HS Teachers, I'm curious-- do this semester's grade distributions look different from prior years?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A Separate Peace was one of our summer reading books before starting 9th grade. Ditto for my DS. I haven’t heard of the other book. Is it really a graphic novel? If so, that’s something kids can read on their own. That’s sad if that’s what they are reading in school as an assignment.

The Magic Fish is an LGBTQ+ graphic novel that takes about a half hour to read cover to cover.

I’m actually shocked that the Moms for Liberty aren’t opting out of this.

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Fish-Trung-Nguyen/dp/1984851594/Ik

Why are you surprised there’s a brown person on the front.

Hes not brown. He’s yellow

Not to mom’s of liberty.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Not going to try to figure out the mess of the quote thread from my original post about all my kids having zeros.

We do graded work in class every single day. Most PP assignments are assignments that are designed to be done in a single class period. the AT assignments are assignments that will be worked on over 2-3 days. Everything we do in my class can and should be completed in class with no expectation of actual homework. However, if they don't use their time in class wisely, they then have to do it at home. The issue is that a lot of these 9th graders seem to think that they don't have to finish or do anything at home.

I even tell my kids at least 3-4 times a semester that turning in an incomplete assignment can still potentially earn them a 50% which is better than a 0. They still won't do it. They complete 70% of the assignment in class and then throw it away when they leave the room. It's weird but hopefully they get the wake up call they need

Do you at least expect your English students to read the books on their own? Or are you giving them time in class for that too? This sounds like very low standards and expectations, but I realize that is built into the MCPS-written curriculum.

As a matter of fact, I am an English teacher and yes we do the reading in class. PDF and Audiobook versions of the book are available on Canvas for students to follow along at home but it's not required. Sadly, we don't actually require the students to read the entire book but rather selected close reading passages. If they choose to read the rest of the book that's on them.

That is pathetic.

It really is. I hate that i have to do it this way but its the only way we can ensure the kids read ANY of the book. One of my colleagues required kids to read at home and not shockingly only 1 of 20 kids in the class made it past page 6 before giving up.

Do you feel this way about dyslexic students??

It’s because of those students we read in class exclusively and not at home. I do small groups with my students who need it

It’s not because of those students it’s because it’s the best way to teach.

It’s not pathetic that they can’t read a whole book in the same amount of time you need them to to teach it, btw.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Not going to try to figure out the mess of the quote thread from my original post about all my kids having zeros.

We do graded work in class every single day. Most PP assignments are assignments that are designed to be done in a single class period. the AT assignments are assignments that will be worked on over 2-3 days. Everything we do in my class can and should be completed in class with no expectation of actual homework. However, if they don't use their time in class wisely, they then have to do it at home. The issue is that a lot of these 9th graders seem to think that they don't have to finish or do anything at home.

I even tell my kids at least 3-4 times a semester that turning in an incomplete assignment can still potentially earn them a 50% which is better than a 0. They still won't do it. They complete 70% of the assignment in class and then throw it away when they leave the room. It's weird but hopefully they get the wake up call they need

Do you at least expect your English students to read the books on their own? Or are you giving them time in class for that too? This sounds like very low standards and expectations, but I realize that is built into the MCPS-written curriculum.

As a matter of fact, I am an English teacher and yes we do the reading in class. PDF and Audiobook versions of the book are available on Canvas for students to follow along at home but it's not required. Sadly, we don't actually require the students to read the entire book but rather selected close reading passages. If they choose to read the rest of the book that's on them.

That is pathetic.

It really is. I hate that i have to do it this way but its the only way we can ensure the kids read ANY of the book. One of my colleagues required kids to read at home and not shockingly only 1 of 20 kids in the class made it past page 6 before giving up.

Do they have a paper copy of the book or just a pdf? If just the latter, it’s not surprising that they don’t read all of it.

I personally bought 20 copies of the book for one of my classes so they could take them home. I also posted 20 minute long videos summarizing and discussing each chapter. Not a single was opened all quarter.

That sucks, you definitely should not have had to do that. We desperately need real, paper books and:

- remedial classes for 9th graders who can’t read a 100pp 4th-grade level book
- “on-level” for 9th graders who are able but don’t want to
- “honors” for kids able and willing to read 9th graders who are level books

[Anonymous]

^ 9th grade level books

[Anonymous]

I spend like 20% of my income on my students. I buy them supplies, books, meals etc. Even bought a kid new shoes.

Its just money. I will make more and I cant take it with me when i die. Which will be sometime soon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The downside is when a kid has a tough first quarter in a class, gets a B (84.5)for whatever reason then tries really hard and has a 93 for the second quarter, but still ends up with a B for the semester as if they hadn’t tried hard the last half. Sort of demoralizing for that kid. Seems like they could find a way to do this where an A above a certain level means the semester remains a A? That is upward trajectory of effort and skills, is it not? Makes some kids feel like “ why did I put in so much more effort if I still end up with the B?” (Or C in some other cases for others other there I am sure)

In the past, the final exam helped in this respect. If a student had a B and an A (either order), the final exam decided the semester grade. Teachers would help students learn the concepts so that they could do well on the final. Last year, it was simply about doing the assignment.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

I hope you reached out to your team lead or department head to assist you in managing this. You have terrible or even catastrophic stats and really need to figure out how to work through this if you expect to keep your job. I’m not a teacher but it seems like there have to be strategies beyond extending due dates to get kids to a passing level.

Teacher here at a different school. This is not that unusual actually. Assuming that the previous teacher is at a low income/high immigrant school, you will be shocked at how appalling attendance can be. Two years ago, I had a kid who attended 5 days of school out of a full year and administrators pressured me to pass her so she could graduate. That stuff is harder to pull off now - as it should be.

You're right that I am shocked. It doesn't surprise me that some kids have bad attendance and, probably in most cases, consequently bad grades. But the numbers are what shock me. Especially given that it's an honors course. I don't understand why kids who have poor attendance would even be signing up for honors classes. Regardless, at this point, though, I would think that at least some of that would be weeded out by the attendance policy that calls for disenrollment after a certain number of absences - which actually happened to one of my kids who had to be out for medical reasons.

You mention that part of what shocks you is that this is an Honors Course. I am also a 9th grade English teacher in MCPS. Keep in mind that, at the majority of schools, Honors English is the only course offered. I've been teaching in MCPS for 28 years. I started in middle school, and for the first decade of my teaching career, the material I was teaching to 7th and 8th grade honors students was significantly more challenging than the current "honors" 9th grade curriculum. High achieving students are at such a disadvantage under the current system because there is such a wide disparity in the abilities of students that we are practically teaching the "honors" course at a remedial level.

The powers that be would tell you that "differentiation is key", but in a class of 30 students, you cannot possibly teach anyone at a level that is truly honors. In a given section, I might have half a dozen students who are diligent, high achieving students. In addition, I might have 6-8 IEP students, 3-4 ESL (English as a second language - remember these kids are being put directly into our English classes for the most part), and a handful of 504 students. Over half the class has some set of accommodations that I am legally bound to meet, along with others who probably need accommodations but have yet to be identified as such. Trust me when I say that it is the bright, capable students who want to be challenged that are falling through the cracks. If you are the parent of such a student, I highly recommend having them take as many AP courses as possible because they are the only "real" honors classes being offered in many cases.

And have you seen the literature on the new English curriculum? The novel choices in Quarter 1 include All American Boys, A Separate Peace, and a graphic novel. While the subjects may be appropriate for 9th graders, the reading level of these books is about 6th grade or so. Compare this to the literary quality of books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, and Of Mice and Men.

And no one is reading A Separate Peace. It's ridiculous.

The new curriculum for MS is harder than the 9th grade English curriculum for "honors" courses. Pathetic.

We gave our 9th graders the option to read A Separate Peace and 100% of them chose to read the graphic novel The Magic Fish instead

Well of course (most) kids aren't going to choose to read A Separate Peace over a graphic novel on their own! That's why there are teachers to assign them books.

Agree - why would teachers give kids this option?

The inmates are running the asylum.

The idea is that students will be more engaged in the learning if they are given options. The idea is also that students inherently care about school, want to learn, and enjoy being challenged.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I kept a running tally all semester of how many times I had to tell each student to get off their phone, put headphones away, get off youtube or games, etc. Last week I checked to see which students would fall a percentage point short of the next higher semester grade. Students who had less than 3 strikes, I made sure I found that extra percentage point somewhere in their MP2 grade and bumped them up.

Is it fair to the student who barely missed an A but had a phone addiction? Maybe not. Do I care? Nope. Sometimes it pays to follow the rules

Teacher here. I like this approach. I bumped up a few kids who were on the edge of a higher grade if they actively engaged in class (asked and answered questions consistently, etc.,) and a few who showed strong effort and a genuine interest in learning

Do you just give them a higher grade than deserves on assignments? Because extra credit is not allowed under the grading regulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A Separate Peace was one of our summer reading books before starting 9th grade. Ditto for my DS. I haven’t heard of the other book. Is it really a graphic novel? If so, that’s something kids can read on their own. That’s sad if that’s what they are reading in school as an assignment.

The Magic Fish is an LGBTQ+ graphic novel that takes about a half hour to read cover to cover.

I’m actually shocked that the Moms for Liberty aren’t opting out of this.

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Fish-Trung-Nguyen/dp/1984851594/Ik

Why are you surprised there’s a brown person on the front.

Obviously becauee it’s an LGBT book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I kept a running tally all semester of how many times I had to tell each student to get off their phone, put headphones away, get off youtube or games, etc. Last week I checked to see which students would fall a percentage point short of the next higher semester grade. Students who had less than 3 strikes, I made sure I found that extra percentage point somewhere in their MP2 grade and bumped them up.

Is it fair to the student who barely missed an A but had a phone addiction? Maybe not. Do I care? Nope. Sometimes it pays to follow the rules

Teacher here. I like this approach. I bumped up a few kids who were on the edge of a higher grade if they actively engaged in class (asked and answered questions consistently, etc.,) and a few who showed strong effort and a genuine interest in learning

Do you just give them a higher grade than deserves on assignments? Because extra credit is not allowed under the grading regulation.

Yes. A 18 out of 20 becomes a 19. A 45 out of 50 becomes a 47. I'm not giving an A on an assignment to a kid who originally had a D or anything like that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parent here. It has to change. DD's AP Calc BC teacher warned us at BTSN that our kids, maybe for the first time in their lives, would have Bs. And it's true - DD has an A for the semester, but a B for the last quarter. Her first B in math.

I love this new grading policy, BTW. It's so much more fair than the previous one.

Explain that to me like I'm five. Are you one of these people who think grading needs to be on a bell curve to be "fair?"

PP you replied to. I hated the old system of using quarter letter grades to determine semester letter grades. That's not granular enough. It's much more accurate to calculate the average of the number grade for each quarter to get the semester grade, and then convert that to a letter.

Ideally, we wouldn't even have letter grades. We would just stick to numbers. This is how most of the world does it.

I don't know what you're referring regarding bell curves.

Some people complain about grading and their definition of "fair" is for As to be rationed. So, a bell curve looks like a few kids failing or getting Ds, a peak of kids getting Bs and Cs and then sloping down so only a few get As.

It's arbitrary as hell, because it suggests that not all students can master the material or should be given the opportunity to (even though that's what secondary school is for).

Usually, these are parents of either high-performing or highly-pushed kids who resent that other kids who struggle more are given the opportunity to earn the same marks with things like retakes, etc. It's a really backwards and twisted way to think.

Not going to argue the bell curve, but I will say that not all students can master a given set of material.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:In the old system, a student could earn a 79.5 (Marking Period 1) and an 89.5 (Marking Period 2) and earn an A for the semester. And they would earn the same grade as someone who earned a 98 and a 95. So yes, there are probably more students earning Bs, but the new system is a MUCH more accurate reflection of students' abilities.

explain how you came to this
mathematically dubious claim

This was literally the policy, with a chart to explain.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Teacher here. A C in a MCPS course is pretty bad. It means your kid doesn’t know the content. It is not hard to earn a C. Either your kid is not understanding the content even at a basic level or your kid has bad executive functioning and is not turning in assignments. Does your kid ever go to office hours for extra support?

He just wasn't putting in the work. It was a hard class that was not in his comfort zone and he shut down. We actually know plenty of kids with Cs in MCPS courses (it was just the first time for my kid). Some kids struggle with ADHD, LDs, etc. I don't know what course you teach, but not everyone in MCPS has a 4.9 WGPA, even though you'd think that's the case from reading DCUM!

Yes, but then you argued that this was "unfair" to happen during his Junior year. Under the old system, kids who did put in the work and pushed through to master content would have been competing for college admissions with those who "shut down." but had similar GPAs Now that didn't seem fair.

Give it up already! Even under the old system I can promise you my kid was not competing with your kid for a spot at a highly selective college. My academically good-to-average kid isn't the reason it's gotten harder for kids like yours to get into those types of schools. I'm sorry my kid getting a C in one class has been so triggering for you. And if you're not the same person who made the super rude comment before, I'm sorry there are two of you who have been so triggered by my initial, very inoffensive post).

I'm a different person, but you do see that arguing the system is unfair and then admitting that your DS didn't put in the work kind of deserves to be called out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I kept a running tally all semester of how many times I had to tell each student to get off their phone, put headphones away, get off youtube or games, etc. Last week I checked to see which students would fall a percentage point short of the next higher semester grade. Students who had less than 3 strikes, I made sure I found that extra percentage point somewhere in their MP2 grade and bumped them up.

Is it fair to the student who barely missed an A but had a phone addiction? Maybe not. Do I care? Nope. Sometimes it pays to follow the rules

Teacher here. I like this approach. I bumped up a few kids who were on the edge of a higher grade if they actively engaged in class (asked and answered questions consistently, etc.,) and a few who showed strong effort and a genuine interest in learning

Do you just give them a higher grade than deserves on assignments? Because extra credit is not allowed under the grading regulation.

Yes. A 18 out of 20 becomes a 19. A 45 out of 50 becomes a 47. I'm not giving an A on an assignment to a kid who originally had a D or anything like that.

That's wrong.

I'm a college professor and if I bump one person I bump everyone. It's too easy to harm students with subjectivity by adding points after the fact, just because you want to (they were nice, they talked in class, they came to class). I'm disappointed to hear this is happening. It seems ripe for abuse and easier for privileged kids to get better grades because they "show" better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not going to try to figure out the mess of the quote thread from my original post about all my kids having zeros.

We do graded work in class every single day. Most PP assignments are assignments that are designed to be done in a single class period. the AT assignments are assignments that will be worked on over 2-3 days. Everything we do in my class can and should be completed in class with no expectation of actual homework. However, if they don't use their time in class wisely, they then have to do it at home. The issue is that a lot of these 9th graders seem to think that they don't have to finish or do anything at home.

I even tell my kids at least 3-4 times a semester that turning in an incomplete assignment can still potentially earn them a 50% which is better than a 0. They still won't do it. They complete 70% of the assignment in class and then throw it away when they leave the room. It's weird but hopefully they get the wake up call they need

Do you at least expect your English students to read the books on their own? Or are you giving them time in class for that too? This sounds like very low standards and expectations, but I realize that is built into the MCPS-written curriculum.

As a matter of fact, I am an English teacher and yes we do the reading in class. PDF and Audiobook versions of the book are available on Canvas for students to follow along at home but it's not required. Sadly, we don't actually require the students to read the entire book but rather selected close reading passages. If they choose to read the rest of the book that's on them.

That is pathetic.

It really is. I hate that i have to do it this way but its the only way we can ensure the kids read ANY of the book. One of my colleagues required kids to read at home and not shockingly only 1 of 20 kids in the class made it past page 6 before giving up.

Do you feel this way about dyslexic students??

Sorry about the extra struggles, but if dyslexic students can't read the assignments, they shouldn't be in that class OR they should have a lower grade. That's kind of the point of grades - to communicate the student's level of mastery.