Saratoga High trying to ease grade pressure (Educrat dumbing-down education alert!)

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 5/4/05 | Maya Suryaraman

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Over the years, Saratoga High School has tried to curb its competitive culture. The school does not publish an honor roll. It has slashed homework over breaks. It releases grade-point averages to students only on request. Yet, teachers say, too many students remain obsessed with their grades.

So in another attempt to ease the pressure, Saratoga High announced it would change the way it chooses class valedictorians and salutatorians to allow more students to be honored. The announcement kicked off a furor in this affluent, well-educated community, with many fearful the school's highest achievers would be robbed of their due.

Anxiety in the Saratoga High community began rising when school officials proposed to relax the way GPAs are computed in choosing class valedictorians and salutatorians. Currently, an A in a regular class is worth 4.0 grade points, but one in an AP or honors class carries 5.0 points. A plus grade such as an A+ carries extra fractional points. Those fractions are crucial because the GPAs that determine the valedictorians and salutatorians are calculated to the thousandths.

Saratoga proposed to eliminate extra points for plus grades, and to treat an A in an AP class the same as one in a regular class, giving each four grade points. Eliminating the fractions would mean more students would tie for valedictorian and salutatorian because many students have a 4.0 grade-point average. "It's wonderful to recognize as many students as possible," said parent Anandi Krishnamurty.

However, Pope says she's concerned about Saratoga's middle students. "There are kids at Saratoga who are working very, very hard in regular-track classes, who will never, ever be valedictorian under the current system," Pope said. "What message does that send to those kids? I talk to these B students who feel like they've failed."/

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"What message does it send"? Simple. This is a competitive world and there's only room for one winner. Welcome to the real world, kiddies, where fractions of a point determine who wins and who loses. Just last week I was the #2 candidate for a new job and only #1 got the position. Surprisingly, the company refused to open up a second slot to assuage my hurt feelings.

It's good to see that parents and students oppose this further dumbing-down of the achievement and merit system.

[sure_fine]

wonder what Bill Gates thinks on that, he wasn't valedictorian either

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Is our public education system a sick puppy or what ?

[randog]

"There are kids at Saratoga who are working very, very hard in regular-track classes, who will never, ever be valedictorian under the current system," Pope said.

Three words--B F D. If these kids really cared about being valedictorian (and I'll bet dollars to donuts that most of them don't) then they'd work to get it.

High school is just a state-run dating service. Parents and their kids need to quit taking it (and themselves) so g-d serious.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I'm surprised you didn't file a lawsuit or demnonstrate in front of their building. Everyone should get the same benefits, pay, treatment, etc., no matter what their talents, right Hillary ?

[yama426]

NCLB?

[Gefreiter]

POF,
In college, grad school, or later in the real world, no one cares who was valedictorian or prom king or whatever.

No one.

[martin_fierro]

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[yama426]

Parents egos are all caught up in their kids.

I agree with you, b f d. Welcome to life.

[samtheman]

Why not just have a nose-picking contest and whoever pulls out the biggest booger wins. And repeat it every day. Over time, everyone can be a winner.

Problem solved.

[Nyboe]

My wife was valedictorian of her high school and when I met her in college I remember being VERY impressed with that ! and still am !

I value education and respect those who do what it takes to win in this world. call me old fashioned I guess.

[Dashing Dasher]

These need to learn that there is only one winner.

Every contest has a winner - it's a competition - only the best one wins, blah blah.

Taking the competitive spirit out of kids just makes for a bunch of underachievers.

[Dashing Dasher]

Were you pinged?

[Carry_Okie]

There go property values in Saratoga!

[Gefreiter]

N,
Seems I'm guilty of making a pretty broad assumption, based on a small sample (myself and a few close friends!).

Let me rephrase me original statement.

"In college, grad school, or later in the real world, I didn't care who was valedictorian or prom king or whatever."

[Waterleak]

I was a B, C student in High School, and again in College. I just saw a high scoring student/friend from high school the other day - he waits tables. Grades scmhades. I have my own office overlooking the park here in town, which reminds me that I need to call him and reserve a table for some clients.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ouch !

[null and void]

No. In my school district they are trying to decide which of two top preforming schools to shut down. This is to avoid shutting down failing schools.

[commonasdirt]

Be sure to tip him with a smile

[SteveH]

It is generally true that the top scoring high schools "grind" their students. This is somewhat of an unintended consequence-- the top students work extremely hard, and otherwise average or good students have to work significantly harder than they would at a normal school just to keep up on the curve. Also, there is the peer pressure factor. Our kid is in one such school, and the consensus among folks I've spoken with who seem to be in the know is that his grades would be significantly higher if he were at a normal high school rather than a top high school. The implication is that colleges who are not aware of such hidden factors and admit applicants primarily on GPA accept applicants on an inequitable basis-- an average GPA from a top high school is equivalent to a top GPA at an average high school. CSU with its new PeopleSoft system does not factor in which high school an applicant comes from and so may not accept otherwise deserving students into "impacted" programs (majors), while UC can still afford to look "behind" GPA to consider such factors as high school demographics (thus discriminate between applicants coming from top high schools and other high schools) and extracurricular activities.

The end result of this (and proof of the pudding from our perspective) is that our kid was accepted into several UC universities and CSU universities, but the UC acceptance letters were by far more aligned towards our kid's interests than the CSU acceptance letters. From the fact that our kid's friends seem to have undergone similar experiences, we infer (correctly or otherwise) that UC admissions takes demographics into account.

Pressure does have some other real life consequences. Both our kid's high school and Saratoga were hit by grade cheating scandals in recent years. As a result, at least one kid we know had his acceptance letters invalidated and ended up in JC taking a 20+ credit load... and acing all the courses... That's not to say that pressure is always invariably bad, but just to give a calibration as to the stakes involved.