Smartest person in the world found at King High school!!

[dr3z]

There should be a comma after silly me...............

Reported today that a female student at King High school had a GPA of 8.08!! Proving once again the the secondary school system of Florida has to be the best in the nation!! NOT!! [banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead]

What a total joke the secondary school education in Hillsborough county has become!!


Silly me all along I thought a 4.0 was considered perfect?? Oh well they must be learning their computation from football and their 110 % effort that is so often advertised.

[BucsBullsBolts]

There should be a comma after silly me...............

Reported today that a female student at King High school had a GPA of 8.08!! Proving once again the the secondary school system of Florida has to be the best in the nation!! NOT!! [banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead] [banghead]

What a total joke the secondary school education in Hillsborough county has become!!


Silly me all along I thought a 4.0 was considered perfect?? Oh wel[/i]l they must be learning their computation from football and their 110 % effort that is so often advertised.

Also, after "Oh well".   

[Blade]

I actually attended King High before they became home to the IB program about a decade ago and graduated with something like a 4.8. (My brother graduated with a 5.2 two years before me.) While I can see how going above a 4.0 seems strange, please realize that for the most part...these GPA's are used only for ranking students within their class in Hills. County. (Most of us were well aware of our "weighted" and "unweighted" GPA's) When I applied to colleges, each individual school had their own formula for calculating my GPA. I know the education system has changed a bit since then...but I can only imagine that it is the same now.

Let me just say that there is some purpose in calculating things that way. From the student's perspective...if a student is motivated to be valedictorian within his class, he only needs to register for classes he can ace. I know in my year, there were actually many students who would have had 4.0's were that the case. Adding .04 for ranking purposes really just incentivized those more difficult courses for most of us. In addition, and perhaps the even bigger reason, counties and schools receive additional funds for offering AP classes. You can't offer classes that nobody is willing to enroll in, so the incentives help the counties and schools earn those extra funds. (This is exactly why previously struggling schools such as Hillsborough and King were given the IB program...to boost funds and increase overall grades/test scores)

[BucsBullsBolts]

I actually attended King High before they became home to the IB program about a decade ago and graduated with something like a 4.8. (My brother graduated with a 5.2 two years before me.) While I can see how going above a 4.0 seems strange, please realize that for the most part...these GPA's are used only for ranking students within their class in Hills. County. (Most of us were well aware of our "weighted" and "unweighted" GPA's) When I applied to colleges, each individual school had their own formula for calculating my GPA. I know the education system has changed a bit since then...but I can only imagine that it is the same now.

Let me just say that there is some purpose in calculating things that way. From the student's perspective...if a student is motivated to be valedictorian within his class, he only needs to register for classes he can ace. I know in my year, there were actually many students who would have had 4.0's were that the case. Adding .04 for ranking purposes really just incentivized those more difficult courses for most of us. In addition, and perhaps the even bigger reason, counties and schools receive additional funds for offering AP classes. You can't offer classes that nobody is willing to enroll in, so the incentives help the counties and schools earn those extra funds. (This is exactly why previously struggling schools such as Hillsborough and King were given the IB program...to boost funds and increase overall grades/test scores)

So, I take it you're not traumatized and belittled by seeing someone get a 8.08 then? 

[bbs]

Anybody notice a 'Nole is taking exception to the grading system??    

[ABuccs Fan]

Karen, you're banned go away psycho!!!

[Blade]

I actually attended King High before they became home to the IB program about a decade ago and graduated with something like a 4.8. (My brother graduated with a 5.2 two years before me.) While I can see how going above a 4.0 seems strange, please realize that for the most part...these GPA's are used only for ranking students within their class in Hills. County. (Most of us were well aware of our "weighted" and "unweighted" GPA's) When I applied to colleges, each individual school had their own formula for calculating my GPA. I know the education system has changed a bit since then...but I can only imagine that it is the same now.

Let me just say that there is some purpose in calculating things that way. From the student's perspective...if a student is motivated to be valedictorian within his class, he only needs to register for classes he can ace. I know in my year, there were actually many students who would have had 4.0's were that the case. Adding .04 for ranking purposes really just incentivized those more difficult courses for most of us. In addition, and perhaps the even bigger reason, counties and schools receive additional funds for offering AP classes. You can't offer classes that nobody is willing to enroll in, so the incentives help the counties and schools earn those extra funds. (This is exactly why previously struggling schools such as Hillsborough and King were given the IB program...to boost funds and increase overall grades/test scores)

So, I take it you're not traumatized and belittled by seeing someone get a 8.08 then?

If a kid gets an 8.08...she'll probably end up filling test tubes in a lab somewhere working anonymously until she finds a cure for some disease. The kid who has a 2.5...becomes President of the United States

[John Galt?]

The big question is who is smarter, the kid that bangs the books day and night to get an 8.08, or the kid that says ''I have everything I need to get into a good college, time to have fun while I still don't have to pay all the bills."?

[acacius]

Bottom line from the comments it seems many believe Educational system in Florida is great and all is wonderful. Carry on Folks! Ignorance is bliss!!

Florida's a big place.  I'm sure there are places in Florida where it really is great.  I know when I went to Satellite High in the mid-90s, we really were a hell of a school.  I don't doubt that there are other schools that don't fare as well.  The brush you're painting with is excessively broad.

[Runole]

Bottom line from the comments it seems many believe Educational system in Florida is great and all is wonderful. Carry on Folks! Ignorance is bliss!!


Keep swallowing the BS!   One thing certain "SELF ESTEEM" is at an all time high.   


I choose to disagree and think that grade inflation and social promotion along with the dumbing down of the curriculum has created an abomination in education today.


Hey EDUCATION has to be great! Aren't they teaching pre- calculus and algebra in the first GRADE?  THAT WILL LEARN EM!!

[Runole]

Bottom line from the comments it seems many believe Educational system in Florida is great and all is wonderful. Carry on Folks! Ignorance is bliss!!

Florida's a big place.  I'm sure there are places in Florida where it really is great.  I know when I went to Satellite High in the mid-90s, we really were a hell of a school.  I don't doubt that there are other schools that don't fare as well.  The brush you're painting with is excessively broad.

So what made you believe you were  a "hell of school"..  Expound on that thought.

[acacius]

So what made you believe you were a "hell of school".. Expound on that thought.

Grrr, I just finised a nice, long-ish reply and had the board crap out on me when I tried to submit it.  Oh well, the short version:

We had a very good faculty.  Mr. Bailey was National Teacher of the Year.  As for Mr. Gimbel, well, my first lab at FSU was Organica Chemistry Lab.  It was fairly routine for our TA to ask us if we'd ever done this or that and have me be the only one to raise my hand, based on my experiences in his class (versus my classmates experiences in honors freshman chemistry at FSU).  Those were the real stand-out teachers, but I don't recall a single one that I would describe as poor.

We had an fairly extraordinary student body.  At least, our success at standardized tests and at pretty much all extracurricular activities (academic, musical and athletic) other than football and basketball suggested as much. 

In short, I feel that SHS was an excellent school while I attended it because I and my fellow students received a high-quality, well-balanced education while we were there.

edit: Oh, right.  And if it makes you feel any better, we didn't use adjusted GPAs.  Oh, we were aware of the concept.  But, well, it's not coincidental that I have no idea what my adjusted GPA would have been (and I took rather a lot of AP classes), whereas I still know what my high school GPA was on a 4.0/4.0 scale.

[mjs020294]

Bottom line from the comments it seems many believe Educational system in Florida is great and all is wonderful. Carry on Folks! Ignorance is bliss!!

Florida's a big place. I'm sure there are places in Florida where it really is great. I know when I went to Satellite High in the mid-90s, we really were a hell of a school. I don't doubt that there are other schools that don't fare as well. The brush you're painting with is excessively broad.

GOOD POINT ^^

Schools in middle class areas of Florida actually ranked 4th or 5th in the nation compared to middle class areas of other states. 

We have some pretty bad areas that drag the statistics down, like most of the states ranked above 40.  If you look at the statewide education rankings many of the states near the top have very few immigrant or heavily ethnic areas.  I am not hating on immigrants or being racist, just pointing out something that skews the rankings/Stats.

[Runole]

Bottom line from the comments it seems many believe Educational system in Florida is great and all is wonderful. Carry on Folks! Ignorance is bliss!!

Florida's a big place. I'm sure there are places in Florida where it really is great. I know when I went to Satellite High in the mid-90s, we really were a hell of a school. I don't doubt that there are other schools that don't fare as well. The brush you're painting with is excessively broad.

GOOD POINT ^^

Schools in middle class areas of Florida actually ranked 4th or 5th in the nation compared to middle class areas of other states. 

We have some pretty bad areas that drag the statistics down, like most of the states ranked above 40.  If you look at the statewide education rankings many of the states near the top have very few immigrant or heavily ethnic areas.  I am not hating on immigrants or being racist, just pointing out something that skews the rankings/Stats.

The Problem is who is doing the ranking and what standards are being used for those rankings.  The system has been broken for quite some time.  Colleges in many places today wouldn't even meet low high school standards of the 60's.  Suggest you read the Bill Maxwell article recently in the St Pete Times.  Actually, it really isn't primarily on the teachers but more on the administration and school boards etc above that are responsible for the mess education is today.



It could be that there truly are these "gems" of academia at the secondary level at other places other than Pinellas and Hillsborough of which I am most familiar, but count me as skeptical from one that has been there and knows how the system works.  ie the academic standards today are a JOKE!!  Sorry to burst the bubble..

Even though no longer teaching, I have several relatives and friends at all levels that lets just say disagree with the assessment that Education in Florida and the US is doing well. 

Of course as Americans we are always the best at everything.   Just ask us!!

I am just not as filled with foolish pride as some I guess.  What is considered College material today would never have been admitted in the 60's and early 70's.   Oh well...

[John Galt?]

Bottom line from the comments it seems many believe Educational system in Florida is great and all is wonderful. Carry on Folks! Ignorance is bliss!!

Florida's a big place. I'm sure there are places in Florida where it really is great. I know when I went to Satellite High in the mid-90s, we really were a hell of a school. I don't doubt that there are other schools that don't fare as well. The brush you're painting with is excessively broad.

Brevard county in general, and Satellite in particular, have had a very good school system for quite a while.  This is due mostly to parents involvement.  Back in the 60's-70s a large proportion of the  pop. was engineers, computer people, and well rocket scientists.  People who understood how important education was and were willing to get involved.

The biggest problem in most Florida cities, is the schools have been underfunded and teachers underpaid.  This is because snow birds and retirees have the time to be politically active and have no interest in schools since their kids have already graduated elsewhere. But the retirees do have an interest in keeping taxes low so they cry against any spending measures at board meetings.  Working parents who would favor spending to improve schools aren't heard as much, because they have to work/can't attend board meetings.

Often in Florida, the squeaky wheel is a retiree with time on his hands wheel that feels he already paid his fair share in Mi,Oh,Il,Wi etc.