Grade inflation

The differences in how high schools grade is different even within towns. Two of mine graduated from public where they are either ‘meeting expectations’, all the way down to ‘doesn’t meet expectations’ -WTH does that even MEAN- where my kid didn’t even have a clue how he was doing. The other two, from a private school (we bit the bullet and paid the tuition…had it up to our eyeballs with our public school system, even via the TAG programs) that uses traditional grading (which is NOT grade inflated…a tough college prep school).

Guess which two did better academically? Guess which two did better in college? Guess which two had waaaaaay better SAT/ACT scores? The ones who had to work hard and earn their makes and knew exactly where they stood.

The thing thats more concerning to me, are colleges/universities going “test optional” for standardized test scores as a requirement for admission. Thats a whole other can of worms (who can afford test prep, etc), but it at least is a way of comparing apples to apples. And, with all the free (Kahn Academy is exceptional!!) test prepping available, I even argue that anyone can take advantage of prepping.

It’s also why I think the SA’s have a good handle on all of this. And won’t do away with standardized testing.
 
Then there's this, on the other end of the spectrum. What a shame.

At least 41% of Baltimore high school students earn below-D GPA - Washington Examiner

Forty-one percent of Baltimore public high school students made below a D grade point average during the first three quarters of the 2020-2021 school year, according to an analysis of the district's data.Baltimore City Schools assembled a chart showing the GPA for every high school grade in the...
www.washingtonexaminer.com www.washingtonexaminer.com
 
In the 70’s my father was an English professor. He was approached by the basketball coach and some in the administration to help a basketball player get his grade to a C to be allowed to participate. The player couldn’t read or write and my father refused. (The basketball coach is a well known coach with a storied NCAA career.)
 
Another loooong lasting domino effect of COVIDS tentacles. As districts looks to going back to online…BUT, that’s ANOTHER worm can.

I am SO glad to be done with K-12 (and almost done with it all 💯) !!
 
My district boasts one high school of our 28 that is ranked at or near the top annually. It's a magnet school and not one defined by borders but the kids who have gone there are geniuses. But, the school board has just changed the entry requirements to allow for a more diverse student body. The parents of the 72 percent Asian majority sued the board citing discrimination. The rest of the school make-up is: 18 percent white, three percent Hispanic, four percent other, and 1 percent black.

I have no problem with inclusiveness. It's kept me employed for over 14 years. But we, society, must decide if equity is more important than providing the opportunity for equality. I wish I could post a video of a mother speaking at my school board's meeting. She read from a book available for check out at her son's high school library. It contained descriptions of pedophilia, man/boy sex acts, and had the slang names for anatomical parts. It was so vile the chair told her to stop reading but the mom only got louder.

This book was placed in all teachers boxes first week of school. It explains the 4.0 grading scale and how to do "Grading for Equity."

equity.jpg
 
Devil Doc said:
My district boasts one high school of our 28 that is ranked at or near the top annually. It's a magnet school and not one defined by borders but the kids who have gone there are geniuses. But, the school board has just changed the entry requirements to allow for a more diverse student body. The parents of the 72 percent Asian majority sued the board citing discrimination. The rest of the school make-up is: 18 percent white, three percent Hispanic, four percent other, and 1 percent black.

I have no problem with inclusiveness. It's kept me employed for over 14 years. But we, society, must decide if equity is more important than providing the opportunity for equality. I wish I could post a video of a mother speaking at my school board's meeting. She read from a book available for check out at her son's high school library. It contained descriptions of pedophilia, man/boy sex acts, and had the slang names for anatomical parts. It was so vile the chair told her to stop reading but the mom only got louder.

This book was placed in all teachers boxes first week of school. It explains the 4.0 grading scale and how to do "Grading for Equity."

View attachment 10211
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Fascinating. Wow.
 
GI feeds itself. When I attended law school, it had a "B" mean. That usually translated into 80% of the class getting B+ to B-, with 20% getting As or Cs. That led to most students quickly realizing that, no matter how much effort they put in, they were still going to end up with a B of some sort. Profs got lazy and, unless an exam was truly exceptional or terrible, gave a B.

Then the school realized that the B mean was hurting its students in getting clerkships and jobs. So, they changed it to a B+ mean with the result that 80% receive a grade A- and B. Students didn't get smarter; they just got better grades for the same work.

I also agree that the cost of higher education affects college grades.

In grade school and h.s., I think it's teachers not wanting to deal with angry parents. "How dare you give my little Johnny a D." Much easier to give Johnny a B even if he isn't mastering the material than to explain to parents that Johnny either isn't doing the work or, in some cases, just isn't very smart.
 
usna1985 said:
GI feeds itself. When I attended law school, it had a "B" mean. That usually translated into 80% of the class getting B+ to B-, with 20% getting As or Cs. That led to most students quickly realizing that, no matter how much effort they put in, they were still going to end up with a B of some sort. Profs got lazy and, unless an exam was truly exceptional or terrible, gave a B.

Then the school realized that the B mean was hurting its students in getting clerkships and jobs. So, they changed it to a B+ mean with the result that 80% receive a grade A- and B. Students didn't get smarter; they just got better grades for the same work.

I also agree that the cost of higher education affects college grades.

In grade school and h.s., I think it's teachers not wanting to deal with angry parents. "How dare you give my little Johnny a D." Much easier to give Johnny a B even if he isn't mastering the material than to explain to parents that Johnny either isn't doing the work or, in some cases, just isn't very smart.
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I avoid parents at all costs.
 
usna1985 said:
GI feeds itself. When I attended law school, it had a "B" mean. That usually translated into 80% of the class getting B+ to B-, with 20% getting As or Cs. That led to most students quickly realizing that, no matter how much effort they put in, they were still going to end up with a B of some sort. Profs got lazy and, unless an exam was truly exceptional or terrible, gave a B.

Then the school realized that the B mean was hurting its students in getting clerkships and jobs. So, they changed it to a B+ mean with the result that 80% receive a grade A- and B. Students didn't get smarter; they just got better grades for the same work.

I also agree that the cost of higher education affects college grades.

In grade school and h.s., I think it's teachers not wanting to deal with angry parents. "How dare you give my little Johnny a D." Much easier to give Johnny a B even if he isn't mastering the material than to explain to parents that Johnny either isn't doing the work or, in some cases, just isn't very smart.
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Agreed. When I went to grad school, pretty much 40% got As and 59% got Bs and 1% had to work to get a C or less.

I dont think it is necessarily changing bad grades to good, as it is changing all grades to one or two higher. "B" parents complain just as loudly.
 
Is the Bell Curve still a thing? Real question.
 
I have no issue with grade inflation because the other side of the coin is the SAT/ACT. So if you are really a 3.4 student with a 4.0 on your report card, the SAT/ACT should show what you are really capable of
 
Humey said:
I have no issue with grade inflation because the other side of the coin is the SAT/ACT. So if you are really a 3.4 student with a 4.0 on your report card, the SAT/ACT should show what you are really capable of
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Unless you take the SAT 12 times. The law of averages says you will guess right a few times and end up with a superscore 200 points above your actual abilities.
 
Korab said:
Unless you take the SAT 12 times. The law of averages says you will guess right a few times and end up with a superscore 200 points above your actual abilities.
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thats true but does anyone take it 12 times and of course there are people who play the system. I am not too worried about them because either they will play the system at school or fail miserably
 
Humey said:
I have no issue with grade inflation because the other side of the coin is the SAT/ACT. So if you are really a 3.4 student with a 4.0 on your report card, the SAT/ACT should show what you are really capable of
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In my son’s class, there was a really smart student that finished like 17 in the class. Scored like a 1550 on SAT. The converse is the high SAT score could show he didn’t put effort into his classes.
 
SATs are getting just as inflated. Besides the fact they removed the negative points for wrong answers several years ago, the averages just keep going up. And, that is especially true when looking through each college's yearly applicant stats. Kids are not getting smarter, they are just prepping for the test better. At some point in the near future, you will have a 1000s of kids with 4.0s and 1500-1550 SATs with very little way of differentiating. That is when it becomes a problem.
 
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