High School Grade Inflation: I AM SO SICK OF IT.

Applying to College
201

<p>Their parents bought basic level flutes through the school for drastically reduced prices when they were in sixth grade. </p>

<p>They actually enjoyed band and were good on their instruments (1st and 2nd chair for their Junior and Senior years). All kids have to have EC credits, so why do something you hate?</p>

<p>They took Pre-AP and AP courses that were required for the recommended graduation plan (4 english, 3 science, 3 math, 2 spanish, 1/2 speech, 1/2 health and however many ECs required). </p>

<p>You can only leave my school early for work during senior year.</p>

<p>Their cars were used and didn't cost all that much, but obviously gas was a bit of a concern as well. We live in a rural area, so walking isn't an option...and they couldn't just take the bus to school because they had work. </p>

<p>Everyone obviously needs car insurance.</p>

<p>They are both looking to be stay-at-home mothers. Neither is dumb by any stretch of the imagination; I'd say they are both fairly intelligent. It's just that all people are different with different priorities in life.</p>

<p>Average also isn't something to look down on like some sort of awful defect. Everyone's average in some aspect.</p>

202

<p>
[quote]
simranchawa, I don't know where your hostile attitude is coming from, but no where in my original post did I make a blanket statement about all public schools across the country. There are certainly many excellent public schools with competitive students and qualified teachers, as well as many great magnet schools that outperform many private schools. But I think it is time everyone realize that our school system in this country is in serious disrepair. Overall, kids in our public school system simply are not learning what they need to be learning, they are not excelling at the rate of students in other countries, we are performing horrendously in math and science, the physical buildings are oftentimes crumbling...but I am sure that is hard for you to understand, as you probably attend a very well maintained, humble public high school in a safe middle-class neighborhood. I, on the hand, live in a large city, and witness every day the sickening conditions a lot of my peers go to school in. Some of the inner city schools are literally CRUMBLING. And, for those schools that are not crumbling, many schools seem to be handing out A's like they are going out of style, to, as someone else said, please the overeager school board and overzealous parents who can't bear to face that little Johnny might be failing Algebra 2. They would rather get more funding based on a student body that gets all "A's" even though money never solves any problems, and even though half the kids who got an A or B in US History can't tell you the difference between the American Revolution and the Civil War.</p>

<p>As for "wasting" my time attending private school...as for being "rich" and "pretentious"...HA! Many parents make serious sacrifices in order to afford private school, because in many areas, private school IS worth it. You get the best teachers, the best facilities, the best resources, the best education, and the privilege of being in a classroom full of other motivated students. Sure, in a suburb, public school probably is an appealing and common-sense choice. But when my parents looked around at where we live, they decided that paying for private school is the way they wanted to spend their money. Why is that anyone's business, and furthermore, why is that such a stupid choice? I feel that I have learned SO MUCH, and I am so thankful that I have the means to attend the school I did. But looking down on public school kids? No way. I simply disagree with the grade inflation many schools seem to think in a great way to get funding and please the parents these days.</p>

<p>I do not disagree that there are tons of hardworking public school students. But your post alone proves my point of how public schools have brainwashed students into thinking a 3.6 is a bad GPA!!! At one time, believe or not, Joe Blow and Jane Smith and every other kid on the block didn't have a 4.0. My point is not that there are not hardworking public school students; it is that many public schools (and some private) are now handing out an A on the same project to two students, one of which spent a week on the project, and one who spent 2 minutes on it. There are no standards in some schools.</p>

<p>I have to laugh at your comment, "Just because you got a 3.6..." Oh yeah, cause a 3.6 sucks so much. Is that why even though I only got a B in AP Modern Euro History, I got a 5 on the AP Exam? Oh yeah, cause my GPA sucks so much...open your eyeballs and realize that its maybe because my teacher accurately simulated a college course.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You deserve post of the year and post of the century here. Very few people will realize how bad schools in the USA are compared to some other countries. I remember a Chinese student who came to the neighborhood school one of my friends attends. He couldn't score lower than 100% no matter how hard he would try. Needless to say he cried to his parents every night till somehow they finally managed to pull off enough money to send him to a private high school. Transferring to a Magnet in Illinois is virtually impossible because he tried with a 4.0 flat and a 4.5+ weighted. Even if you have a perfect GPA there usually isn't enough room to allow you in no matter how good you may be. That is a sad thing in my opinion.</p>

<p>Even the news believes public schools need to raise their standards on education. Here is a link to it:</p>

<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

203

<p>Public school standards have declined because of the control exercised by the dumb parents/voters who seem to be present in a great proportion in most of the towns. Give the control back to the educators and administrators. Things will get better automatically. I spent two years abroad (beginning of the high school) studying in a semi public school. The teachers were so tough! They will not put up with any nonsense. Academics was the priority there.</p>

204

<p>An editorial in today's New York Times- Here is an excerpt from the editorial entitled "Public vs. Private"</p>

<p>"What the emerging data show most of all is that public, private, charter and religious schools all suffer from the wide fluctuations in quality and effectiveness. Instead of arguing about the alleged superiority of one category over another, the country should stay focused on the overarching problem: on average, American schoolchildren are performing at mediocre levels in reading, math and science — wherever they attend school."</p>

205

<p>Some of you are so jaded. </p>

<p>If EVERYONE in the US took the exact same courses (all AP/IB/honors), then yes, given the current number of A students, I would say something's wrong (ridiculous grade inflation). </p>

<p>However, what about the students in the normal classes who may be less smart but still put forth all of their effort? They deserve A's. </p>

<p>That is why many students at at a particular school will have high GPAs. The difference is, the students in the lesser classes won't have a weighted GPA and they won't be applying to top colleges!! </p>

<p>OK, OK, maybe the average American's intelligence is pitifully low, and some people might get away with being lazy in high school. But the problem is so much deeper than grade inflation or even the education system as a whole. </p>

<p>That's why I want to leave.</p>

206

<p>A girl from Taiwan told me that we are too soft on our children. In her school, test papers were handed back by the teacher, and the score was announced as the test was handed to each student. Talk about an incentive to do better! She said we are too concerned with hurting feelings. In America, it's just like Lake Wobegon, where all the students are above average.</p>

207

<p>I understand some people's frustration, but there's simply no way to remedy this problem. Public schools are dismally underfunded, and you can't expect top-noth, rigourous, college level courses with the facilities and teacher's salaries that public schools offer. As much as colleges are aware that you had to work harder for your 3.6, they understand that most kids don't have the option of challenging themselves like this. That's why most schools look at everybody in context. They use rank to gauge your true performance, as people have already said. This is also the beauty of the SAT. So basically, don't freak out. It's easy to tell the difference between a hardworking, motivated student with a 3.6 and a kid with a 4.0 who's really just coasting.</p>

208

<p>I wouldn't mind the scores being heard. That isn't being too soft.</p>

209

<p>Class rank obviously does not gauge one's true performance as some of us go to schools that have difficult entrance exams in the first place, so being in the top 50% at one school is the equivalent of being top 2% at another</p>

210

<p>That's not really the point. As I said, they look at your performance in context. There's no way besides standardized testing to equate performance at one school to performance at another, especially when one is private and one is public.</p>

211

<p>anybody care to hear the truth about your grade inflation complaints?</p>

<p>COLLEGES KNOW HOW TOUGH YOUR SCHOOL REALLY IS.
COUNSELORS SEND THEM INFORMATION. FOR INSTANCE, COLLEGES KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE FROM YOUR SCHOOL GO TO A 4 YEAR COLLEGE. IF THE NUMBER IS SOMETHING AROUND 99.9% (AS IT IS AT MY PREP SCHOOL) COLLEGES WILL KNOW THAT THE SCHOOL IS NOT GRADE INFLATED.</p>

212

<p>Meh, everyone in my classes knew what everyone else made without the teachers calling them out, anyway. We just flat out asked each other and then *****ed about or celebrated our grades.</p>

213

<p>Well, like 99% of my high school graduates go to four-year colleges. But I can tell you that in CP classes, grades are SUPER inflated. I don't really care, because I hardly took CP classes, and it didn't really affect me, other than a couple of people in CP classes having a higher rank than me.</p>

214

<p>I cannot wait for many of you to get knocked off of your high horses once you are thrown into the real world.</p>

<p>Honestly. <em>shakes head</em></p>

215

<p>There IS a solution to this problem. </p>

<p>Our education system is not "dismally underfunded" as KahZoa stated. The money is just totally misguided and tons of funds get lost in the massive amounts of useless paperwork and people who are being paid that are doing nothing productive. Just another example of big government throwing away tax dollars on pathetic endeavors.</p>

<p>America should take a look at the school systems of Europe if they want an idea of how to run schools. The answer isn't money. It is creative, proactive uses limited resources. I am really embarassed that a country like Lithuania performs better than America in every subject. </p>

<p>Anyone paying taxes should decide which school the money goes to. It should go wherever their student attends, including private schools, regardless of district. This would obviously create a situation in which the "best" schools have students clamoring to get in, therefore forcing low-performing schools to improve themselves, creating competition, because obviously not all teachers can work at the same five schools. It would allow all public schools to evolve into different disciplines: math oriented, English-oriented, music-concentrated, etc, etc, etc. Competition creates a better product. </p>

<p>The reason most public schools suck is because none of the school officials fear losing their jobs. If Americans chose their schools, no one would want to go to the horrible ones, and everyone is suddenly held accountable. Why is it that in America, no one would ever tolerate the government telling us what car we have to drive or what house we have to live in, but we tolerate the government telling us where to attend school? </p>

<p>Sorry. Private schools are on the whole better because the teachers and admins are at the mercy of paying customers who can pull their kids out at any time. People who have no choice but to attend public school are trapped because everyone in charge of public schools knows they could basically have all-day recess and the poorest Americans would have no choice but to go and have jump rope and hopscotch all day. </p>

<p>This would also solve the problem of kids in low-income areas attending poor schools with no resources and unmotivated peers. Those kids could go to a very academic school; the kids with no interest in math and English might feel more at home where more vocational skills are taught. </p>

<p>Think about why our universities are so good. Because there is competition to get in, and those who run them are accountable to people who pay.</p>

216

<p>Do you have any understanding of why private schools are not government funded? Or the government standards placed on all public schools?</p>

217

<p>embrangled: "I cannot wait for many of you to get knocked off of your high horses once you are thrown into the real world."</p>

<p>I can't wait to get into the real world.</p>

218

<p>haha well obviously these government standards are not high at all</p>

219

<p>Unfortunately, many standards aren't high. </p>

<p>Texas is trying to up its standards with the TAKS...making it to where you must past the state standardized exam to graduate high school. There are incentives to schools that have high enough district/school-wide scores and the such, as well. </p>

<p>It still doesn't come close to solving the problem of underfunding and crap teachers, but at least it's an attempt at improving education.</p>

<p>I have my own opinions about educating illegal immigrants but would rather not get into that whole can of worms.</p>

220

<p>I have plenty of understanding. </p>

<p>I am not suggesting that a Jewish student be forced to attend a Catholic school. Simply that the money attached to each student go to the school he or she attends. What is wrong with that?</p>