My son's school's grading scale is UNFAIR!

[RMulieri]

I'm sorry, but what colleges??? My college (which is consistently ranked #1 for aerospace engineering in the US, it's not a community college or anything) leaves grade scales up to the individual professor. Even so, every single one of my professors has used either a ten or even a twelve point scale.

Um...why the nasty tone? No need .

 

[TheLittleRoo]

I teach AP so I can definitely speak to this. Getting college credit for an Ap course has nothing to do with how the school grades the course.

Testing out of a course is called CLEP and does not get you credit for the course. You must take a replacement course to meet the requirements.

Is this true, because I didn't take the AP English course but I did sit for the exam the day it was given to those students. I got a 5 on it and got the 3 hours college credit. I actually started college with 18 hours from CLEPing English, History (AP tests) and 12 hours of Russian credit from 4 years of Russian in high school. I'm hoping my son will be able to test out of a LOT of hours and enter college as a sophomore.

 

[Schmeck]

Actually, because of the incredible numbers of students taking AP exams, some universities are not accepting AP scores as a reason to not take entry level courses. So, even if a student has a year's worth of AP exams passed, he or she may still have to take some 101 classes.

 

[princessmom29]

Is this true, because I didn't take the AP English course but I did sit for the exam the day it was given to those students. I got a 5 on it and got the 3 hours college credit. I actually started college with 18 hours from CLEPing English, History (AP tests) and 12 hours of Russian credit from 4 years of Russian in high school. I'm hoping my son will be able to test out of a LOT of hours and enter college as a sophomore.

As of 3 years ago when my sister entered college this was true at least of the schools in Alabama. None of the 5 she applied to gave any actual credit for a CLEP only a passed AP exam. I do not know about schools elsewhere. but when I graduated from Southern Miss they didn't give credit for cleps either. You had to take another course in that disclipine to stisfy the hours required.

 

[princessmom29]

Actually, because of the incredible numbers of students taking AP exams, some universities are not accepting AP scores as a reason to not take entry level courses. So, even if a student has a year's worth of AP exams passed, he or she may still have to take some 101 classes.

Most of the schools I have contact with are still taking 4 or 5 but have stopped taking 3's.

 

[Karlzmom]

Adding insult to injury, they do not award extra points to Honors courses, meaning an A in Honors English is weighted the same as an A in standard English. While they do recognize an A+ with an extra .3, and an A- is a less .3, it's mind boggling that as a district, they can tinker with the grade scale like this.

ARGGGGGHHH!

I'm always intrigued by the concept of extra points for working at your level of ability OBJECTIVELY, the material in an honors class is more difficult than a remedial class, but the children are working at their SUBJECTIVE level. A kid can be working as hard or harder in a "lower" class based on their God-given abilities...When I was in high school (20 years ago) there were no extra points for taking honors/AP courses. It was just expected that we would do the work that challenged us, and if you tested out on the AP at the end of the year your "reward" was the college credit.

 

[graygables]

I'm in grad school and we use the same scale. I have all As, but lost my 4.0 when I got a 93 in a class.

 

[SomedayI'llBe]

I'm always intrigued by the concept of extra points for working at your level of ability OBJECTIVELY, the material in an honors class is more difficult than a remedial class, but the children are working at their SUBJECTIVE level. A kid can be working as hard or harder in a "lower" class based on their God-given abilities...When I was in high school (20 years ago) there were no extra points for taking honors/AP courses. It was just expected that we would do the work that challenged us, and if you tested out on the AP at the end of the year your "reward" was the college credit.

In my opinion, the GPA bump happens because of the valedictorian/salutatorian situation, and scholarship/college applications. If all GPA boosts were removed from all schools, students who took non-challenging courses could qualify for significant scholarships that are based on pure GPA. Quite a few state schools and some liberal arts schools give automatic scholarships based on GPA, and don't look at the difficulty level of the courses when they're considering. Valedictorian also has scholarship possibilities attached to it- so using the GPA boost brings the kids who worked the hardest and are the smartest to the top of their class. It makes sense to me- but then again, I went to a high school where many students would have that 4.0 because they took classes below their ability, and many others GPAs were weaker than that because they took classes at their ability level that they weren't able to be the best at- but they were capable of taking.

 

[JeffreyY]

Here in NYC all grades from J.H.S, up through H.S. are numbers only no letter grade is ever given (my kids don't even know what an A, B, C, D, F are) they can get 50, 55 (failing) 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 86, 87,88...100. (passing). Honors and AP classes are weighted, some kids in my son's H.S have 110 averages. I am sure colleges are aware of this system and accept kids accordingly.

 

[kydisneyfans]

School here is 92, 84, 76, 68. 67 and lower is an F.
We were on a 90, 80, 70, 60 scale in High school 15 years ago.

College grades were up to the individual professor. I had exam scores of 75 which were an "A", I also had exam scores of 93 which were a "B".

 

[DizneeCM]

I have a high school senior who is in the middle of the college application process right now. We have been told by the counselors that a "profile" explaining the school's grading structure (what constitutes an "A", whether or not honors and AP classes are weighted, etc.) is sent along with each transcript/application. The profile helps the admissions office compare grades from one school to another. I'm not certain, but I believe that most schools send these.

Also, if a student is applying to a college that is not too far away from home, I've been told that the colleges are generally familiar with the school's grading system.

 

[dis-happy]

Actually, because of the incredible numbers of students taking AP exams, some universities are not accepting AP scores as a reason to not take entry level courses. So, even if a student has a year's worth of AP exams passed, he or she may still have to take some 101 classes.

This is true of the Freshman writing class at my dd's university. Friends of hers received 5 of the AP but still had to take it. The funny thing is that my dd took an 8 week summer school class at our community college the summer before her senior year of high school. Since we homeschool I wanted something in her transcripts that showed she was able to do college level work. She got an A in the class....and surprise of all suprises (even her advisor was suprised) she was credited out of taking the class at her university.


To the OP:
Not sure if has been mentioned (I didn't read all the posts) but colleges also look at class rank. Everyone in the school has the same grading scale, thereby leveling that field.

 

[Katy Belle]

I should say we bought in our district BECAUSE the schools are excellent, and in many cases are in the top 5% nationally. There is no doubt my son is receiving a great education. But...

The district I live uses a 7 point grading scale, which means:
93-100 A
85-92 B
77-84 C
69-76 D
0-68 F

!

This is simlar to the grading scale when I was in High School, but 0-69 was an F.

I do think its crazy that in the USA the high school grades are so different. I wish they would align them all, for scholarship, college admittance, purposes.

Katy

 

[mdsouth]

Most high schools I know have the 7 point grading scale. I went to private school and they had it. How good can a school be if everyone gets an A?

I guess I do not see what the fuss is about.

Exactly! This grading scale is on par with schools around here. It also is on par with college courses. The scale was most likely put in place so that a true bell curve would take place.

The OP stated that he or she moved into the school district mainly because of the school's reputation of being excellent. In order to be excellent, a school has to set high standards and that often starts with a high grading scale.

So, in my opinion (which the OP asked for) the scale is fine as it is.

 

[littlemermaid95]

At my daughter's middle school, awards are based on all A's, all year. She got a B+ in reading the first grading period, A's the rest of the year (A's for final grades", but was excluded from the all-A's award. She was grouped with kids who had lots of B's. Stupid! She is in gifted math and reading, which is tougher, but there is no distinction in grades for that either. We just tell her that recognition is not what is important, knowing she did her best is. We've learned to put zero weight in end of the year awards.

 

[thepeach80]

Our school just changed their grading scale to match the 'normal 10pt scale b/c of the graduating SRs and scholarships etc. They didn't see it as fair to them. Ours was actually worse, w/ 94-100 being an A.

 

[maraki527]

That is how my school always did the grades.