40% straight A's in High school

carolyn
Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:44:45 +0000

carolyn, I find that so strange.








As do I. However, it is true at this particular school – The 60% number was actually quoted to us by a school Guidance Counselor as a reason why we should switch our son there from his private school, because she noted the two B+'s on his transcript. When I asked about the SAT medians, meanwhile, she sidestepped the issue until I really pressed before admitting the median was only 950. To be fair the school has only had two graduating classes so far so test scores may rise.

On the other hand, I have talked to enough kids, parents, and teachers in our community to get a sense of what is required to get an A: all of the math classes are “computer based” which means students sit in a room with 30-40 computers and work at their own pace on math software. Math teachers lecture once a week, otherwise it is all computer learning. Tests are done on the computer when you reach the end of the software section. One student told me that it is pretty easy to guess what the test questions will be. English/Social studies is a combined class which also uses computers extensively for reading “tests” of assigned books. My daughter’s best friend, who is in “honors” English was shocked to find out that my daughter had actually read ALL of Romeo and Juliet in 10th grade because her class had just read excerpts on the computer. There are lots of “projects” involving power point presentations but very few actual written papers assigned. The school is also on a block system which means you have math/science for one four month term a year and then switch to English/social sciences for the rest of the year. Effectively, this means that some kids actually do not do much writing or reading for half of the school year.

As I said, many parents are thrilled to see their kids getting straight A’s without having to do much homework but reality hits when it comes time to apply to colleges and those same straight A kids can’t crack 1000 on the SATs or get above 500 on the SAT II’s. In California, that is the kiss of death because the UC’s rely so heavily on test scores in their admissions formula, so the majority of kids from the two graduating classes have ended up at our local community college. I know many of these kids from elementary school and they certainly were not below average then (our elementary school district is separate from the high school district and consistently has very good test scores.) The really sad part is that several of the smartest kids my daughter was in elementary school with have actually dropped out of high school and are pursuing alternate educations (i.e., home schooling and alternative high schools) because they were incredibly bored at the local public.

Needless to say, I was relieved when, after spending a day at the school, my son decided to stick with his current school, even though it means a long commute.