Schools now giving out GPA's above 100%!

[RCA]

I was at a banquet tonight and several high school students were announced as having higher than 4.0 GPA's! One was 4.92! What has this country come to when we are telling our students that better than perfect is achievable, that the impossible is possible?

Sigh...

[torchbearer]

Keynesian grade systems.

[torchbearer]

On a serious note- a story about my history class in high school.
I was a straight A student. I made 100s on all my test. In my history class, the teacher would give a couple of "bonus" questions at the end of each test. Questions that weren't easy- and not necessarily something he spoke, but something you'd have to know from really reading the literature.
At the end of the semester- I'd have about 110 point average per test.
He allowed me to sell my bonus points to students that needed them to pass the class.
:)
I miss that guy.

[specsaregood]

I was at a banquet tonight and several high school students were announced as having higher than 4.0 GPA's! One was 4.92! What has this country come to when we are telling our students that better than perfect is achievable, that the impossible is possible?

Sigh...

That's nothing new. Usually they give out extra points for AP classes -- the ones you can get college credit for. They were doing this when I was in high school over a decade ago. I'd be those students you referenced were straight-A students including some AP classes.

[Thesemindz]

I had a GPA over 4.0 for most of my high school career. It was because the AP and Honors courses I took were all weighted, so a 100% A grade was a 5.0 GPA. I really blew off my senior year, got a couple of C's, and still graduated with a 4.0 GPA. The government schools are all about indoctrination, which requires getting people through, and inflating performance statistics. If they told the true story, people might start asking why their children are getting such a poor education.


-Rob

[0zzy]

I had a GPA over 4.0 for most of my high school career. It was because the AP and Honors courses I took were all weighted, so a 100% A grade was a 5.0 GPA. I really blew off my senior year, got a couple of C's, and still graduated with a 4.0 GPA. The government schools are all about indoctrination, which requires getting people through, and inflating performance statistics. If they told the true story, people might start asking why their children are getting such a poor education.


-Rob

Why is everyone upset with the GPA system? "OH NOES! ABOVE 4.0! IT...CAN'T...BE! FASCIST AMERICA! FASCISTTTTTT!.

[asimplegirl]

I was at a banquet tonight and several high school students were announced as having higher than 4.0 GPA's! One was 4.92! What has this country come to when we are telling our students that better than perfect is achievable, that the impossible is possible?

Sigh...

Some school districts have a grading system that goes up to 5.0 as the highest grade instead of 4.0, it has always been that way... just more schools are integrating to it nowadays.

I was in all honors classes in high school, and the highest we offerered was 4.0...but there are a few that were a little north of us that could acheive a higher GPA...

I don't care, honestly. If you agree with giving kids grades to tell them that they are good enough because they didn't write things exactly as directed to memorize, it shouldn't bother you.

[hawaiisb]

If you take an AP class (for college credit) your grade will be given 10 points. Meaning if I take normal Physics and get a 90 I would have the same final grade as someone who took AP Physics and got an 80.

If you are in an AP class and you average a 95 for the class then your final grade will be 105 at the end of the semester.

[asimplegirl]

If you take an AP class (for college credit) your grade will be given 10 points. Meaning if I take normal Physics and get a 90 I would have the same final grade as someone who took AP Physics and got an 80.

If you are in an AP class and you average a 95 for the class then your final grade will be 105 at the end of the semester.

That does not affect GPA...GPA is determined by a points system for letter grades. In a 4.0 system, an A= 4 points, and they get lower in order.

23 points means that you graduate. The cumulative score of these points determines what your GPA is.

So, no matter the percentage, if you received an A for 6 weeks, you got 4 points. :)

[RCA]

Keynesian grade systems.

best answer!

[Imperial]

There is nothing wrong with this practice. Different schools have different standards. If one school has a 5.3 scale or 4.0 scale or anything like that nothing is wrong with it. All you have to do is change it to scale. More significant is that some schools apportion GPA by the letter grade (in a regular class A = 4.0, B = 3.0, etc.) or others apportion by individual(as in 98 or above is 5.8 or so, 95-97 lower, etc.).

[anaconda]

Keynesian grade systems.

HA! That's funny!

It's the "self-esteem" generation.

[0zzy]

HA! That's funny!

It's the "self-esteem" generation.

Ya, because kids who do college classes in high school are stupid kids who are only getting above 4.0 cause their stupid but the school system wants them to feel smart.

/sarcasm

[Thesemindz]

Why is everyone upset with the GPA system? "OH NOES! ABOVE 4.0! IT...CAN'T...BE! FASCIST AMERICA! FASCISTTTTTT!.

Since you quoted my post, I'll answer your question.

I don't have any issue with the GPA system. I was merely pointing out that this is a routine policy. However, I do take issue with the state education system, and I believe that inflating statistics over all is one way that they prop up what is, and was always intended to be, a system of violent indoctrination and coercion designed not to bring out the best in our children, but to stifle it and create not thinkers, but followers.

The government school system was always intended to be a tool for social control.

http://www.school-survival.net/artic..._Education.php


By 1889, U.S. Commissioner of Education William Torrey Harris was assuring railroad magnate Collis Huntington that American schools were “scientifically designed” to prevent “over-education” from occurring. In 1896, John Dewey at the University of Chicago said “independent, self-reliant people were a counter-productive anachronism in the collective society of the future.” Dewey went on to assert that, in modern society, “people would be defined by their associations – not by their own individual accomplishments.”

http://www.sntp.net/education/school_state_3.htm


Rush saw the schools as the means to "convert men into republican machines. This must be done if we expect them to perform their parts properly in the great machine of the government of the state." He also saw the schools as essential for making up for the failings of the deteriorating family. As he put it, "Society owes a great deal of its order and happiness to the deficiencies of parental government being supplied by those habits of obedience and subordination which are contracted at schools." He was clear about the role of schools. "The authority of our masters [should] be as absolute as possible," he said. "By this mode of education, we prepare our youth for the subordination of laws and thereby qualify them for becoming good citizens of the republic." He took that position because he believed that useful citizens were manufactured from children who "have never known or felt their own wills till they were one and twenty years of age."
One could quote Rush for many pages, each passage more horrifying than the last. Two more examples should suffice. What should the state schools teach the student? "He must be taught to amass wealth, but it must be only to increase his power of contribution to the wants and needs of the state." Furthermore, this signer of the Declaration said, "Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even forget them when the welfare of his country requires it."

http://www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven31.htm


in 1902, John D. Rockefeller created the General Education Board. Its initial publications contained chilling statements like “In our dreams we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions fade from their minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a responsive and rural folk.”

http://www.mackinac.org/print.aspx?ID=3256


The organizational model that Mann and others adopted for use in Massachusetts and elsewhere was the Prussian educational system as described by French philosopher Victor Cousin in his 1833 book Report on the Condition of Public Instruction in Germany, and Particularly Prussia. The Prussian system of state-controlled education extended from the lower grades through the university levels. Schools were established, supported, and administered by a central authority: The state supervised the training of teachers, attendance was compulsory, parents were punished for withholding their children from school, and efforts were made to make curricula and instruction uniform. Cousin believed that this system was both efficient and effective and used it as "a prime example of the superiority of centralized authority."

The designers of the system were quite open and clear about that. As the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, a key influence on the system, said,


"The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will."

So yes, there is a very real problem with the schools. Are inflated GPAs necessarily a part of it? Perhaps not. If they are, they are certainly not the worst part.


-Rob

[asimplegirl]

That is some great info, thesemindz! I agree with you completely, but had never heard that.

[foofighter20x]

I have to agree with Ozzy on this.

Who really ought to be valedictorian of their class? The kid who accepted the challenge of AP course work, and managed to maintain a A- average in the classes?

Or, should it be the underachiever who took art, home ec, woodshop, PE, etc., and breezed through all those easy courses with A+'s?

I have to admit, I'd support a weighted GPA system.

[rockandrollsouls]

I tend to agree with Thezeminds. The school system is definitely screwed in a big way, but that's all I'll say. You're basically a slave from day one, and because the government is so involved a child is really forced to learn their curriculum.....you're being brainwashed and turned into a slave from day one.

Be spectacular at their rules and their ideals from an early age or be threatened with future failure. Get rid of requirements and you'll see a lot of kids getting 4.0s that wouldn't have gotten them under government regulation.

I can speak from experience, the book smart students weren't always the "smartest" individuals I've known.

[rockandrollsouls]

I have to agree with Ozzy on this.

Who really ought to be valedictorian of their class? The kid who accepted the challenge of AP course work, and managed to maintain a A- average in the classes?

Or, should it be the underachiever who took art, home ec, woodshop, PE, etc., and breezed through all those easy courses with A+'s?

I have to admit, I'd support a weighted GPA system.

Why is woodshop an "underachiever" class. Do you realize the government forces students to take specific classes? Why should every student be forced to duke it out in required math, science, and even worse...history classes? What makes a student taking "HIGHSCHOOL" biology more intelligent than an individual taking auto shop that can assemble a motor? Keep in mind, these kids still aren't taking terribly difficult courses...it's highschool.

Like I said, alot of children lose interest in school because of what is shoved down their throats. I remember I wasn't a great highschool student because of what was shoved down my throat (and it was much, much less then) and I discovered my passion in college and burned everyone with my performance....and it wasn't something I could have studied in high school.

[asimplegirl]

I have to agree with Ozzy on this.

Who really ought to be valedictorian of their class? The kid who accepted the challenge of AP course work, and managed to maintain a A- average in the classes?

Or, should it be the underachiever who took art, home ec, woodshop, PE, etc., and breezed through all those easy courses with A+'s?

I have to admit, I'd support a weighted GPA system.

Ours cheated off of every thing we ever did in many classes (we only had 42 in our graduating class), and when he got his great grades, I got a lower one.:( It was his name and money that got him there...that's small town life for ya.

That's okay, though, I left college with a better GPA than anyone I knew, and never had to try. :)

[Objectivist]

I was at a banquet tonight and several high school students were announced as having higher than 4.0 GPA's! One was 4.92! What has this country come to when we are telling our students that better than perfect is achievable, that the impossible is possible?

Sigh...

When I was in school there were a couple that had higher than 4.0 based on their attending summer school which was 7.5 credits per year and then band credits and other school related work. So with 7 classes a year at 10 credits per class you total up 280 for 4 years which was the required number of credits to graduate. I know GPA is based on grade score but those that did extra received a higher GPA based on above the normal work load.

[jsu718]

I think you are confusing GPA with grades. First of all, letter grades generally are set as an A being 4 grade points... but A isn't always set to be 90-100. Sometimes there is an A+ and A- but not always. You can't tell anything simply from a GPA. My own district was based on a 4 point scale, but AP classes had 5 possible grade points and IB classes had 6. In the past they had just added points to the grades of the higher level classes, but changed that because they felt that students in higher level courses had no motivation to make more than a 70, since with 20 points added to IB classes to get it on the 4 point scale it would make it an A. Everyone passing had a 4.0, so it wasn't much of an accomplishment... although doing anything differently would either discourage higher level courses or discourage any extra effort.

So... when you put it in terms of a percentage you can't say they are giving out GPA's above 100%, but you could say they are giving GPAs above 4.0... and that's a good thing.

[Objectivist]

I think you are confusing GPA with grades. First of all, letter grades generally are set as an A being 4 grade points... but A isn't always set to be 90-100. Sometimes there is an A+ and A- but not always. You can't tell anything simply from a GPA. My own district was based on a 4 point scale, but AP classes had 5 possible grade points and IB classes had 6. In the past they had just added points to the grades of the higher level classes, but changed that because they felt that students in higher level courses had no motivation to make more than a 70, since with 20 points added to IB classes to get it on the 4 point scale it would make it an A. Everyone passing had a 4.0, so it wasn't much of an accomplishment... although doing anything differently would either discourage higher level courses or discourage any extra effort.

So... when you put it in terms of a percentage you can't say they are giving out GPA's above 100%, but you could say they are giving GPAs above 4.0... and that's a good thing.

I'm just relaying how it was done here 29 years ago based on the structure they laid out. I did point out that I recognize the difference. Maybe you didn't understand the reasoning held by the schools?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_point_average#North_America

[malkusm]

This made me angry, because I feel like a lot of my counterparts in college for the first year (you know, when anyone still gave a crap about high school GPA) looked down upon someone with a GPA less than 4.0, when my school didn't allow anything higher.

[Icymudpuppy]

Had I ever studied beyond just sitting in class, and doing my "homework" in the 5 minutes before each class, I may have gotten a 4.0.

I've done fine with my 3.2. Accepted to the University I wanted. Started a business which utilizes my major. Enjoy my work, and make a decent living from it.

Grades are over-rated.

[rockandrollsouls]

Had I ever studied beyond just sitting in class, and doing my "homework" in the 5 minutes before each class, I may have gotten a 4.0.

I've done fine with my 3.2. Accepted to the University I wanted. Started a business which utilizes my major. Enjoy my work, and make a decent living from it.

Grades are over-rated.

Amen.

Only time they have mattered is when one is accepted into an elite ivy league school where you're taught to cheat and steal like the numerous bank CEOs and politicians.

[jsu718]

I'm just relaying how it was done here 29 years ago based on the structure they laid out. I did point out that I recognize the difference. Maybe you didn't understand the reasoning held by the schools?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_point_average#North_America

I was referring to the original post. We haven't had a 4.0-max system in my district for over 15 years now. Each district in the US has a different system, and sometimes individual schools have a different system inside the district.
And I do have a masters degree in education. Not only do I understand the reasoning by the schools, but I also understand the pros and cons of each possible difference in the systems and the historical impact of each. My own undergrad school recently changed their grade point scale to affect only the way the GPA would appear on transcripts for students transferring to other schools... which ended up being just the addition of the + and - grades.

[Objectivist]

If it makes any of you feel better about life I'll tell you that todays four year state university degree is equivalent to a 1950s high school diploma.


Question: Why are math tests multiple choice?

[rockandrollsouls]

If it makes any of you feel better about life I'll tell you that todays four year state university degree is equivalent to a 1950s high school diploma.


Question: Why are math tests multiple choice?

It's all a game and it's all regulated nonsense. Return education to a free market....

[Objectivist]

It's all a game and it's all regulated nonsense. Return education to a free market....

This is the brightest thing I've heard all day.:)

[jsu718]

It's all a game and it's all regulated nonsense. Return education to a free market....

Well sure, all the quality problems are solved by making school optional, but that will never happen. It's too good at churning out rule-followers with basic skills necessary to do manual labor and be unqualified to move up in any industry.

[rockandrollsouls]

Well sure, all the quality problems are solved by making school optional, but that will never happen. It's too good at churning out rule-followers with basic skills necessary to do manual labor and be unqualified to move up in any industry.

Not to mention a free market in education would eliminate the ridiculousness behind ivy league brainwashing and ridiculous education costs.

It just presents too many benefits and too much freedom which is why its so heavily regulated.

[coyote_sprit]

We call that there a mathematic failure.

[tribute_13]

Yeah I graduated with a 4.42 GPA. Honors classes and AP classes give more than normal classes.

My unweighted GPA was 3.9something.

[runningdiz]

I was at a banquet tonight and several high school students were announced as having higher than 4.0 GPA's! One was 4.92! What has this country come to when we are telling our students that better than perfect is achievable, that the impossible is possible?

Sigh...

Guess you never took AP or Honor courses in HS. They are weighted higher. IS kinda weird though.

[krazy kaju]

It's called working your ass off and getting As in college level courses when you're still a dumb high school student. You deserve above a 4.0 for that.

[Jeremy]

An A+ in an AP (college) course is 5.0

[buffalokid777]

Why should we be surprised that the education system is changing the grading system so the current students don't look brain damaged from Fluoride, Aspartame, GMO food and other nasty things that damage the brain. The global governance organisations don't want the public to know they are being chemically and technology IQ reduced.

I took the SAT in 1986, got a score of 1410 out of 1600. Now the top score is a 2400? I must be pretty dumb now if you don't prorate the score to the changes in the grading system. I used to be pretty smart by the old grading system.

Makes the dumbed down sheep (And these are the ones who always end up in the CFR and trilateral commission writing ridiculous reports anyone with half a brain could refute with much evidence) look smarter as time progresses, If you look at the bottom line numbers without looking at the changes in the grading system.

[jsu718]

Why should we be surprised that the education system is changing the grading system so the current students don't look brain damaged from Fluoride, Aspartame, GMO food and other nasty things that damage the brain. The global governance organisations don't want the public to know they are being chemically and technology IQ reduced.

I took the SAT in 1986, got a score of 1410 out of 1600. Now the top score is a 2400? I must be pretty dumb now if you don't prorate the score to the changes in the grading system. I used to be pretty smart by the old grading system.

Makes the dumbed down sheep (And these are the ones who always end up in the CFR and trilateral commission writing ridiculous reports anyone with half a brain could refute with much evidence) look smarter as time progresses, If you look at the bottom line numbers without looking at the changes in the grading system.

Well not only that, but the actually inflated the SAT score in 1995 by recentering, 6 years before they added the third section, because the scores had been decreasing every year.

As for IQ, that has actually been increasing each year, so I don't see where your argument about "chemically and technology IQ reduced" comes from, since the data would indicate otherwise.

The real problem is that so many things are "recentered" like the SAT that you can't really tell a year-to-year measure of how people are doing other than the yearly increasing IQ scores. Everything other than that really only compares people of each age to each other and not how they compare historically.

[andrewh817]

Why is everyone upset with the GPA system? "OH NOES! ABOVE 4.0! IT...CAN'T...BE! FASCIST AMERICA! FASCISTTTTTT!.

I think everyone is upset with the silly stats games the government and media play to make it look like they're doing a better job than they are.

[Danke]

Some students give 110%

[amy31416]

If it makes any of you feel better about life I'll tell you that todays four year state university degree is equivalent to a 1950s high school diploma.


Question: Why are math tests multiple choice?

As someone who graduated magna cum laude with a BS in chemistry, I believe you're right. All of my historical scientific reading leads me to believe that college degrees these days are worth far less than an associates degree in auto mechanics, no offense to auto mechanics--I've tinkered with cars and it's not easy.

There were definitely challenges in physical chemistry, inorganic chem, chemical engineering and physics, but the rest of it was incredibly easy. And I'm not so egotistical as to think that it was because I'm some sort of genius. I had to intentionally seek the challenges I had for this degree. If I were a slacker, my only challenge would have been two semesters of physical chemistry.

[CoreyBowen999]

My district works on a 5.0 system.. its nothing new

[orafi]

I was at a banquet tonight and several high school students were announced as having higher than 4.0 GPA's! One was 4.92! What has this country come to when we are telling our students that better than perfect is achievable, that the impossible is possible?

Sigh...

They're probably on a 5.0 scale factor, which is allowed for students who take AP or IBO (or other advanced level) courses. My sister received a 4.2 from her school, that's because she took courses that actually took real effort unlike regular public school courses. If you ask me, getting a 4.92 is pretty impressive if that one guy was taking advanced courses. But I don't know how your county's school system operates.

[CoreyBowen999]

They're probably on a 5.0 scale factor, which is allowed for students who take AP or IBO (or other advanced level) courses. My sister received a 4.2 from her school, that's because she took courses that actually took real effort unlike regular public school courses. If you ask me, getting a 4.92 is pretty impressive if that one guy was taking advanced courses. But I don't know how your county's school system operates.

well some even work under a 6.0 scale. Its really confusing though. I got a 4.4 on a 5.0 scale

[tribute_13]

You people are making such a big deal out of nothing. The only way you can get higher than a 4.0 in most districts is because you either took college classes or their equivalent. I made a 4.42 on a 5.0 GPA scale but in districts that give you a weighted GPA they also give your unweighted GPA. I made a 4.0 Unweighted GPA that most universities will pay more attention to than the weighted 4.42.

[Brett]

Colleges know the different grading scales, it's not affecting the private sector of the education. (maybe community college, but whatever).

I personally have a 5.2. My school does AP Courses as out of 6. My unweighted (normal, out of 4) is only 3.6. Colleges know my school, they curve my weighted one to the scale of their choice.