I'm expecting this whole thing to deepen educational class divides.
Public schools will struggle to teach kids anything, and to distinguish between A grades that were earned and those achieved largely through cheating, while parents will resist efforts to switch to grading schemes that can't be trivially gamed (just try switching to only-in-person-tests-count grading and witness the rage that follows when Little Johnny's grades plummet). Kids who lean on the motivation from graded homework to get themselves to do the work (and so, learn the material) will struggle, as well, even if that is allowed to happen.
This will enhance the reputations of schools that can buck the trend, applying more resources (mostly more teachers, for smaller class sizes, to make it easier to keep an eye on everything and really gauge & guide learning progress for each student) and an "if you don't like it, fuck off to somewhere else" attitude to parent complaints about grading practices. Which means, elite private schools will benefit.
I expect that a 4.0 from a public school will mean almost nothing, while at the same time coming in under a 4.0 will look terrible ("everyone cheats and you still couldn't get a 4.0? How dumb are you!?") which will just worsen the cheating problem.
Maybe parents will surprise me and not throw shit-fits over solutions to this, and public schools will be able to implement them. But I doubt it.
Public schools will struggle to teach kids anything, and to distinguish between A grades that were earned and those achieved largely through cheating, while parents will resist efforts to switch to grading schemes that can't be trivially gamed (just try switching to only-in-person-tests-count grading and witness the rage that follows when Little Johnny's grades plummet). Kids who lean on the motivation from graded homework to get themselves to do the work (and so, learn the material) will struggle, as well, even if that is allowed to happen.
This will enhance the reputations of schools that can buck the trend, applying more resources (mostly more teachers, for smaller class sizes, to make it easier to keep an eye on everything and really gauge & guide learning progress for each student) and an "if you don't like it, fuck off to somewhere else" attitude to parent complaints about grading practices. Which means, elite private schools will benefit.
I expect that a 4.0 from a public school will mean almost nothing, while at the same time coming in under a 4.0 will look terrible ("everyone cheats and you still couldn't get a 4.0? How dumb are you!?") which will just worsen the cheating problem.
Maybe parents will surprise me and not throw shit-fits over solutions to this, and public schools will be able to implement them. But I doubt it.