Can high school grades be trusted?
If you need better marks, some private schools are happy to oblige—for a fee
Deborah Robinson, executive director, strategic enrolment management at the University of British Columbia, has followed the issue closely. She says that UBC doesn’t adjust marks based on where a student comes from, but some of the government’s recent policies have made things more difficult for admissions people. “Has the ministry complicated our lives by opening up choice?” Robinson asks. “Yes, they have.”
For one thing, she’s recently seen discrepancies among students taking courses through distance learning. “As students are wont to do, they quickly learn which ones are easier and which ones are tougher,” says Robinson, whose university has recently introduced new rules about distance learning credits. “We had a counsellor report to us that a student signed up for a distance education course on Friday and completed it on Monday, and actually received a mark in the 90s,” says Robinson.
There isn’t a university admissions person in the land who wouldn’t want to use more than marks to assess student applications. Certain programs, such as music or drama, have their own admissions process, and some other programs ask students to write a personal essay. But for most applicants, that kind of personal attention is simply not possible. “As Canada’s top institutions start to attract more and more students, not only nationally but internationally as well, we have to start to deal with all kinds of different transcripts and credentials and marking schemes,” says Robinson. “What you try to do is get it right 95 per cent of the time. And you wish that it was more exact than that, but it’s not.”
So what happened to that Grade 12 student who was flunking English at University Hill, the one Peter Hill was so concerned about? The teacher chuckles when asked if his student graduated. “Oh, yes,” he says. “She got a 40 per cent class mark in my course and a 90 per cent course mark from Century. She failed the provincial exam, but after her exam marks were blended with her mark from Century she received an overall 70 per cent in the course.”
She ended up in a prestigious science program at UBC.
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”.
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.
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?
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
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/
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.”
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
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.
[...] 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 [...]
Another aspect regrading attitudes towards credits mills, is that we have told students for many years that they are the greatest (the “child centreded approach in elelmentary), so consequently they believe that they are entitled to everything – usually with as little effort as possible. It is no surprise then that students go out and use credit mills. The arrogance of many of this younger generation is incredible. It appears as they do not have to work for anything. Perhaps that is an article for another day.
[...] 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 [...]
This is amazing but I’m not surprised. I went to one of the harder public highschools in my city. Other public schools were so easy. If I got a 70 or 80 in a class people at other schools would get marks in the 80′s or 90′s. So annoying.
I wish I’d known about this back in the day. But I got into Waterloo and graduated so I’m happy.
An overhaul of the public school system is overdue. It’s reaching the point where a Canadian version of the SAT’s or standardized entrance test will be required to enter university.
At the same time if a student knows they can get a higher grade I say go for it. (Keep in mind some people will flunk their first year at university because they credit shopped and can’t keep up. Seen it happen time and time again.)
Good luck kiddies.
This is pretty shocking to me, and I think the government should crack down and it should be clear where students take their courses. At least at UBC you have to write the LPI if your English mark is a B or lower – which provides some standardisation (and do provincial exams!).
It’s normal to have some variation (we had easier teachers too – but the variation was 10% or less, not 40%). But this is fraud.