Reply to HS Teachers, I'm curious-- do this semester's grade distributions look different from prior years?

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Reply to "HS Teachers, I'm curious-- do this semester's grade distributions look different from prior years?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The downside is when a kid has a tough first quarter in a class, gets a B (84.5)for whatever reason then tries really hard and has a 93 for the second quarter, but still ends up with a B for the semester as if they hadn’t tried hard the last half. Sort of demoralizing for that kid. Seems like they could find a way to do this where an A above a certain level means the semester remains a A? That is upward trajectory of effort and skills, is it not? Makes some kids feel like “ why did I put in so much more effort if I still end up with the B?”  (Or C in some other cases for others other there I am sure)[/quote]

Or they could have "tried really hard" the entire semester...[/quote] yes, of course but when a kid gets the flu and pneumonia or whatever and it comprises the ability to do well on a huge test that can impact things unexpectedly. My point was simply that in theory it seems a kid who gets a solid A in the second quarter, let’s 94 or higher, should get an A for the semester even if they had a B the first quarter. Some kids are not trying to game the system but life happens . And my point was that upward trajectory of grades should matter. it is the opposite of someone getting a 89.9 the fist quarter and then calling it a day and getting an 80 second quarter but still ending up with an A for the semester, which would have happened in the old system .
Under the current average with no quarter grades shown on transcript a student could have a 85 in a class the first quarter and then have no reason to try to work hard at all unless they think that have a shot of getting above a 96 for the second quarter. It can feel like there is no point in trying to improve if the second quarter A they earned of 93.5 just dissolved into an overall B.

I think they should show the quarter grades instead of semester grades so that there is transparency and a reason for students to try to improve if they got a B the fist quarter. A B and a B for two quarters should look different on a transcript than two quarters of a B and an A. Or they could just use the percentages so that if a kid has a lot of 89.4 situations that reads differently on the transcript than their peers with many 80s. Etc. [/quote]

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