Can high school grades be trusted?
If you need better marks, some private schools are happy to oblige—for a fee
At the end of June, Maclean’s interviewed via Facebook several York Mills students who agreed to speak off the record. All three have successfully finished Grade 11.
Sixteen-year-old Ben took Grade 12 English at a private school while he was enrolled in Grade 11 at York Mills last year. Ben gets marks in the 90s in math and science, but English was a problem. He was afraid that if he doesn’t get a high Grade 12 English mark, he won’t get into life sciences at McMaster. (He eventually wants to be a dentist.) “I took this route because some of the courses in high school are especially hard and you can’t get higher than 60 or 70 [per cent],” he says. “However, once you take it in private school, you can easily get 80s. Personally I would recommend it to other people, but some people take all their courses there [private school] because they think they could get into university. That’s true. But they’ll get kicked out after the first semester because they haven’t learned anything.”
Ben ended up with an 87 per cent in the private school course.
Sam just finished Grade 11 at York Mills and is seriously thinking of taking a course or two at a private school next year. “To be honest,” he wrote, “in this age it’s all about getting into university, and with all the competition, and an increasing number of immigrants coming from South Asia and East Asia with a lot more knowledge than what most Canadian-born students have, the competition gets a lot tougher.”
Seventeen-year-old Peter took an English 12 course at a private school this summer. At York Mills, his Grade 11 math and business marks are in the mid-80s; his computer mark is in the 90s.“The main reason I am taking English in summer school is to open up more space in day school to do other subjects,” he wrote. “I’m not looking for an easy mark. I’m a French immersion student; however, languages are my weakest subjects, and during the year, they are lowest priority. Having only one subject to deal with at a time will help divert all my efforts into that subject. I plan on going into math/business and I do not plan on submitting English 4U as one of my top six courses, so taking a course in summer school is just to get it out of the way for my last year.”
In Ontario, the problem first surfaced publicly in 2003 during the so-called double-cohort year, when the provincial government eliminated Grade 13. For one year only, Grade 12 and 13 students applied to university at the same time. To meet the increase in demand, the Ontario government poured millions into new infrastructure and new spaces at universities. Despite assurances that there would be enough spots for everyone who wanted to go, students and parents panicked. “There was a lot of finger-pointing,” says Queen’s University registrar Jo-Anne Brady.
I have to confess, I just about fell of my chair when I read that SFU was trying to submit ...
"The cause appears to lie in the increasing competitiveness of today’s world. “To be an original scholar,” writes Wilson, “is ...
Amused by your article, I am. 
James Turks' (CAUT) apparent statement that “Canada really has no need for private institutions” really flies in the face of ...
Comment by University student on 6 November 2009:
All hail the public school system and it’s ultimate righteousness. This honestly should be the least of there concerns when huge discrepancies occur within there own program. I have seen people transfer schools after receiving poor grades in 9th and 10th grade to later on graduate with great grade 12 averages and receive national scholarships… The problem doesn’t lie in private schools but the system itself. The system is flawed and there will always be people willing to exploit these flaws for there own personal gains. The simple solution would be to hold students and institutions accountable for these actions. This would be easily achieved by the instalement of a nation wide standarized test like the “sat”.
(Report comment)
Comment by hevangel on 7 November 2009:
Credit shopping was common even when I was in high school almost 15 years ago. We picked the easiest teacher from the easiest school on the most difficult subject. The only way to stop credit shopping is introduce public exam, so that every student is ranked on the same scale.
(Report comment)
Comment by Anonymous on 9 November 2009:
Sign me up, sounds great to me. As someone who goes to the best public academic school in my city, it angers me to no extent how much easier all the other students have it. I could have gone to another high school and seen a 5 mark increase in my average most likely due to a lower standard, and when I’m looking at scholarships for university next year I find myself wishing I did. What are the best (read: worst) online private schools in Ontario so I can get in while it’s still around?
(Report comment)
Comment by Neliya on 12 November 2009:
Taking up language courses in their own community schools and receiving 98& averages is not fair when compared to students who do a honest job at school.
Universities wake up!
Standadized testing to get into universities is ‘THE BEST’ ‘THE HONEST’ and “THE CORRECT & FAIR ” thing to do
(Report comment)
Comment by Hassan Mirzai on 17 November 2009:
Tarring all private schools with the same brush is arbitrary and patently unfair.
I have no doubt that there are improper practices by some private schools. However, the ministry of Education holds the responsibility and has the authority to address this problem by identifying them and revoking their licenses. It is four years since the ministry closed four private schools. Since then, the number of private schools has grown like mushrooms, yet the ministry has not closed any other school during this period.
It is not fair to download the consequences of such practices onto the whole population of private schools.
I suggest that Ministry of Education considers the followings to combat this issue:
• sending their inspectors out more often (currently every two years)
• Sending out their inspectors randomly, without pre announcement (currently they give about three months advance notice)
• Regulating the teaching practices
• Checking teacher qualifications and their relevant experiences
Here is the link to the original Ministry Letter and FutureSkills High School response: http://www.futureskills.com/article/
(Report comment)
Comment by DBellaa on 18 November 2009:
Hassran — No one is tarring all schools with the same brush. Re-read the following paragraph: “Of course, most private schools are reputable. Yet some operations—often referred to as “credit mills” or “credit shops”—are using students desperate to get into university (along with their parents) as cash cows. As long as a student slaps down hundreds of dollars per credit—in some cases as much as $1,500—these schools are happy to oblige with marks in the 80s and 90s, whether the student earns them or not.”
(Report comment)
Comment by Eli on 18 November 2009:
In Germany a new wave of student protests is going on right now: In more than 20 universities lecture halls are and will at least be occupied until Friday. They have the full support of lecturers,profs and the public.
Germany spends less money on education than most other OECD countries (only Spain, Slowakia, Turkey and Ireland invest less in their schools and universities). Other reasons for the protests are the new Bachelor/Master system, tuition fees, psychological pressure, …..
link to a map with all the universities participating in the protests:
http://maps.google.at/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=de&msa=0&msid=116283369278129786033.0004778dfa81fb402d565&ll=49.21042,8.876953&spn=23.014452,46.582031&z=4&source=embed
(Report comment)
Comment by daviddvdd on 15 December 2009:
My brother is looking for a private school to transfer, the first consideration was Century High school though a friend recommend until i read about the article. my brother wants to go to UBC after graduation, my question is if century high school student’s grade is eligible to be accept by UBC. or any other suggested high school to go to? My brother’s english is not good, that’s why he looking for a private school to transfer, otherwise he will be force into a adult high school since public high school does not allow students stay after grade 12 even though students did not pass the english exam.
(Report comment)
Pingback by The Quest for Admissions Fairness : UBC Insiders on 7 January 2010:
[...] you have not yet read the Macleans article detailing pay-for-credit high schools in BC, please take some time to do so. This was referenced a [...]
(Report comment)