Archived News Item

Grades For Thought

Back to the grindstone.

To welcome y’all back, here’s some juice: Through backchannel means (phone taps, double agents, finding stuff on the ground), I have come into the possession of some mildly tantalizing info, which by all appearances is a compiled data sheet of all grades given to BHS students in the first quarter of last year (yes, the last school year, 2003–2004), broken down by subject and department.

Some highlights:

• Only one student was failing AP Calculus AB. Only one student was failing AP Calculus BC. Only two students were failing AP Statistics — however, only 8 of them were getting A’s, out of about a hundred total.
• Integrated Science students received some of the worst marks, with 37% failing; Physical Science students had only 34% failing, but had only four A’s. Conversely, BioTech students did staggeringly well.
• Students tended to do unusually well in History and English elective classes — though both History and English classes in general have significantly higher averages than their Science and Math counterparts, anyway
• Zero students had an A in Geometry B/Algebra II A (an “in between” class, second semester of Geometry, first semester of Algebra II), but 46% had D’s. That’s beaten by Algebra B/Geometry A, though, where more than half of the students were failing.

Take a look. A few disclaimers: This data should be taken “as is,” because I don’t know anything about it beyond what it says on the sheet; remember that these grades are from one quarter only, of last year; and remember that numbers are just numbers, not stories. And don’t mind the smudgy images, it’s scanned from a half-crumpled paper.

This year’s ITPs, or Independent Theater Productions, is coming up — February 11, 12, 18, and 19, at the Hillside Club on 2286 Cedar. I’ll announce the times when I’m made aware of them, but clear your schedule; this is something you don’t want to miss. Of all the various arts, activities, programs, and groups associated with Berkeley High, ITPs is far and away my favorite; it’s an independently-run, student-directed (and acted, and produced) set of performances done yearly by BHS acting and theater luminaries. Check it out. It’s worth an evening.

One of the awesome little memes that’s crept its way to fame around here is TeacherQuotes.net, a user-submitted collection of noteworthy quotes made by teachers at BHS — and actually, now, just about anywhere. Yes sir, it’s growing, with a couple dozen institutions, nearly two thousand quotes, and many, many teachers represented.

The idea is simple: Your teacher says something dumb, funny, or otherwise worthy of publication, you make a note of it (mental or otherwise), and when you can get to a computer, you submit it to the site. Everyone reads and giggles, you can browse through the latest submissions or through all of the quotes from a certain teacher or school, and it’s all really quite swank. One of those great masterworks from the BHS “difficult kids” (you know, the ones who make stuff like BerkeleyHigh.org), and a damned fine look at the sort of stuff that passes for normal in classes here. Check it out.

— Brandon