Academic Standards
Find a Conversation
Academic Standards
| Thu, 12-07-2006 - 6:42pm |
A co-worker and i were talking about his education yesterday and the topic of academic standards among teachers and how they can vary from child to child. Then we got talking about how a grade at one school maybe an A but the same paper might be graded a B a different university of vice versa.
Then he was saying how the standards are quite different in Canada vs the US. He has spent quite a bit of time in the States so i would assume he is correct.
What do you think?
Kelly
Then he was saying how the standards are quite different in Canada vs the US. He has spent quite a bit of time in the States so i would assume he is correct.
What do you think?
Kelly

Academic standards vary widely throughout my state, nevermind through out the country. We do have a set of state standards that are supposed to be taught at every grade level, but some districts barely reach the standards, while others fly past them. Within your own state you probably have some mechanism for ranking each of the school districts. You would have to assume that an "A" paper in the higher performing school district will probably look different than the lower performing school districts.
Colleges are very much aware of this difference. Admissions officers use profile sheets to give them information on the academic standards of each high school. A "B" average in a high performing high school could have the same weight as an "A" in many other lower performing high schools.
I think your friend may have been correct about the schools he attended, but that's about as far as it goes.
In Ontario they have implemented a uniform grading standard. Now I'm not sure how a teacher evaluates if they are "at grade level" but I'm sure they have some kind of scale or set of goals they must meet. Kristen was all A's (A+, A and A-) and two B's. The scale is:
Linda
Mom to Alex (13) , Rachel (10), Matthew (9)
Linda
mom to
Alex (16), Rachel (14), Matthew (12)