Do you care about how semester grades will show up on your kids' transcript? Email the BOE ASAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As usual MCPS is operating reactively with no planning. If you are not going to have semester grade, why have a Q3 grade? Why were teachers told to give ample opportunities to get grades up after the shutdown? What was the point of it?

There was worry that parents would explode if MP 3 grades simply disappeared. The idea was to push them as high as possible although they wouldn’t matter for long.

My principal says MCOS is preparing for class action lawsuits over distance learning.

I would like to transfer to the school that pushed the grades up for 3rd quarter. Where is it?

You’d have an easier time finding the one school that didn’t. Teachers system wide were asked to excuse any Zs, including those pre-pandemic. Removing even a single Z will instantly boost grades.

It may be true that they brought up the bottom, but I don't think it's true that they did any favors for already high-achieving children. They had to work hard, and in our case it was like walking a tightrope without a net. Massive adjustment to a new learning style, no actual instruction.

[Anonymous]

The BOE doesn’t always go along if parents are opposed. Write the BOE! It’s easy. Send an email and it’s copied to all members.

[Anonymous]

Why would a college penalize someone who opted to have a "pass" grade on their transcript during COVID-19? Even if other students at the same school opted to have a letter grade in the same class. Colleges know that everything is a mess right now. They will take the whole context into account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would a college penalize someone who opted to have a "pass" grade on their transcript during COVID-19? Even if other students at the same school opted to have a letter grade in the same class. Colleges know that everything is a mess right now. They will take the whole context into account.

Exactly. No logical reason at all to not give students a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As usual MCPS is operating reactively with no planning. If you are not going to have semester grade, why have a Q3 grade? Why were teachers told to give ample opportunities to get grades up after the shutdown? What was the point of it?

There was worry that parents would explode if MP 3 grades simply disappeared. The idea was to push them as high as possible although they wouldn’t matter for long.

My principal says MCOS is preparing for class action lawsuits over distance learning.

I would like to transfer to the school that pushed the grades up for 3rd quarter. Where is it?

You’d have an easier time finding the one school that didn’t. Teachers system wide were asked to excuse any Zs, including those pre-pandemic. Removing even a single Z will instantly boost grades.

It may be true that they brought up the bottom, but I don't think it's true that they did any favors for already high-achieving children. They had to work hard, and in our case it was like walking a tightrope without a net. Massive adjustment to a new learning style, no actual instruction.

I teach highly gifted students. As you know, highly gifted students are often very emotionally sensitive and have a higher rate of anxiety than other children. About 20% of my students were not ready to resume learning when we reopened instruction on 4/6. It took a lot of parent contact to get those students to just come to Zoom, let alone complete work. Trust me, many high achieving kids in MCPS were done favors by changing Zs to Xs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As usual MCPS is operating reactively with no planning. If you are not going to have semester grade, why have a Q3 grade? Why were teachers told to give ample opportunities to get grades up after the shutdown? What was the point of it?

There was worry that parents would explode if MP 3 grades simply disappeared. The idea was to push them as high as possible although they wouldn’t matter for long.

My principal says MCOS is preparing for class action lawsuits over distance learning.

I would like to transfer to the school that pushed the grades up for 3rd quarter. Where is it?

You’d have an easier time finding the one school that didn’t. Teachers system wide were asked to excuse any Zs, including those pre-pandemic. Removing even a single Z will instantly boost grades.

It may be true that they brought up the bottom, but I don't think it's true that they did any favors for already high-achieving children. They had to work hard, and in our case it was like walking a tightrope without a net. Massive adjustment to a new learning style, no actual instruction.

I teach highly gifted students. As you know, highly gifted students are often very emotionally sensitive and have a higher rate of anxiety than other children. About 20% of my students were not ready to resume learning when we reopened instruction on 4/6. It took a lot of parent contact to get those students to just come to Zoom, let alone complete work. Trust me, many high achieving kids in MCPS were done favors by changing Zs to Xs.

And many hard-working average kids are getting screwed. All the private schools will give grades (look over at the private school forum.) So will many other public school systems. MCPS kids will have 1 less semester of grades factored into their GPAs. At least give kids a choice - and make sure there's some incentive to do the miniscule amount of work that HS kids are getting under this system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As usual MCPS is operating reactively with no planning. If you are not going to have semester grade, why have a Q3 grade? Why were teachers told to give ample opportunities to get grades up after the shutdown? What was the point of it?

There was worry that parents would explode if MP 3 grades simply disappeared. The idea was to push them as high as possible although they wouldn’t matter for long.

My principal says MCOS is preparing for class action lawsuits over distance learning.

I would like to transfer to the school that pushed the grades up for 3rd quarter. Where is it?

You’d have an easier time finding the one school that didn’t. Teachers system wide were asked to excuse any Zs, including those pre-pandemic. Removing even a single Z will instantly boost grades.

It may be true that they brought up the bottom, but I don't think it's true that they did any favors for already high-achieving children. They had to work hard, and in our case it was like walking a tightrope without a net. Massive adjustment to a new learning style, no actual instruction.

I teach highly gifted students. As you know, highly gifted students are often very emotionally sensitive and have a higher rate of anxiety than other children. About 20% of my students were not ready to resume learning when we reopened instruction on 4/6. It took a lot of parent contact to get those students to just come to Zoom, let alone complete work. Trust me, many high achieving kids in MCPS were done favors by changing Zs to Xs.

And many hard-working average kids are getting screwed. All the private schools will give grades (look over at the private school forum.) So will many other public school systems. MCPS kids will have 1 less semester of grades factored into their GPAs. At least give kids a choice - and make sure there's some incentive to do the miniscule amount of work that HS kids are getting under this system.

I completely support giving kids a choice. My own child is a high performer and has straight As for MP 3. I just don’t want us to pretend that the grading policy was done for the sake of consistently low-performing students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I teach highly gifted students. As you know, highly gifted students are often very emotionally sensitive and have a higher rate of anxiety than other children. About 20% of my students were not ready to resume learning when we reopened instruction on 4/6. It took a lot of parent contact to get those students to just come to Zoom, let alone complete work. Trust me, many high achieving kids in MCPS were done favors by changing Zs to Xs.

I didn't know that. The kids in my kids' MCPS gifted magnet programs always seemed to me to be basically like any other group of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I apologize in advance if this was already mentioned. I read that Howard Co Public Schools will consider "Pass" an A in calculation of the semester grade. This is far from perfect, but for those students that worked hard on their 3rd quarter grades this seems the most fair. For the majority of 3rd quarter, students were in school so I feel these grades should be considered in the semester grades. Another option, if allow students to chose to have their 3rd quarter grades reflected as their semester grade (if they received "Pass" marks on the 4th quarter report card).

+1

I really like this idea. It's not fair to the kids to just wipe out 3rd quarter grades by making the whole semester Pass / Fail. And, it's also not fair to say just use the 3Q grades where they stood before school closed. But, making 4th quarter's pass grade = to an A gives all kids an opportunity to move their grade up at least one letter grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I apologize in advance if this was already mentioned. I read that Howard Co Public Schools will consider "Pass" an A in calculation of the semester grade. This is far from perfect, but for those students that worked hard on their 3rd quarter grades this seems the most fair. For the majority of 3rd quarter, students were in school so I feel these grades should be considered in the semester grades. Another option, if allow students to chose to have their 3rd quarter grades reflected as their semester grade (if they received "Pass" marks on the 4th quarter report card).

+1

I really like this idea. It's not fair to the kids to just wipe out 3rd quarter grades by making the whole semester Pass / Fail. And, it's also not fair to say just use the 3Q grades where they stood before school closed. But, making 4th quarter's pass grade = to an A gives all kids an opportunity to move their grade up at least one letter grade.

It's choosing grade inflation over the absence of grades. But it might be a better encouragement for kids to do the work.

[Anonymous]

in case everyone forgets in a few years, they should develop a note for the transcript about the reason for the lack of grades and call it a day.

[Anonymous]

Our former system was MCPS. Our current system is offering pass/fail, but if students earned good grades, their grades will be reflected on their transcripts if they opt for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I teach highly gifted students. As you know, highly gifted students are often very emotionally sensitive and have a higher rate of anxiety than other children. About 20% of my students were not ready to resume learning when we reopened instruction on 4/6. It took a lot of parent contact to get those students to just come to Zoom, let alone complete work. Trust me, many high achieving kids in MCPS were done favors by changing Zs to Xs.

I didn't know that. The kids in my kids' MCPS gifted magnet programs always seemed to me to be basically like any other group of kids.

yeah - That's an exaggeration. I've taught gifted kids (test-in high school magnets). highly sensitive? maybe a handful in a crew of 130 - But the rest were fine. Sometimes teachers like to feel needed by encouraging dependency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in case everyone forgets in a few years, they should develop a note for the transcript about the reason for the lack of grades and call it a day.

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I teach highly gifted students. As you know, highly gifted students are often very emotionally sensitive and have a higher rate of anxiety than other children. About 20% of my students were not ready to resume learning when we reopened instruction on 4/6. It took a lot of parent contact to get those students to just come to Zoom, let alone complete work. Trust me, many high achieving kids in MCPS were done favors by changing Zs to Xs.

I didn't know that. The kids in my kids' MCPS gifted magnet programs always seemed to me to be basically like any other group of kids.

yeah - That's an exaggeration. I've taught gifted kids (test-in high school magnets). highly sensitive? maybe a handful in a crew of 130 - But the rest were fine. Sometimes teachers like to feel needed by encouraging dependency.

You should read up on the research.

http://www.madeiracityschools.org/userfiles/85/Classes/4054/2030001.pdf

https://www.davidsongifted.org/search-database/entry/a10750