This notion that grades should be a bell curve is archaic and dumb.

School is intended to help kids learn. It's OK if there are a lot of As handed out if they learn. It's not like they should be rationed.

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps parents should stop stressing the importance of earning As and, instead, emphasize the importance of doing your best?

+1

Perhaps parents should stop stressing the importance of earning As and, instead, emphasize the importance of doing your best?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

As are REALLY difficult at NCS. A girl can do all the work and do it exceptionally well and still end up with a B+/A-. A teacher will routinely assign a paper and give a B+ as the highest grade.
STA is far more straightforward. Boys who study and do the work do well. There are few teacher who are exceptions to (and are notoriously stingy graders who will max out a paper under an A) this but by-in-large it's possible to do well with a decent amount of effort.
I have high schoolers at both schools.

Note this is not a positive culture and parents in the US are starting to acknowledge and talk about it.

Parents are the customers. As long as their are a line of them willing to pay tuition knowing how the grading works, there is no reason for change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

As are REALLY difficult at NCS. A girl can do all the work and do it exceptionally well and still end up with a B+/A-. A teacher will routinely assign a paper and give a B+ as the highest grade.
STA is far more straightforward. Boys who study and do the work do well. There are few teacher who are exceptions to (and are notoriously stingy graders who will max out a paper under an A) this but by-in-large it's possible to do well with a decent amount of effort.
I have high schoolers at both schools.

Note this is not a positive culture and parents in the US are starting to acknowledge and talk about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which schools are known to do this?

Holton

There’s no grade deflation. At least half the class has straight As. This is by senior parents think their 93 average kid is doing grade but yet half the class has 95 or better.

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

As are REALLY difficult at NCS. A girl can do all the work and do it exceptionally well and still end up with a B+/A-. A teacher will routinely assign a paper and give a B+ as the highest grade.
STA is far more straightforward. Boys who study and do the work do well. There are few teacher who are exceptions to (and are notoriously stingy graders who will max out a paper under an A) this but by-in-large it's possible to do well with a decent amount of effort.
I have high schoolers at both schools.

Anonymous wrote:Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

My daughter is at NCS. As are not easy to come by.

Which has more grade deflation for the same work/same level of performance on an exam or an essay (at the high school level):

NCS
STA
Potomac
Sidwell

What percent of the class gets As, A-s, B+, B on average in classes at each school?

Most Northeast (Boston) private schools give 25% full As, and center around A-/high B+ so that if you do the work you are in the A/A- range.

Is that true of the 4 schools above? (I am not including GDS, or MCPS, or FCPS because these have different distributions).

Grade “deflation” = Getting the grades you actually deserve

As long as it’s consistently applied at your school, it shouldn’t be a problem.

The issue is places like MCPS give out A's like candy, so anywhere, where there is a higher level of information synthesis, or "harder" tests will be considered deflating.

Compared to which schools? And when? Compared to half a century ago, I’d bet nearly *every* school gives out more As and fewer Cs than it used to.

The thing about grade inflation is that most people think it’s happening, but think their own school deflates, which is not logically possible for most people to be right.

How would you even measure this unless you took decades of report cards from across multiple schools? Even then you’d get murky results. Some schools say an A is 90-100, some say 92-100. Some curve, some don’t. At my own DC’s HS most dint curve, so if the high score on a test is 88, then the highest score is a B, not an A. Others do curve.

Honestly I question whether letter grades don’t do more harm than good in furthering our DC’s quest for knowledge.

Anonymous wrote:Which schools are known to do this?

Holton

Depends on who you ask and what their kids' grades are -- and whether they have anything standardized to use as a baseline.

Which schools are known to do this?