Reply to Grade inflation at School Without Walls?

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Reply to "Grade inflation at School Without Walls?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The kids that are gaming the system would do so regardless. Hopefully things will go back to normal next year. Just make sure your kid is organized and working hard. The rest will take care of itself.

A "WS" can also indicate a lot of unorganized and less than stellar teachers. Numerous times they have been entered when assignments have been completed and in Canvas. Those missing assignments can be the difference b/t a C and an A. I know teachers lose things all the time but stop blaming the kids for everything.[/quote]

Don't be naive. WS is not a grade any teacher wants to give, It has been mandated by DCPS and administrators. It's a gift to kids who perpetually don't turn in work on time, but an F would cause trouble, so you give them a WS and time to get it in. Canvas has a time stamp. Turning it in does not mean it was turned in on time. It's the default "please don't fail this student" meant to appease parents and keep graduation rates higher. If teachers ever really gave your kids the grades they actually deserve, held them accountable for deadlines, you people would be up in arms and threatening to sue. There is absolutely grade inflation at every high school across the country, and that's why so many parents are left complaining that their "high stats" kids dd not get into colleges they wanted. That's because damn near everybody has high stats now. You need the other stuff. High GPA is nearly irrelevant at this point in admissions.[/quote]

So, wait a minute. Test scores don’t matter and GPA doesn’t matter, WTH? No wonder mental health issues are a thing for this generation. Mediocrity matters! [/quote]

Honestly, in terms of mental health, I think the problem for ambitious students is that watering down grades and making tests less important can make it so much harder to know where you stand for future admissions. When I applied to college and law school a couple of decades ago, you knew at least generally where a certain GPA and test score would land you, with some wiggle room for other factors like extracurriculars. Now it all feels like more of a crapshoot and those “other factors” have become both more important and harder to quantify. No wonder so many kids are knocking themselves out trying to become as impressive as possible in as many areas as possible, without the peace of mind of having some objective idea where they stand before the actual admissions decisions come in. For every kid at a school like Walls who coasts because of grade inflation, there are at LEAST as many who are doing more and more work to distinguish themselves from the 4.0 pack.

I don’t have any personal stake in this topic — my kid is at a school that doesn’t practice grade inflation and she missed this year’s GPA cutoff for Walls. But I’ve never had this particular thought before on the ways that lack of objective rankings may feed mental health challenges for kids who want to go on to college. How incredibly stressful to be told that someone will be evaluating you on your life choices and performance in a couple of years, then not be given clear input into how that evaluation will be reached. [/quote]

Agreed! Just wanted to note that Walls as well as [b]all[/b] 6-12 DCPS schools are mandated to follow the secondary grading policy. Most students have a false sense of mastery if they are only looking at course grades. So sad.

[url]https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/secondary-grading-and-reporting-policy[/url][/quote]

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