Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

Anonymous wrote:My upperclassman is in a class where an essay turned by last week had an average grade of an 82%. This is what I mean by grade deflation.

My kid spent at least 10 hours on this (a one page essay) and received the average (82%).

It's just ridiculous. The school admitted kids who were at the very top of their sending public and private schools, refined them by fire for 2+ years
years (in very difficult humanities and writing classes) and is now continues to say, "oh no, despite your very best effort, most of you can only write at a B- level." I have a different kid in a top public and this would have been a 98% there. The standard at the private is just beyond unreasonable.

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Anonymous wrote:There is no grade deflation going on that I have heard of

Clearly you haven't read the threads where people are reporting that certain teachers at "Big 3"-type schools literally don't give out any As, and the best possible grade is A-/B+.

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Anonymous wrote:There is no grade deflation going on that I have heard of

Clearly you haven't read the threads where people are reporting that certain teachers at "Big 3"-type schools literally don't give out any As, and the best possible grade is A-/B+.

Anonymous wrote:There is no grade deflation going on that I have heard of

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Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a Big3. Junior year.
The deflated grading feels worse than ever this year and is just exhausting. My kid does homework for 4 hours per night. Some nights it's even more.
Goes in and takes exams. Averages on a recent math exam: 70. Average on a recent science exam: 65. Average on a recent history exam: 85.
Doing well just seems impossible, stress is so high. There are no retakes, no curving, etc. We know from experience that a few kids will end eek their way up to a 90% with lab reports, quizzes, perhaps a better second test. My kid is among these. But many won't. They'll get a straight B or B- in the class even with maximum effort. And then a 5 on the AP exam.
In some classes only 1 or 2 kids will end up above a 90. There is just so much stress and I don't understand why it has to be this hard.
Why take a cohort of very bright, very hardworking kids and then give a straight B as the average (and a tiny handful of low A's across the grade?) It's just exhausting.
I'm not sure what the point it. College admissions aren't even that great--colleges are no longer buying this "a 3.5 is a good GPA!" line.
It's just too far out of the norm of what every other type of school is doing.

Do you really think you’re going to change things now you’re already partway into junior year. It’s not going to change live and learn I guess.

NP. We learned after older kid dealt with the big3 deflated GPA and college admissions in the 2022-2023 TO world. Younger kid just started 9th at a “second tier” private school. Getting As and working hard (but appropriately hard). Grades are weighted for honors and AP (yes, they have AP classes!) and test retakes allowed. I feel like sending my older kid to a big3 for high school was my biggest parenting mistake. Way too much stress and college admission results were not commiserate with effort and ability. Live and learn.

For these parents, we’re thinking about moving our younger out as well. What ‘second tier’ private would you suggest?

Honestly, I am just calling them 2nd tier to differentiate them on DCUM from Sidwell and Cathedral schools. My kid is at one of these 2nd tier schools and we have been really impressed. We have had kids at Sidwell/Cathedral as well. I would look closely at Visitation, Gonzaga, Burke, SJC scholars program and Madeira. We aren’t in Maryland, but if we were I would look at Bullis and St. Andrews.

I would also add Field and Maret as 2nd tier. I have one at a Big 3 and another at one of these and it works for our family. One of our kids would NOT do well or even feel well at the Big 3 my son is at.

Very helpful. Where would you put gds on this list?

GDS is Big3 and also pretty high stress. A bit less toxic than NCS and Sidwell but probably not by much---probably more like STA (which in my experience is quite a bit gentler than NCS).

The Big 3 is 3 schools - Sidwell, St. Albans, and NCS. STA and NCS are different schools completely and while in the same family they are separate schools run very differently. Big 3 was always those 3 schools. If it was Big 4 or Big 5 then GDS and Market would be added.

No dog in this fight, but your info is outdated. GDS is Big-3. And STA and NCS are not "completely" different schools--they share the Close, share some classes and some facilities. I'd put Maret, Holton, and Potomac in the next tier.

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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.

In theory what you describe makes sense but the grading in math, science, English and history courses at many of the competitive schools is not black and white. There is truly nothing to distinguish an A in these classes, the rubrics are built to be extremely opaque and grading (if the child even gets them back in a timely fashion) seems to be entirely subjective. I don’t object to a teachers right to teach a class as they see fit, but when students call out inconsistent grading and the teacher can’t provide a legitimate reason or the students are labeled as grade chasers (and in some cases see their subsequent grade go down) then it needs to be addressed. Sadly the latter outcome forces students to stop speaking up and suffer through the class. But go teachers!

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I have to say, these responses are SHOCKING! I am looking to apply my daughter for K at a private school and the parental responses here are the reasons I am turned off by the prospect of a "big three".

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote: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.