Do you think GPA is an accurate description of a student's success? (high school, graduates)
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Having a hard teacher does not mean a student is going to learn more than with an easier teacher.
Also, this navigation is part of the game of life, only an idiot would make things harder (there are many exceptions of course).
No, the lazy take the easy way out. I'm no idiot but I prefer hard, thank you, becuase I do learn more navigating the hard way. Easy is a waste of my time.
There is a sense of accomplishment in navigating the difficult. There is none in navigating the easy. Case in point, my last semester in undergrad, I carried 18 credits (two lab classes) and worked 24 hours a week (commuting 2 hours to and from work to campus). I don't know how I finished that semester. I finished with the lowest grades I had my entire college career. I got a 3.5 that semester but I feel more of a sense of accomplishment about that 3.5 than I do any of my 4.0 semesters.
GPA should be used only to weed out those who put in no effort making it a sort of minimum bar. Comparing a 4.0 in one school to a 3.5 in another is useless entirely for all of the reasons people gave here. But it is completely reasonable to expect everyone who applies to a program to have a 3.0. Seriously, I do not care how competitive your school is (including mine) if you cannot get a B average you likely should not be going to college.
So in the case of the hypothetical student of color with a lower GPA as long as it is above some minimum the other factors would come into play. That would be fair correct?
interesting perspective.
my brother graduated from high school with a 2.7 and is now a neurosurgeon. I'd say he was fit to attend college.
I had a 2.4; I did fine in college. Since a bachelor's degree is standard for employers, I think your rule would've really screwed me over.
Many of my friends had below a 3.0 in high school, and they're adults with bachelors and masters degrees, working good jobs as productive citizens, raising kids .... the works.
personally , i'm of the opinion that GPA is a reflection of how well the student follows directions, and how much FEAR of failure the student has (which translates into motivation to get good grades.) It's all about their willingness (or lack of) to jump through the teachers' hoops.
Rebellious kids who loathe their teachers will get poor grades, regardless of how smart they are. My experience was that my grades were very tightly correlated with how much respect I had for the teacher; which was contingent upon how much respect the teacher had for me.
I do think a high GPA signals to employers and follow on schools that the person knows how to play "the game". That's all it is. It shows you can pay the price to admission and get a pass to the next level. Think of a high GPA like collecting a certain amount of coins in a video game.
I see GPA as a student's willingness to be successful. I can use myself as the example; as well as many of my "delinquent" high school students.
In high school I had a 2.5 GPA. When I started high school it was a solid 4.0--from 1st grade (if they gave grades I had 4.0) all the way through middle school. I did every assignment, extra credit even when there was no credit.
Then high school came and I no longer cared. BLAH, BLAH BLAH...
When I decided to go to college, everyone LAUGHED--what was I going to do..look at what I did in high school..BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...
I went to college at did 3.89 at the community college and 3.55 at the big box college. I would have had 3.8, but one semester I had 8 classes for 21 credits and pulled a solid 3.0 in all 8, dropping my GPA a bit.
SO when I hear someone tell me GPA is a good way to measure success, I laugh. It is the person's determination and INTEREST that will determine success, and that can never be measured on any test or scale.
One more, about my delinquent students.
I have generally taught the UNTEACHABLE. Those kids who have been tossed or expelled from every classroom on the planet--usually for good reason.
Most of these kids have a 1.0 GPA, a few are even lower. I have had more than one, may be 5 or 10, who have gone on to a community college or a big box school and done very well. It is all about interest more than ability. Though ability makes it easier, interest makes it possible.
No, the lazy take the easy way out. I'm no idiot but I prefer hard, thank you, becuase I do learn more navigating the hard way. Easy is a waste of my time.
There is a sense of accomplishment in navigating the difficult. There is none in navigating the easy. Case in point, my last semester in undergrad, I carried 18 credits (two lab classes) and worked 24 hours a week (commuting 2 hours to and from work to campus). I don't know how I finished that semester. I finished with the lowest grades I had my entire college career. I got a 3.5 that semester but I feel more of a sense of accomplishment about that 3.5 than I do any of my 4.0 semesters.
But what if it all comes easy? What if one has the ability to make most things easy, but lacks the desire to "prove" it? The no pain no gain theory seems to be more of an inconvenience (not to mention PAIN) just to say it was hard? Sometimes easy brings out the best because it tempts us to try.
No. I felt school was incredibly boring. Plus, my home life was such a mess as a child that school work was zero on the list of important things.
You cannot believe the homes some of our students live in...and their lives away from school...June Cleaver is not meeting them all at the door with a plate of cookies, to help them with homeowk at the kitchen table.
In sixth grade I worked hard on a project, alone. I took it to school, and it did not compare to the projects other kids brought, who obviously had parental help, and lots of money to make a fancy poster.
Life is not fair. Some learn that concept much earlier than others.
There are always exceptions but GPA is a good predictor in most cases. Your GPA is low because:
(1) You are not intelligent
(2) You have poor self management
(3) You don't care
(4) You have attention disorders or other mental problems
(5) Your family is awful
...
Either of them can show up sometime in your later career.
No. I felt school was incredibly boring. Plus, my home life was such a mess as a child that school work was zero on the list of important things.
You cannot believe the homes some of our students live in...and their lives away from school...June Cleaver is not meeting them all at the door with a plate of cookies, to help them with homeowk at the kitchen table.
In sixth grade I worked hard on a project, alone. I took it to school, and it did not compare to the projects other kids brought, who obviously had parental help, and lots of money to make a fancy poster.
Life is not fair. Some learn that concept much earlier than others.
Actually education helps the poor the most.
If there's no education, the poor stay poor forever. Too bad many people cannot realize that.
If there's no education, the poor stay poor forever. Too bad many people cannot realize that.
I don't think they were arguing that education doesn't help the poor. All they said was that school can take the back-burner when you have a hard family life
It's all about the standardized test scores. GPA is only indicative of motivation IMO.
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