Aspen - grades posted late and incorrectly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My High schooler has all of 5 grades in her history class for the whole marking period? Can this possibly be correct? I emailed the teacher a week ago and no response. Daughter reached out to the teacher and the response was "I have been doing this a long time, you just have to trust me" (I think this response is utter nonsense, but thats a whole other issue)

DCPS teacher here. That is a violation of the contract and the grading policy, yes. Aspen won’t even allow final term grades to post with that few entries.

I do my best to stay on top of my grades. I’ve read some truly horrifying examples here that would anger me too, as a parent. I’ve also read some very entitled comments that anger me, as a teacher

We’re in the midst of a teaching shortage. Most of us who teach at Title 1 schools regularly lose planning/grading periods in the day to cover classes. (This also means that, as a postpartum mom, I lose my pumping break.) One way parents could help would be to put pressure on central office for subs and better pay for subs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I hear you but trust me kids copy hw no matter what. You don’t think kids copy paper and pen assignments? Also there are websites with multiple choice and lots of question banks. Guess what kids do? They screen shot or take pictures of their answers with their phone and share them with friends. Or they look up answers on their phone while working on their laptops. At some point you have to just acknowledge that kids will find a way to cheat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I hear you but trust me kids copy hw no matter what. You don’t think kids copy paper and pen assignments? Also there are websites with multiple choice and lots of question banks. Guess what kids do? They screen shot or take pictures of their answers with their phone and share them with friends. Or they look up answers on their phone while working on their laptops. At some point you have to just acknowledge that kids will find a way to cheat.

My point was that with technology it’s easy to give each kid completely different assignments with different answers, so copying wouldn’t be an issue. You can also disable copy- paste and do a lot of other things to discourage cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I hear you but trust me kids copy hw no matter what. You don’t think kids copy paper and pen assignments? Also there are websites with multiple choice and lots of question banks. Guess what kids do? They screen shot or take pictures of their answers with their phone and share them with friends. Or they look up answers on their phone while working on their laptops. At some point you have to just acknowledge that kids will find a way to cheat.

My point was that with technology it’s easy to give each kid completely different assignments with different answers, so copying wouldn’t be an issue. You can also disable copy- paste and do a lot of other things to discourage cheating.

No. All the ELA and upper-level history teachers (the history that requires essays) say “thank you for your thoughts, but no”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I hear you but trust me kids copy hw no matter what. You don’t think kids copy paper and pen assignments? Also there are websites with multiple choice and lots of question banks. Guess what kids do? They screen shot or take pictures of their answers with their phone and share them with friends. Or they look up answers on their phone while working on their laptops. At some point you have to just acknowledge that kids will find a way to cheat.

My point was that with technology it’s easy to give each kid completely different assignments with different answers, so copying wouldn’t be an issue. You can also disable copy- paste and do a lot of other things to discourage cheating.

The technology would give 125 different versions of the same assignment? That seems incredibly difficult without changing the challenge of it.

[Anonymous]

Well this is infuriating. The advisory ended Friday, teacher is uploading grades today as WS - which DS has done and submitted. Tried to talk to teacher today to have it fixed, and is being told it can't be changed because the advisory ended Friday. How is this acceptable??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I hear you but trust me kids copy hw no matter what. You don’t think kids copy paper and pen assignments? Also there are websites with multiple choice and lots of question banks. Guess what kids do? They screen shot or take pictures of their answers with their phone and share them with friends. Or they look up answers on their phone while working on their laptops. At some point you have to just acknowledge that kids will find a way to cheat.

My point was that with technology it’s easy to give each kid completely different assignments with different answers, so copying wouldn’t be an issue. You can also disable copy- paste and do a lot of other things to discourage cheating.

No. All the ELA and upper-level history teachers (the history that requires essays) say “thank you for your thoughts, but no”.

The system I was suggesting would be for short answer and multiple choice assignments, which, contrary to what most people think, can be very challenging and through provoking.

For essays, generative AI was doing as well as trained teachers as 2023 and will be substantially better at it than trained humans by 2024. You will probably tell me I'm wrong, but that's what the research shows.

https://www.the74million.org/article/ai-can-grade-a-student-essay-as-well-as-a-human-but-it-cannot-replace-a-teacher/

Thoughtfully leveraging technology would allow teachers to focus on teaching and spend less time on things like entering grades into gradebooks, which seems like a good idea to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I hear you but trust me kids copy hw no matter what. You don’t think kids copy paper and pen assignments? Also there are websites with multiple choice and lots of question banks. Guess what kids do? They screen shot or take pictures of their answers with their phone and share them with friends. Or they look up answers on their phone while working on their laptops. At some point you have to just acknowledge that kids will find a way to cheat.

My point was that with technology it’s easy to give each kid completely different assignments with different answers, so copying wouldn’t be an issue. You can also disable copy- paste and do a lot of other things to discourage cheating.

The technology would give 125 different versions of the same assignment? That seems incredibly difficult without changing the challenge of it.

It would need to be done at scale -- like thousands of teachers contributing questions or having generative AI generate thousands of questions and have them reviewed by humans. There would also need to be metrics, so that questions downvoted by lots of teachers or missed by lots of students would be eliminated or reworked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well this is infuriating. The advisory ended Friday, teacher is uploading grades today as WS - which DS has done and submitted. Tried to talk to teacher today to have it fixed, and is being told it can't be changed because the advisory ended Friday. How is this acceptable??

Send an email now to the AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I’m a HS science teacher and love these suggestions. Teachers spend so much time recreating the wheel.
It is inefficient and a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.



At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

I’m a HS science teacher and love these suggestions. Teachers spend so much time recreating the wheel.
It is inefficient and a waste of time.

I played around with gpt a week ago just to get an idea of a quiz it might write. It wasn’t good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. All this microscopic following of grades and parental management is exhausting to me. Just.can’t. Do. It. I have kids still in DCPS and kids in college. It all worked out, getting into college, without all of the stressful monitoring and intervening. I know it depends on the student, but why not try letting go and seeing what happens? Intervention could be saved for when your student asks for your help. Good luck everyone. Life’s too short…

The cycle for literally every single DCPS family that I know — particularly those with kids who struggle with LDs and/or ADDH — looks something like this:

Parent intends to let kid handle things and doesn’t look at Aspen until end of the advisory. Kid has Fs or Ds posted in multiple classes.

Parents freak out and yell at kid.

Kid says “I turned all of those things in.”

Parent asks kid to contact teacher.

Kid talks to teacher. Teacher claims items not turned in, won’t listen to kid. Kid asks parent for help.

Parent emails teacher.

Teacher ignores the email.

Parent emails again and cc:s admin.

Teacher responds “Oh, I found the assignment”, or “Aspen isn’t working for me”, or some random excuse.

Extra points when parent requests a meeting after teacher has insisted that kid didn’t turn in the work, and during the meeting parent happens to look down and see one “missing” assignment for their kid literally sitting on the teacher’s desk and then finds another gathering dust at the bottom of the tray where kids are supposed to turn in work — along with weeks of other “missing” work for other students.

My kid at Wilson got to the point that they emailed teachers a copy of all assignments before handing them in (they’d use CamScanner to take a scan of handwritten work). This was the story for elementary, middle, and high school.

OMG -- THIS! +1000! this has been our experience at JR in 9th this year, as well as in younger child's DCPS middle. It's like gaslighting all around! How does all this technology make everything somehow WORSE!? Don't get me started on Canvas assignments that disappear into the ether!

I also agree that the actual level of education is eons better in private school (I went to a top one), but maybe our kids will grow up to be effective advocates for themselves. When the robots control everything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).

This is why parents should love online platforms like Canvas. It is time stamped and you can prove something was turned in. I know on the flip side that’s why some teachers like it. Kids can’t claim to their parents that they turned something in but the teacher lost it.

As an IT guy, this stuff makes me crazy. Teachers assign and grade stuff in Canvass, right? Then do they have to manually enter grades in Aspen? If so, that’s nuts.

Also, JR and Walls kids routinely have chat groups for classes where one kid does the assignment then posts a picture for all the other kids to copy. Technology can easily solve this.

There is no need to individual teachers to create new and unique homework assignments and tests for standard HS classes. You could easily have sets of thousands of questions, and each kid completes homework specific to them (and tailored based on questions they missed previously in a subject like math or foreign language). The work could be multiple choice or require typed answers, and grading could be automated or at worst the teacher could grade online and grade book would be automatically updated.

Teacher time could them be spent discussing subject matter with kids or helping individual students.

Yup, all this would be amazing (teacher here). By the way, MCPS uses a different grade book system called Synergy. It has some issues but thankfully you can synch grades directly from Canvas.