<p>My kid is in an honors (not AP) class that recently took a major test. The teacher informed the class that the average score on the test was a C, and anyone who got a C should be perfectly content with that because it means that they did the work at a satisfactory level. She then went off on a rant about how the kids are way too grade obsessed and what really counts is what they learn, not what marks they get. She said she is tired of having kids come to her after every test asking what they could have done to raise their grades.</p>
<p>I understand the sentiment, but in our high-achieving, competitive school district, it is very important to get good grades. Doesn't this teacher know what these kids are up against when it comes to college admissions? I'm not saying my daughter didn't deserve her C, but how will that play out in the end when she's up against some other kid from a less demanding high school who gets a B? Or an A? Feeling very frustrated right now!!!</p>
<p>While I can understand the teacher’s point, it’s just not pragmatic in today’s world. Now, I am not in favor of inflated grades but there is always that one teacher that seems to take pride in not giving out As. Drives me nuts. Most of these kids do not end their educational career in high school and to get to the next step, they must compete against their peers who did not have teachers like this. Really, it’s not like any of the colleges are going to say “oh, that’s teacher X, getting a C in her course is satisfactory”.</p>
<p>I wish more teachers would talk to kids about “grade grubbing” and the real purpose of school, learning, which was lost in the shuffle a long time ago. And that they would grade more rigorously.</p>
<p>I remember getting my first C in high school and, as a result, working my tail off over the years and gaining skills I have never lost.</p>
<p>However, if noone in the class got higher than a C, the teacher should have curved the grades.</p>
<p>I think that the School should have a consistent grading philosophy. One teacher going off on their own is detrimental to students. My DD was doing an IB Diploma. One teacher had the idea that you cannot be doing “7” (e.g., A+) level work early in the year, you haven’t learned anything yet. So my daughter would be getting 3’s and 4;s (on a 1 to 7 scale) and he didn’t see the issue because to him it was all about the test scores at the end of the year (more british focused view). But for her, those grades counted in her GPA for junior year. She ended up with a “5” on the end test, i beleive. But none of the other teacher’s graded that way.</p>
<p>I am not sure if it really caused an issue for her…we never were able to figure out her GPA on a 4.0 scale because she did 2 years on a 0-100 system and 2 years on a 1-7 system.</p>
<p>I quite agree. While there’s nothing inherently crazy in what the teacher said, it is completely nuts for her to adhere to her own standard when that standard is badly misaligned with the standard everybody else is being measured by.</p>
<p>If she wanted to tilt at that particular windmill at her own expense, I guess I wouldn’t see any harm in it, but if she routinely deflates her students’ grades, she’s doing it at their expense, not hers.</p>
<p>At least, persistently wide disparities. Any school could have a new teacher come in and be out of sync at first. But if the teacher doesn’t get himself or herself in sync, and the administration keeps that teacher around, then the fault probably does lie at least in part with the administration.</p>
<p>@bopper - That’s interesting. At my school, we still had letter grades even if you were in IB. But teachers had different ideas of what this meant, in IB history, we were graded 1-7, but everything 5 and above was an A. In IB English, she followed the IB rubric, so it was not uncommon to have a class average of a C - which probably came out to a 5 or 6 on the IB scale. That was rough. I think what frustrates people the most is inconsistency - in the way different teachers grade at your school, in how your high school’s grading compares to others, in what colleges seem to expect.</p>
<p>We had a conference, the first ever at the high school level for our family. She basically said DD was doing well and had no suggestions as to how she could improve. What??? A kid wants to do better in an AP (or any!) class and you have no concrete suggestions? I told the teacher what the kids on campus called her behind her back, and asked if she had any idea why. She was stunned. My daughter suddenly started getting feedback on her papers, and subsequently improved her grade. Maybe the truth was just what that teacher needed to hear. We did decide, though, to request that younger DS NOT be placed in her class. The request was honored, thank goodness. In don’t think my shins could have taken another beating under the conference table from an embarrassed kid. ;-)</p>
<p>My DD was enrolled in an International School in Germany that was sort of half British System half American system based so they just stuck to the IB grades.</p>
<p>When a test comes in with a class average in the 90’s, all that indicates is that the test didn’t test anything. I find that this time of grading increases the randomness in the grading process and tends to make class rank less reliable because it causes much more bunching. </p>
<p>Do not compare individual student grades from HS to HS. The comparison is not at all important and selective colleges take the schools grading policies into account in admissions. That is why class rank is so highly valued by the most selective schools.</p>
<p>Dreadpirit, you can’t at the same time praise a teacher who deviates from the grading approach of the other teachers at a school, and also say that class rank is important.</p>
<p>So she’s basically saying that students shouldn’t try to improve their mastery of the material. They should be satisfied with just average performance. :rolleyes:
And these kids are probably responding to parents who encourage them to go to the teacher for help. If the teacher shoos them away, what kind of lesson are they learning?</p>
<p>I’d encourage her to pursue it with her teacher, but rather than asking about the grade directly, asking how she might be better prepared for the next test. She also needs to look at her own study habits. Is she just not spending enough time, or is she spending time on details and not mastering the bigger concepts? A good look at the test and where she needs to improve should offer some clues.
If this is an honors class, I assume that these students are there because they have demonstrated higher ability in this subject area than just average. That’s where the teacher misses in her analysis.</p>
<p>If the C was truly average, that means some kids did better and some did worse. If your child made a C then they can go over what they missed and Improve the next test. All of my kids made Cs on exams in high school. One child even got an F on a BC calc exam cause she didn’t know what she was doing and didn’t ask for help. We were able to get her a tutor and it worked itself out. I actually think Cs in high school on exams are a good thing. It helps the students know they have room for improvement and with homework grades, quiz grades, etc. usually doesn’t impact the final grade or GPA that much.</p>
<p>Many teachers get tired of students (and parents) who only care about the grade and mask that priority under a false veneer of concern for learning. I dislike it when students tell me earnestly, “I really care about my grades,” as if that’s some big virtue or something. Show me someone who doesn’t. I want you to care about your learning, too.</p>
<p>I agree…priority one should be getting an education, and challenging oneself with the most rigorous classes possible, even if that means getting a B instead of the A that many top students are accustomed to receiving. What got me was the comment that all A students entering this particular AP class were expected to earn a B, because after all, a B in the AP is equivalent to an A in regular courses. The attitude of “How dare you ask how to improve your grade” was out of line. My kid actually wanted to improve her work…AND her grade. They aren’t mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>Wait, remember when a C was always considered the average? Grades were looked at as a curve, and in most classes, you would have some below a C, some above a C, and the rest in the middle. So, I’m not sure why it’s surprising that the average on a test might be a C. I don’t really see how the teacher deviated from the norm of the school, and I can really see where she is coming from in saying she is tired of kids asking how they can improve their grade. That is very different than asking how can I better understand this material, and it is different than coming to her before the test to to ask for help.<br>
All that said…I don’t think the teacher is wrong (from this description, there may be more to the story…lack of instruction, etc) but the system is wrong.</p>
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