Test optional for homeschoolers too?

allyphoe
Thu, 11 Jul 2019 18:45:31 +0000

I’ve never seen a high school or lower level classroom where the teacher set the desired grade distribution in advance, then assigned kids to their spot on the curve based on their relative performance. I’ve seen many classrooms where the teacher understood the consequences of their grade-weighting scheme so poorly that a kid who was good with math could easily game the system.

Most classrooms will have a reasonable grade distribution because the class has a reasonable distribution of ability and effort levels. That’s different than saying, “the top five kids in this class had a 100% average, and get As. The next-highest kid got a 99%, which would normally be an A, but there are already so many As that they’ll get a B instead.”

If everyone performs at the highest levels, why wouldn’t everyone get an A?