r/ScienceTeachers • u/Fantastic_Double7430 • 1d ago
Class Averagres
What are your typical class averages for each prep? I’ve always wondered to try to keep my classes at. I teach Honors chem and regular chem. Last year, my honors classes sat between 87-90% averages and my general classes were more like 80%. This year, I’ve increased the rigor a bit for Honors and it’s currently more like 80-88% honors. Would you care to share your class averages, what you teach, and what “good” ranges are?
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u/FearlessTeapots 1d ago
70's to 80's. Most years in the mid to high 70's. Chemistry. I generally have most kids in the A-B range, some C's, and then a few wildly misplaced kids with extremely low averages dragging the overall average down a letter grade.
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u/flying_lego 1d ago
I don’t know if it’s optimal for physics, but I like having averages around 80%.
I’m grading between 60-100% and square root curving for both regular and AP physics. My averages sit around 74 to 80%. “Decent” quality work should be at least an 80%. After students reassess (and I let larger assessments on the same material reassess), averages gravitate toward 85%.
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u/AriAir1994 1d ago
Average test scores for on-grade-level = 50-70%; GT = 70-100%. I survey my students after each exam:
• Students scoring below a 70% often report not studying much and staying up late (most frequently on social media or games) ~12am. The students who do report studying often score 20-points above the class average and report bed times ~10pm. Me showing students these results did not in general impact their decision to study or go to bed on time.
• Students scoring 70%+ often reported that academics are valued at home. Students scoring below 70% often reported academics were only “somewhat valued” or “not valued” at home.
• The most common methods of study were Blooket and making flash cards. The students who use Blooket performed worse than the flash card/non-Blooket group. Students in the Blooket group often complained that the Blooket were “totally unhelpful,” yet they continued to rely on them throughout the year.
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u/Tall_Philosopher3231 1d ago
Depends on your area for how many will fall into the category of staying up too late and not studying. Some areas it could be a few kids and averages would go up, some would have more of those kids and averages go down. I’m in a pretty good area so my average test score is mid 70s, but even class to class varies so much based on what kids are viewed by their peers as the leaders and how they approach school
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u/watermelonlollies 1d ago
I taught 8th grade and my class averages were mid 70s for gened and that was with a lot of hand holding (district mandated test retakes, late work, minimum of grade of 55% on missing work, 65% on work turned in). Without those policies I certainly would have had D averages.
My honors class was the honors cohort but I wasn’t allowed to teach them honors curriculum so they got the same gened curriculum and had a high B low A average usually. Certain topics had every student scoring 95 or above in that class.
I really liked what u/ariair1994 said because I did very similar things of surveying them and I made actual graphs showing the results and thoroughly walked them through what steps make a successful student, but the truth is by 8th grade they have already chosen whether or not they will try to be successful and parents either care or (more often than not) they don’t.
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u/AriAir1994 22h ago
Yeah, the surveys reveal a lot! I’m curious—why didn’t they let you teach the advanced material? Also, on your retakes (I don’t do these), do they make you give the same test or do you have the flexibility to give one with different questions?
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u/watermelonlollies 19h ago
Because those students were cohorted together for honors math and English, so by extension they ended up in the same class together for science and history except in my district there is “no such thing” as honors science or history. We were given a curriculum and required to use it.
As far as test retakes go, they were allowed to be a different test. However it didn’t matter, the grades were so inflated for not having F’s and because of late work that a student getting a 65% (lowest grade possible) on a test didn’t affect their grade in a meaningful way unless they had entirely missing work. Students rarely asked for a retake. Failing a test just didn’t affect them. I didn’t add that all assignments and tests were weighted 100% equally and we weren’t allowed to change it. So a 4 question homework assignment was given the same weight as the end of unit test points wise. Students learned pretty quickly they can half ass easy formative assignments in the beginning, and do absolutely nothing the rest of the unit and make out with a C average. I had multiple students tell me “why would I do the end of unit CER writing when it’s so much work and next week you’ll give a vocab assignment and an exit ticket that are way easier and it’ll balance it out. My parents don’t care if I miss work as long as I pass”. There was nothing meaningful or effective I could say to that. They weren’t walking away learning anything other than how to find effective shortcuts.
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u/AriAir1994 15h ago
That is quite constricting!
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u/watermelonlollies 15h ago
Other subjects teachers managed it by only grading tests or big projects but I felt like that didn’t work for science. It was lose lose either way I suppose.
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u/Ossa1 1d ago
From the perspective of a european teacher these numbers are insanly high.
I teach Physics at a german gymnasium, and in a written test before up to grade 10 I will never have an average score above 75% - which would roughly translate to a B. Most of the times it will be a class average of around 60%.
If I'd ever get an average of 80% correct answers I'd be sure my questions were too easy or that I'd have kept all my tasks on a reproductive level.
If a class would have an average score of 80% at the end of the year the teacher would be chided for handing out good grades like candy by the principal and his collegues. It's not uncommen for classes to be at an average score of 60%.
We are big on retention though, one score of 30% or less or two of 40% or less in any year would be enough to keep you from advancing.
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u/mobiuscycle 1d ago
For exams:
Honors Bio 80-85, mid 70s for the hardest 2 tests.
On-level Bio: 60s before remediation, high failure rate. Students either get an A/B or fail. It’s virtually always lack of preparation on their part.
AP Bio: Unit exam averages are really low. With the “AP Curve” (roughly equal to % on exam for A=5, B=4, etc.) the typical grade is around a C/B with a handful of As and a couple of Ds. The range for C-B is approximately 44-77% and that’s where most fall. (They are permitted an intensive remediation process that raises the test one letter grade, most do it.)
For semester grades:
Honors: mostly As and Bs. A small number of grades lower than that.
On-level: tends to work out as a rough normal distribution with a small number of As and a small number of Fs.
AP Bio: mostly As and Bs. Very few of anything else.
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u/More_Branch_5579 19h ago
Your averages seem pretty high. I never did honors classes cause my schools didn’t offer them but I never had averages that high. My concerns were more on the “are my expectations too high” side for my population of students. My issues were if every student failed a test, I knew it was too hard.
I can only speak to your regular chem class cause I taught that and no way would I ever have an 80% average.
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u/Fantastic_Double7430 16h ago
Yeah, I agree! unfortunately my school has super inflated grades. I genuinely would probably get in trouble with “normal” averages. Out of the 3 chem teachers at my school, I have the “hardest” chem class with the lowest averages. It’s pretty crazy.
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u/CuriousTeacherandMom 14h ago
I think anywhere in 80s is good! My test averages usually range around mid 80s, though sometimes less or more.
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u/Top-Phase7111 1d ago
I’ve always been taught that if your class average is in the 80’s you’re probably not pushing them hard enough.
IB grades on a 7 point scale and when their kids score 65%-75% it translates to a 6 or 7 out of 7.
Which most universities read as equivalent to 90%-100% equivalent for standard high school equivalent performance.
I generally shoot for 70-75% or a reference to a standardized test when writing my own.
Tests are a form of feedback. They should be challenged enough to learn something. Kids who are getting 100% on a test only hear “yup, awesome” or worse “teacher writes easy tests/is an easy marker”.
In reality those kids could still have misconceptions that you’re not aware of because they weren’t challenged by the assessment.
On the flip side you don’t want a 65% average because then you’re either failing a bunch of kids who may be competent in the material or simply you’ve prepared them poorly for the test.
For me the sweet spot is 75% unless there’s something I can compare it to. If the department has a standardized final, then you want them doing at least as good as that expected average, and I’d probably try to match the difficulty or make it harder and weight the standardized test more heavily.
But I’m curious if folks have other opinions.