Our HS started using Standard Grading System. My Sophomore is fit to be tied. She is a straight A student, always has been. But now the school is using a 1 2 3 grading method. A three is the best you can get but it averages out to be 80%. She's very worried she won't be able to get into a good college. Has anyone else experienced this System with their HS children and how did it work out. Please enlighten me about this I just don't see how it works as far as GPA's are concerned. Or did it turn out to be a bad System for your child entering College?
Just call her counselor tomorrow, s/he can explain it.
Or better yet, have your daughter MEET with her counselor. In high school the students are expected to take responsibility for their own questions and concerns.
Is it a 4.0 grading scale? If the highest you can get is a 3, that's the top at her school. She should ask her guidance office for clarification about how this affects her transcript.
http://www.collegeboard.com/html/academicTracker-howtocon...
And not every HS is the same. My cousins' As started at 90%. I had to earn a 93% for an A. We all still managed to get into college.
It confused me too at first, however you actually get a more realistic assessment of what your child is doing compared to themselves all year vs. compared to the class.
There are more categories and more information under those categories and it's more detailed over all. This has been in place for grade schools for a few years all over the country. Once you get used to the way of thinking you will prefer it. As well from the meeting I attended last year where the parents could ask such questions colleges are "on board" with the transition.
I am sure the school with have a meeting or has information more detailed about it from the district and help your "A" student understand that it's no longer about that "A" but about being better than you were last grading period in certain skill sets and meeting/exceeding the expectations. It is my understanding that this is also the preferred grading method overseas too - that is where the schools are pulling a lot of the recent changes from.
If you get a 3 and a 3 is the best you can get, that averages to 100%. Simple math.
How does it average to 80%?
Our standard grading system (in HS) was 69 or below F, 70-77 D, 78-84 C, 85-92 B and 93 & up A. In junior high, A and B were wider ranges. That was a shock for some when HS started.
My children (although in elementary school) are on a 1,2,3 grading scale where 3 is that they are where they should be but we do have a 4 for excels. As long as they hit that 3 mark by the time grading comes around then they are fine. I was hoping that they didnt stick with this as far as highschool because I dont like it at all.
I don't know anything about this grading system. However, I do know about what colleges look at. When the college gets the transcript, the recalculate the GPA to base it on the traditional 4.0 scale.
For the past 3 years our high school has had 2 different scales for calculating GPA. It's also designed so ECE and AP classes are on a higher scale than academic classes.
How does it average out to 80%? Are you using 4 as the denominator? That would be silly when 3 should be the denominator.
Colleges aren't stupid, there is more than a GPA going into their decision process. My daughter went to Cor Jesu, figure if you are from St Charles that should mean something, she ranked 98 of 120 yet carried a 3.7. She was accepted into every college she applied to with very nice scholarship packages. Colleges are very good at figuring out what they are looking at.
