Looking for some feedback on teachers curving midterm grades. My D has never had a test curved in high school so I'm really not sure how it all works. I have friends emailing me upset about the situation. The class is honors chemistry. Two teachers (one the department head) collaborated on an exam. The two classes with D's teacher had averages of 80 and 73. The other class had an even lower average. That teacher curved his test by 11 points. D's teacher did not curve at all. D is not concerned about her grade. She said it was the hardest test she has ever taken and she got an 88. She was happy. My question is, is it fair for two teachers to give the same test and have one curve and the other does not? You can imagine that there are a lot of kids upset about this. I don't know what to think and was interested in your thoughts. Thanks.
high school grading is one area where there zero consistency. Jay Matthews had an interesting article on that subject recently in the Wash Post. Our honors Lit class gives out a maximum of 3 A's per 35 students. (They tell the kids on the first day of class: don't like it, drop to college prep, where half the class earns As.)
But, to answer your question, yeah it can make sense to curve one class and not the other. For example, in my D's class last year, her science teacher did not introduce a topic that was covered on the dept-wide test. As a result, that teacher's two sections had significantly lower averages, than the other classes whose teacher had the most input on the test and had discussed it in class. So, the school did curve the lower classes to normalize the grades, and it appeared to be the right thing to do.
Thanks for your note. Interestingly, it was my D's class that seemed to have material on the test that was not covered in class. I am very happy that she got the grade she did as I don't know how I would feel if the situation were reversed. I don't think I like the situation you describe though! I am going to try to find that article.
