats now - something like 40% of grads at a 4.0. pretty shameful for average SAT is like 1150 |
Anonymous
I’m a bit confused by the OP. They speak of standardizing “GPA” when I really think they mean the grading scale. GPA is a fairly straightforward mathmatical computation although we can argue over which classes get included (core only?), are there are pluses/minuses, and whether or not there’s a “bump” for honors, AP, DE, or IB. I have also previously written on this board about the dangers, too, of going with strictly numbers. Those also can be gamed and it makes the arms race for Valedictorian brutal - but maybe that should go away as well. Perhaps OP can clarify if their real suggestion is about the grading scale itself: what constitutes an “A”? Bottom line is, for me anyway, while it “sounds” good in practice (and most could probably agree), the reality is highly unlikely. You’re lucky if there’s any standardization in the same department in the same school, much less across a Division or State. As for the birthday cutoff, I’m not a fan. There are some 4-yr olds ready for kindergarten and some 6-yr olds who definitely are not, at least not like it’s currently structured. |
Anonymous
| No amount of recalculation by college admissions, through any means whatsoever, can standardize GPA. GIGO. |
Anonymous
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I say introduce national subject exams like the British GCSEs that kids take the Summer they are 16 and A- Levels at 18. The logistics of standardising GPAs for every American high school would be almost impossible but we already have national exams like the SAT IIs and APs. Expanding the infrastructure to include national subject exams for all kids at set ages would be more feasible. |
Anonymous
| The current system sacrifices real learning over a number. Private college counselors advertise going to rural area for high school to get a better outcome. Parents and students avoid hard courses to maintain a high GPA. At some schools cheating is rampant. The price for these is that the student ends up not getting a good education that they could have gotten. |
Anonymous
I actually think we have this in the real world here. Most people in our country actually do not move far from home for college or their careers. Most students don't even apply to the handful of schools people on here have angst about and most don't want the handful of jobs some people on here deem "worthy" (e.g. pipeline to The Street is something to run form, not toward). Most people who go the college route do well in high school, go to a good college they like, do well there, and choose a path forward: grad school, military or other public service, or a job with the help of the career center or family connections. Every college has a career community, and their students can and do get jobs in that community, whether it is through local corporations or nonprofits wanting students from your college, entities that have relationships with your school, or an alumni network (note: bigger isn't always better here -- a small community is powerful in the alumni connection world: e.g., a grad is CEO of a big company and takes 2 of your department majors per year; when you only have 8 kids in that major -- that's huge). Having visited a wide variety of colleges over the years and looked closely at their "first landing" stats, all of which is available publicly, you see it over and over. Even the small regional colleges have strong landing rates, often within their own tribal community (as you put it), and that community very often extends to large international corporations, local and national government, and every variety of start up, non-profit, regional or national company. It's a big country and an even bigger world, but the communities within it tend to be smaller than you may appreciate if it isn't on your personal radar. College grads are not randomly tossing their resumes out on fishing rods into a vast ocean without direction (or they shouldn't be; use the resources at your disposal). The same is true for law schools and medical schools. Local firms and medical practices often hire locally, and not everyone wants to work at the "Top" NY or global firms. That is a tiny fraction of the world of law. Success means different things to different people. |
Anonymous
| Teacher bias and favoritism is another issue. A national exam system could avoid the bias and favoritism in grading. |
Anonymous
Even that is highly variable. In a magnet type environment or academic-based-admissions high school, the lowest GPA in the class can go on to be the college valedictorian (has happened several times in my kids' high school). And that's not a fluke, it's just that someone has to have the lowest GPA, even in a class where everyone has high SAT scores. |
Anonymous
💯 |
Anonymous
I was referencing a comment specifically about SAT. Also, nNot all students have or take AP for various subjects. |
Anonymous
This isn’t India. Thankfully. - Indian-American mom of 2 in T10 |