Does any of you have a teacher in your school who just doesn’t give A grade? My niece’s English teacher’s highest given score is 89.
Some teachers have a philosophy that you still have more to learn so you are not getting that A right now in the year.
Some may think you are not doing college level work so are grading you accordingly.
Some may have a rubric that you are not meeting all the criteria for.
We don’t know enough about this teacher or his students. Maybe none of them truly deserve A’s based on his grading scale. Its especially hard to get an A during first quarter for AP classes, since it’s common to do poorly on the first test and/or essay, as you aren’t used to the test/grading style.
My son had several teachers like that (although 89% would have been high!) but his school only provided a single grade for the year in the class. If your work, by the end of the year, had improved, those poor grades didn’t really have much of an impact, if any. He truly believed that tests and papers were “assessments”. Scores of 50% meant that you were about halfway to where you were expected to be by the end of the year. Not surprisingly, all of the kids got 5-7 on their HL exams!
Well, either way, counselors won’t allow for teacher changes, so what are you going to do. You have only two options of 1) dropping out and taking Honors class or Regular class or 2) surviving in that class.
Is your niece on cc? Is she even in HS? Is second or third hand information reliable… or relevant?
Interesting [although not totally on point] article in the SF Chronicle last week about a new grading rubric in SF elementary schools that gibed with what posts 1, 2 & 3 said above: at this point in the year, the student may not have shown the mastery required for a score of 100. I might read an 89 to mean that the student is on the right path.
The article may be behind their paywall but I’ll try to link anyway: http://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/New-report-cards-in-SF-A-F-grades-get-an-O-for-10599645.php?ipid=gsa-sfgate-result
Interesting article, @AboutTheSame - but this grading system is for elementary school. Our elementary school used grades like (and this is from memory) Improving, mastered,etc. No grades – descriptors… But once they his middle school, it was a letter or number grade.
Agreed @jym626. As I noted, the article was not totally on point, but I thought it possibly reflected a similar approach to grading early in the term. Capiche?
Yes, totally understood your point @AboutTheSame . The unclear post is the OP. What grade is the “niece” in? What are the techer’s or the school’s grading criteria? Is this just an early semester grading policy to target improvement? Highest “given” score in what? On what? Quizzes? HW? So many unknowns…
^^ True. Too many unknowns for anyone to offer a clear answer.