Your A student is average — don’t blame the SAT and ACT
David Blobaum:
The most common refrain from parents is that their child “is a good student but a bad test-taker.” This comment reveals a fundamental disconnect between what parents understand about grades from school and standardized test scores. So here’s what parents need to understand about seemingly divergent grades and test scores, to help them position their kids for academic success.
Some students are, in fact, just bad test takers, which typically means they don’t perform well under pressure. But, in my experience tutoring thousands of students, this explanation only applies to a small percentage of students. In most cases, an alternate explanation is true: Despite having a sky-high GPA in honors classes, the student is actually just an average student.
According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute Freshman Survey, 86 percent of the surveyed students at BA-granting universities had A-averages in high school. Thus, A-averages are not rare at all. They are, in fact, average.
David Blobaum:
The most common refrain from parents is that their child “is a good student but a bad test-taker.” This comment reveals a fundamental disconnect between what parents understand about grades from school and standardized test scores. So here’s what parents need to understand about seemingly divergent grades and test scores, to help them position their kids for academic success.
Some students are, in fact, just bad test takers, which typically means they don’t perform well under pressure. But, in my experience tutoring thousands of students, this explanation only applies to a small percentage of students. In most cases, an alternate explanation is true: Despite having a sky-high GPA in honors classes, the student is actually just an average student.
According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute Freshman Survey, 86 percent of the surveyed students at BA-granting universities had A-averages in high school. Thus, A-averages are not rare at all. They are, in fact, average.
Massachusetts, Famed for Tough School Standards, Rethinks Its Big Test
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/us/massachusetts-mcas-test-high-school.html
A ballot measure would do away with the requirement that high schoolers pass a test to graduate. Opponents say it could water down academics for struggling students.