Chronicle: HS Grades beat tests in Predicting College Performance

Discussion in 'Education and Academia' started by bungadiri, Jun 20, 2007.

  1. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    i just finished up teaching Spanish 1 and 2 in a long-term sub position at a yuppie HS in the western part of Orange County. lots of high achieving Asian kids and almost no native speakers.

    in first year, out of about 105 students, i gave about 8 A grades and failed a dozen.

    in second year, out of 66 students, i gave 6 A grades and failed about 10 kids, but one of them cheated on a test and had earned a D.

    of the 14 A grades, 4 went to Anglo-American kids, 2 to Spanish surname kids, and the remaining 8 to Asian kids, all Korean, i'm pretty certain.

    i was relentlessly pestered by the Asian kids who were getting high B grades as to what they could do to raise their grades. my response was always the same: "Study for the tests."

    i have very little doubt but that the kids that earned A grades will go on to college and perform at a high level. i also am aware that of the 170 students, 8 had 4.0 GPAs. all of these students maintained their 4.0 average.

    what i have taken away from this experience is that most of the students who achieved at the A level were consistently doing so. one of the native speakers was one of the kids who had a 4.0 GPA, and you would not have predicted that just to look at him. he was chubby, about 5' tall, but he always did his work and turned it in.
     
  2. Via_Chicago

    Via_Chicago Member

    Apr 1, 2004
    Bay Area, California
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Where I went to HS (suburban public school, one of the "worst" in our district), most of the high achievers were also involved in a large amount of either creative or athletic extracurricular activities. The correlation being that these students, already driven to perform in other arenas, were forced to get their work done in a limited time frame with little "down-time" (like college). Most of these students have since done quite well at their respective collegiate institutions (Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, etc.), while continuing involvement in activities that interested them. Some of these students did very well on the SATs/ACTs (1400-1600), some didn't do amazingly (1200-1400 range), but all had high GPAs (3.8-4.0), and all have since done well in college.
     
  3. DoctorD

    DoctorD Member+

    Sep 29, 2002
    MidAtlantic
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This thread confirms my belief that putting kids in one-size-fits-all classes in elementary and high school really hurts the ability of the smart ones to learn good work habits.
     
  4. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    i'm confused. i thought being smart meant that you have innate ability. if you put someone in a class with at least some other smart people, unless the culture of the class is intentionally dumbed down, won't the smart kids tend to create some synergy with each other, unless you systematically segregate them?

    or is this just the wishful thinking of a pseudo-plebeian, petit-bourgeois wanker?
     
  5. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    I think he means that the smart kids won't be challenged and hence won't develop a work ethic like the less gifted children do, because they have to work more for their grades. Then when they end up in an environment where they can't get by on their talent alone, some of them can't handle that and fail academically.

    A lot of parents of gifted children send their kids to Steiner schools over here.
    The idea is for teachers to give the children a more individual education, based on their needs and interests. A lot of the time, the teacher will follow a class from grade 1 through 8. (So they will have the same teacher for eight years, enabling the teacher to build a closer relationship of trust with his pupils).
    They also don't believe in testing as a way to evaluate students. At least not solely in testing.

    I was very sceptical about those schools until I met my wife, who went to such a school for her primary and secondary education. Based on her and some of her HS friends I've met, I'd say that all of them posses superior social skills and most of them had very successfull university experience.
     
  6. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
     
  7. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    :)

    They were actually named after Rudolf Steiner.
     
  8. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    no doubt. what was his position on the herb, i mean for medicinal usage, or had that not become an issue when the schools were started?
     

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