Fairfax Grading Tough -- 94% an A

Consolation
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:47:18 +0000

My son’s class in HS had precisely two kids with an A average, more with an A-. Roughly the top 10% of the class annually has an A or A- average in most years, with a few into the B+ range. (A 92 is a B+.) No weighting at all. Supposedly no ranking, although they do declare a val/sal and do release info that makes it possible to estimate percentile.

Kids with few honors/AP classes are frequently among the “Top 10” graduates profiled in the local newspaper. One year, a kid with not a single honors or AP class was declared the val.

The competitive HS in the next town weights for final GPA only, and they have at least twice as many grads with A/A- averages.

The kids who are hurt most by this are those who fall on the cusp of the top 10%, and/or those who choose to challenge themselves by taking honors/AP classes in which they might get a C or low B.

And I don’t think it helps kids with highly rigorous course loads, whose class rank looks mediocre compared to competitor candidates from other schools whose rank is determined by weighted grades. Sure, I’m sure that ad comms try to take it into account, but when it comes down to it, you’ve got a kid who would have been in the top 5 at the school in the next town, but at our school s/he is only top 10%.