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How do you know a child really is trying their hardest? I don’t suppose you take them at their word?
Studying is not a cakewalk. Kids make up all kinds of excuses and explanations to avoid studying or focusing.
Well, now that would be a red flag that he’s not doing his best now, wouldn’t it?
Through grade 12 I never had to simply “take my child’s word”. Our relationship has always been such that I have had a good sense of effort being put forth towards school.
This varies by school, and the school will usually make that very clear.
My high school had a policy where even though a D (1.0) was passing, meaning you didn't have to retake the class, big whoop - but in order to graduate, your unweighted GPA had to be 2.0 or greater - a C. You can't get D's in ALL classes and expect to graduate.
For my older two kids, we expect mostly As and maybe a B here and there. We know what they're capable of and the work they produce, so we expect good grades.
For my older two kids, we expect mostly As and maybe a B here and there. We know what they're capable of and the work they produce, so we expect good grades.
And if they fail to produce them, you can just blame their teachers for grading unfairly, or failing to teach properly.
For my particular kids, it’s an A average. They are mentally capable of that and have the academic resources to support them.
But are they amazing? Academically superior to pretty much all other kids? That is what an A is supposed to represent. however now most parents expect their special children to produce As and the teachers must provide them or face court martial.
This discussion is kind of a spinoff from the homework thread. There, a lot of posters were saying that they didn't think homework was necessary or they just barely did homework.
So, I'm wondering what people consider to be their goal in school and what is acceptable as far as grades are concerned.
But are they amazing? Academically superior to pretty much all other kids? That is what an A is supposed to represent. however now most parents expect their special children to produce As and the teachers must provide them or face court martial.
An "A" is supposed to represent 90% mastery at my kids school, not their comparison with the others.
What grades you expect of a kid also depends on how courses are graded, and that's something most parents, IMO, are not really savvy about. Some teachers, for instance, are quite easy to please and give nothing but As and Bs. Others (even some in high school) purposefully make the course hard to 'weed out' so-called underachievers. Some teachers grade on a curve, so a very capable student can be graded either high or low, depending on what the rest of the class does. Some schools make teachers give out only a limited number of As so as to keep grades from being 'devalued'.
Because its hard for any of us to know exactly how each teacher grades, our advice to our kids was simply 'Try hard and do your best.' And we could usually tell when they were trying and when they weren't.
This,
My answer to this would be it depends. I went to a school were getting A’s was a rarity, so much in fact that if anyone got an A average in the final exams they were certain to be a celebrity for the rest of the school year. When you got an A, you did WELL. And no-one got straight A’s ever. The student that came closest got two B’s.
She still holds that record and is an Ivy League educated Anesthesiologist/ Professor/ Author today... so, not an average student by any means.
How would you even know who was a former honor roll student or a C student in school?
This information is rarely disclosed by employers or discussed in the workplace.
These "C" students may have been classmates. That happened to a friend of mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncole1
These days, you almost need straight A's in high school to get a scholarship for college. A lot of A/B students still don't get much and end up with massive student loan debt. Well-informed high school students often feel tremendous pressure to make straight A's or nearly so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Not even then. Some of my kids get near straight As and graduated in the top ten at a non-inflated high school. (3.92 and 3.89) They had very good but not amazing test scores. (31 and 32 ACT;1380 and 1350 SAT) They got scholarships and even a full ride in one case at tier two and three schools. The top tier though offered either very little or nothing. In fact there were still some schools that did not even accept them.
Test scores seem to be more important than grades. One of my kids' friend got a 35 or 36 on the ACT and he was accepted and offered scholarships pretty much everywhere despite comparatively lower grades.
Sit down, cj, I agree with you! My oldest graduated in the top 10% (I think she was actually in the top 5%), went to a college that is considered the "mecca" of Lutheran colleges and got only a small scholarship. The younger one went to a larger private college that was probably lower tier 1 and got a scholarship making the cost the equivalent of instate tuition at the U of Colorado. The scholarship thing is quite a game. You don't know for sure what these colleges are looking for.
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