<p>@halcyonheather do they have classes in high school that are more than “art appreciation”? All the art classes at my high do require to know some techniques and take tests but for the most part, it’s an easy A.</p>
<p>@halyconheather - I suppose one that requires mastery would be harder, but all of the high schools I know only have the art appreciation type classes.</p>
<p>Really? Our school doesn’t have “art appreciation”. The kids are expected to do art, and I hear that it’s quite time-consuming, especially at the higher levels. I have seen some of the work the kids are doing, and it’s very impressive.</p>
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<p>At my school we have a class literally called Art Appreciation (we have a fine arts graduation requirement), and then there’s Art I, II, III, and IV. I’m sure some people get As on pieces of trash in those classes, but we have grade inflation across the board, so that happens in math/science classes too. </p>
<p>5 on AP Studio Art, awards at art festivals/competitions, etc. will be much more meaningful than a subjective A in an art class. Most schools I know distinguish academic GPA (which is the one sent to colleges) from overall GPA (which includes nonacademic activities such as art, sports, and electives).</p>
<p>What if every class had a number next to it that showed your rank compared to others in the same class with the same teacher.</p>
<p>An example of a grade inflation school vs a non grade inflation school</p>
<p>For example Jimmy’s Sophomore report card for first Semester</p>
<p>Honors English Grade:92% Rank:13/32</p>
<p>Spanish 2 Grade:91% Rank:14/31</p>
<p>AP World History Grade:88% Rank:11/34</p>
<p>Honors Chemistry Grade:93% Rank:13/29</p>
<p>Algebra 2/Trig Honors Grade:92% Rank:9/30</p>
<p>AP Psychology Grade:94% Rank:9/31</p>
<p>Now Kenny goes to a High School about 20 minutes away with much less grade inflation and harder teachers and takes the exact same classes as Jimmy but with different teachers and a different school. Exact same grades.</p>
<p>Honors English Grade:92% Rank:4/31</p>
<p>Spanish 2 Grade:91% Rank:6/34</p>
<p>AP World History Grade:88% Rank:6/33</p>
<p>Honors Chemistry Grade:93% Rank:4/33</p>
<p>Algebra 2/Trig Honors Grade:92% Rank:3/32</p>
<p>AP Psychology Grade:94% Rank:4/35</p>
<p>Now obviously with identical grades, it’s obvious that Kenny likely had much tougher teachers, or it was much less common to succeed in the environment he was in. It is always possible that Jimmy’s school just had an overwhelming number of smart students, but not likely. This could be a way to slow down the problem with grade inflation if you get a rank next to your grade for how high your grade was in one specific class under one specific teacher.</p>
<p>It’s not a perfect system, but if you put a grade and then rank that grade within the specific class itself, you can usually get an idea of how hard the class was with that teacher at that school. Just a thought.</p>
<p>It’s hard to know what to do about grade inflation. On the one hand it’s frustrating that I know my daughter scored as much as 15% higher than some kids who got the same grade in her class. On the other hand, it makes the kids a lot more relaxed. I don’t think individual rankings are helpful, would just intensify the cutthroat environment and stress I see at the schools which insist on ranking kids numerically from their very first quarter. What might be a good compromise is to list the median and mean grade for each class to put it in context.</p>
<p>I agree with that method mathyone more than mine actually. I am just really against grade inflation, it is a big problem.</p>
<p>At my school there’s no ranking but a chart is on the school profile that shows what percentage of the class has a 4.0, 3.8-3.9, 3.6-3.7 and so on</p>
<p>I agree with @halcyonheather in that valedictorian is probably going to be in tough classes, weighted or unweighted. My school doesn’t weight classes, but my year’s valedictorian (also my ex but I’m not bitter:)) has taken all the challenging classes and still has a 99.something out of 100. Especially when considering the emphasis put on rigor nowadays, anyone smart enough to get a 4.0 in regular classes should recognize the greater value in tough classes.</p>