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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In my experience (3 kids) I think what happens in part is that these schools grade to the smartest kid in the room and then curve down accordingly.  For instance, there will be one kid (or a handful) in sophomore English who can write an essay worthy of a senior seminar class in a college English class.  So there are your As.  And the grades go down from that.  The kids who are just "very good writers" and turn in "very good for a sophomore in high school" level work get a B. 
 
It's the same in math.  My kid is currently in math class beyond calculus.  She has a perfect math SAT score.  She's good at math but this class is HARD.  The average on tests is about a 75.  But there is always one kid who manages to get a 98.  So there goes any curve or corrections. There is your A.  And everyone goes down from there.

I don't know what other schools or districts do in these cases when you have a few extreme outliers.  The kids at these top privates are almost all very strong students and were admitted to the private (most of them) because they were at the top at their sending schools.  But in each subject there tend to be few kids who is outlandishly gifted.  And then they scoop up the 2 As in that class.  [/quote]

That’s what they will encounter in life.  Your daughter has a perfect SAT math score but that’s not difficult math.  Now she’s in a difficult math class.

If there’s only one kid who can completely and accurately complete the math test then there is only one A.   Why would someone who couldn’t finish the test accurately get an A?

There’s a hypocrisy here.   A lot of sneers about public schools handing out “A”s for students who get 70% on tests and then complaining when the private school doesn’t do the same.

The extremely smart kids in the real 99th percentile will get all As.  And down the line it goes.  If there are a few students who accomplish mastering the class that means it can be done and students not doing as well shouldn’t minimize their achievement by whining No Fair![/quote]

That's really not how grading works.  In college, the scores set the curve, but no college says you have to get the highest score in order to get an A...that simply helps increase the median/mean score and possibly drives a wider standard deviation.

At my kid's Top3 college there is one class where the mean is like a 48 out of 100.  If you get a 48, that is an A-.  In that one class, everyone was pretty well clustered between a 35 - 60...with the exception of one kid at a 98 (and unfortunately, many kids scoring like between 4 to 10).  So, a 98 would be an A+++ if that could be awarded, but a 35 was a B/B-, and basically, a 50 or higher was an A.

That is how curved grading works.  If the schools folks are complaining about graded this way...doubt it would be a problem.[/quote]

I’m a teacher. If only one student in a class full of bright, engaged learners who are devoting multiple hours per week to my course work is earning an A, that is my issue. Either I’m not doing a good job preparing lessons and content or the test doesn’t reflect the course level/material.[/quote]

In the example above the teacher purposely creates "impossible" tests...but, yes there is usually 1 kid (out of 250 across the sections) that is just way above everyone else.  This is how you figure out the true genius-like kid vs. all the other kids (again, this HYP) who are just really smart.

Not sure if that is your approach as a teacher, but it is not entirely unusual.[/quote]

It isn’t, because I don’t see the benefit to student learning. The goal of teaching a course isn’t to stratify students; the goal is for students to learn the desired material or skill. A high school teacher anointing oneself as the person who decides “genius vs really smart” is bizarre. We are trained to teach content and skills, not to identify Einstein. I’ve taught as a high school teacher and a college professor, and I can’t argue for this approach in either environment (even in rigorous college prep independent schools).  [/quote]

+1. Genius level students or those with unique aptitude in a particular area stand out if one pays attention.  There is no need to demoralize an entire class of students that are putting in immense effort. The goal is to impart content and then challenge them to think critically.  Most people aren’t going to solve Millenium problems.[/quote]

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