Grading Scales?

Avatar for coldfingers
Community Leader
Registered: 04-30-2000
Grading Scales?
20
Fri, 05-18-2007 - 3:19pm

In the post about if you get a D in a high school course....

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Avatar for coldfingers
Community Leader
Registered: 04-30-2000
Fri, 05-18-2007 - 9:28pm

Here is another un-fair. In Texas, if you are in the top 10% of your graduating class you automatically get into the State schools. Now, my son is at a big 4A school which is quite competitive, but some child from a small town and a 2A school where most kids don't go off to college, could have poorer grades then my son, but still get into University of Texas automatically, if he is in his top 10%.


Ok, have to play devil's advocate on this one!

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Avatar for jbgattuso
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-29-2003
Fri, 05-18-2007 - 9:56pm

I am so sorry that my words came across to you that way. No I didn't mean to imply that most kids from a 2A school wouldn't go to college. I was speaking of a specific school in Texas, that my son attended as a 9 grader, He was in the top 5 percent. He is now in a larger more competitve school and is in the top 25% with a bit better GPA I am again sorry that I made it sound so general, I was actually speaking to our own experience.

Julie

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2004
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 1:58am

This is so bizarre. The mark inflation is ridiculous! Here, there is a standard marking scheme. The teachers have to follow a marking rubic, set by the province. We don't use letter grades; percentages matter. None of this GPA stuff.

And across the country, a 70% is considered an AVERAGE mark, a C.

I can not believe the mark inflation in the US! No wonder your kids have to write SATs.

Here, to get a 90% is not easy. Kids have to be near perfect and do work that is over what can be expected for their grade level. In some courses, such as English, a 90% is extremely rare. Most class averages are in the low 70s,if not 60s. Below 50% a fail. After all, the scale is out of 100!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2006
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 2:59am

Grading is so confusing, thank goodness I am not on the college admission board. I did not even know that some places have it where 92% was an A. They calculate all the GPAs with weighted and unweighted and take in consideration the amount of students. It ends up being fair when they recalculate everything.
90-80%=A
80-70%=B
70-60%=C
60-50%=D (which I don't think actually counts as passing)
50% and below=F

If a student takes AP and a few honor classes then they go onto the 5 point scale, but if not they stay on the 4 point scale.

Adelaide

Avatar for suzyk2118
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-1997
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 7:46am

Our school is like yours; a C is doing well; a B is great, an A is phenomenal. We're 90/80/70, though, for A/B/C, etc. and have GPAs according to:

97-100 4.0
93-96 4.0
90-92 4.0
87-89 3.7
83-86 3.3
80-82 3.2
77-79 2.7
73-76 2.3
70-72 2.0 etc.

The thing I find unfair is due to this very strict grading (the C being what most kids do; many with Bs, very few As) is that they require a 3.7 GPA to get into NHS. DS doesn't have a prayer.

Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-06-2003
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 8:10am

In my state, it depends on where you live. Locally the scale was 94 for A, 86 for B, 74-85 for C, and 64 to pass with a D-. Next county over, yes, is a 10 point grade scale.

The inequality I found with this is our state scholarship money that is tied to these kids letter grade. Our local, hick county (I say that cause a lot of them are absolute idiots and I now homeschool mine;o) ), is cheating a lot of our kids out of scholarship money that other kids are allowed to enjoy. Our local school district is rethinking the grade scale, and I think they should.

HTH

Sallie

Avatar for weberdns0
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2000
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 10:59am

Did you know that many schools do that just so when they send the grades to colleges their students will have a better chance of getting in???

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 11:00am

Ours is the typical A-90
B-80
C-70
D-60

scale. You get passing credit for a D but since a C is required as prerequisite and three years of math are required, it gets a little dicey IMO.

We have level 1, 2, and 3 classes and the weightings are this long list of decimals. They must have a staff position just to keep track of it

IF colleges were interested in academic preparedness as opposed to work ethic, they would rely on the ACT/SAT scores and GPA/class rank would be of nominal concern.

That isnt the way it is though.

And, I think GPA has become a mark of determination and commitment.

Top level classes here are open to anyone. If my LD son decides to take a level 3 math class, the school is obligated to do everything it can to help him succeed and extensive tutoring in available. We HAVE to do this as we are under a monitored federal decree to allow equal access

Part of me balks at that but another part of me admires the determination and stick to it ness some kids have-they probably have a better chance of getting a degree than my capable kids who go to class but refuse to crack a book to do homework or the dreaded 's' word-study!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2007
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 2:49pm

Can someone explain the different level classes here? Are the level 3 classes in place of AP, IB, and honor courses? We don't have that here. We just have AP, honors, or regular classes. At my daughter's school anyone can take an AP class unlike some schools were lets say for calculus the student had to have recieved an A or a high B in their algebra 3-4 class to take AP calc. I like it how it is done at my children's school because it gives everyone a chance and its fair. Also, it shows that the school is not just concerned about their statistics.

For classes it is 90 are A's, 80s are B's, 70s are C's, 60s are D's, and anything below is a F. I think that D's count for high school credit but a college does not acknowledge it. On the GPA though it is broken up a little differently because there are + and -.

I think that colleges should be focused on both the ACT/SAT and GPA. They say different things and I think both are important in the application process. Personally I think that the ACT and especially the SAT just show how well a student can take tests while the GPA shows the students work ethic. Plus colleges have to have something to weed out the people, especially when a school has 40,000 applicants and 16,000 spots.

Julia

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 05-19-2007 - 4:57pm

Here Level 3 classes include AP classes but there are others in there-4th or 5th level of a language, for example. And looking at the website again, it appears to be more about class rank than GPA. These classes add 'honor points' which influence your class rank.

There are only a handful of Level 1 classes; it almost looks like they would only apply to someone who came into high school very weak and needed to catch up(not enough to last 4 yrs)

I didnt intend to say they should not consider both GPA and ACT/SATs as much as 'Wow! Look at these differences'. There's no rhyme or reason to these grading systems and at least the tests are standardized.

I bet colleges know high schools pretty quick though-at least in their state-and who has the toughest curriculum,etc. I dont know how they could keep track out of state though but maybe....

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