Teacher Not Grading - Now Quarter is Over

[Anonymous]

Advice on this situation:

DD in 10th grade. Teacher for an elective class has not been grading assignments all semester. At interims, a few things were graded (literally 3) and the grade was a B. Appeared to start grading other assignments last week. By Friday, grade was A in ParentVue. Yay. Phew.


Today, grade is D in StudentVue. A few more assignments were graded, but most still not. So, it's possible that if my DD was doing really badly in class, I had no way of knowing, and she had no way of knowing.

DD is highly anxious and is now freaking out. She is not actually anxious about grades - not even a particularly good student. But this is an elective, and she rightfully sees that anything lower than a B is really bad, given the class.

She tried to talk to teacher during class period today and, according to my DD, the teacher just said to make an appointment to talk to her. DD does exaggerate, so it's also possible she got pissy with teacher and teacher just didn't want to talk to her then. But, the situation still stands that, if she was doing badly in the class, neither my DD nor me were to know.

TIA for any thoughts on what to do.

[Anonymous]

Your post doesn't make it clear what happened exactly. Were assignments missing, incomplete, completed poorly? You are right to start with student to teacher communication. If that does not work, you have a conversation. D+A=B, so things are still salvagable, once your kid understands what went wrong and how to earn an A 2nd quarter.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for not being clear. Assignments were completed, but are still showing up in StudentVue as not graded. Perhaps my DD did not do something, but the majority are simply not graded. Her current D is based on 3 to 4 of probably 10 to 12 assignments. Apparently some peers are also worried.

[Anonymous]

This is terrible. I am all for teachers being busy, but I think it is ridiculous when they don't return assignments in a timely manner such that a student can learn from their mistakes.

[Anonymous]

Ungraded assignments wouldn’t cause a grade to fall from A to D in Synergy. That’s just not how the software works. An ungraded assignments is seen as 100%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ungraded assignments wouldn’t cause a grade to fall from A to D in Synergy. That’s just not how the software works. An ungraded assignments is seen as 100%.

NP. I'll go slowly, so you can keep up. As old assignments are graded, the grade changes. The OP is concerned that her kid was doing poorly in the class all along, but didn't know it because nothing was graded. And now, at the end of the quarter, it's too late to do anything to change the grade.

It's really not that difficult.

[Anonymous]

You should probably send the teacher an email to find out what went wrong

[Anonymous]

Email the teacher and cc the department head (resource teacher). Request a meeting with both ASAP (before Thanksgiving), to review what happened in 1st quarter and understand what will be coming up in 2nd Qtr. Frame it from the perspective of helping you daughter understand the course requirements and how to earn a better grade. In the process, the resource teacher will see what has happened and will either clarify to you and your daughter, or give guidance to the teacher. Be sure to walk out of the meeting with a clear, documented plan for what the teacher will do, what your daughter will do, and when everyone will check in to see that plan is going well.

If the problem really is the teacher, the RT knows that already. It’s not helpful to try to pin blame or backtrack to what should’ve happened in 1st Qtr. If you stick to the framing of what your DD needs to do to be successful and document it in detail, as long as she meets her end of the bargain, she’ll get the grades she earns. (Because RT will know that admin/principal will hear about it otherwise.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Email the teacher and cc the department head (resource teacher). Request a meeting with both ASAP (before Thanksgiving), to review what happened in 1st quarter and understand what will be coming up in 2nd Qtr. Frame it from the perspective of helping you daughter understand the course requirements and how to earn a better grade. In the process, the resource teacher will see what has happened and will either clarify to you and your daughter, or give guidance to the teacher. Be sure to walk out of the meeting with a clear, documented plan for what the teacher will do, what your daughter will do, and when everyone will check in to see that plan is going well.

If the problem really is the teacher, the RT knows that already. It’s not helpful to try to pin blame or backtrack to what should’ve happened in 1st Qtr. If you stick to the framing of what your DD needs to do to be successful and document it in detail, as long as she meets her end of the bargain, she’ll get the grades she earns. (Because RT will know that admin/principal will hear about it otherwise.)

This is really good advice.

[Anonymous]

This happened to us a couple of years ago, but the D grade made it back up to an A by the time the teacher finally finished grading.

I think many kids in the class emailed the teacher expressing surprise and concern, which caused him to either double check or else find extra points to avoid the hurricane of complaints.

Teachers who are too disorganized to grade before the deadline probably also made mistakes with uploads, etc. So what you're currently seeing may well not be the final final.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to us a couple of years ago, but the D grade made it back up to an A by the time the teacher finally finished grading.

I think many kids in the class emailed the teacher expressing surprise and concern, which caused him to either double check or else find extra points to avoid the hurricane of complaints.

Teachers who are too disorganized to grade before the deadline probably also made mistakes with uploads, etc. So what you're currently seeing may well not be the final final.

Why do you assume it is disorganization? Maybe this teacher is spending her planning periods covering for other teachers because that's what we all are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to us a couple of years ago, but the D grade made it back up to an A by the time the teacher finally finished grading.

I think many kids in the class emailed the teacher expressing surprise and concern, which caused him to either double check or else find extra points to avoid the hurricane of complaints.

Teachers who are too disorganized to grade before the deadline probably also made mistakes with uploads, etc. So what you're currently seeing may well not be the final final.

Why do you assume it is disorganization? Maybe this teacher is spending her planning periods covering for other teachers because that's what we all are doing.

Periods? A full time teacher is only required to have one planning period. Part time teachers get even less. Imagine being responsible for over 100 students but less than an hour a day to plan. Planning is different than grading by the way. In the best case scenario, a teacher gets time to grade the current assignments before planning the following lessons. But that’s now how MCPS works in most content areas. Teachers are required to keep shoving curriculum down kids’ throats regardless of mastery of previous content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to us a couple of years ago, but the D grade made it back up to an A by the time the teacher finally finished grading.

I think many kids in the class emailed the teacher expressing surprise and concern, which caused him to either double check or else find extra points to avoid the hurricane of complaints.

Teachers who are too disorganized to grade before the deadline probably also made mistakes with uploads, etc. So what you're currently seeing may well not be the final final.

Why do you assume it is disorganization? Maybe this teacher is spending her planning periods covering for other teachers because that's what we all are doing.

Periods? A full time teacher is only required to have one planning period. Part time teachers get even less. Imagine being responsible for over 100 students but less than an hour a day to plan. Planning is different than grading by the way. In the best case scenario, a teacher gets time to grade the current assignments before planning the following lessons. But that’s now how MCPS works in most content areas. Teachers are required to keep shoving curriculum down kids’ throats regardless of mastery of previous content.

I meant planning periods over a week’s time. Most teachers get one per day. If they are subbing during that period, they aren’t planning or grading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to us a couple of years ago, but the D grade made it back up to an A by the time the teacher finally finished grading.

I think many kids in the class emailed the teacher expressing surprise and concern, which caused him to either double check or else find extra points to avoid the hurricane of complaints.

Teachers who are too disorganized to grade before the deadline probably also made mistakes with uploads, etc. So what you're currently seeing may well not be the final final.

Why do you assume it is disorganization? Maybe this teacher is spending her planning periods covering for other teachers because that's what we all are doing.

Periods? A full time teacher is only required to have one planning period. Part time teachers get even less. Imagine being responsible for over 100 students but less than an hour a day to plan. Planning is different than grading by the way. In the best case scenario, a teacher gets time to grade the current assignments before planning the following lessons. But that’s now how MCPS works in most content areas. Teachers are required to keep shoving curriculum down kids’ throats regardless of mastery of previous content.

Our principal has made it clear that no one should expect a planning period until the coverage crisis is over. If you get one or two to plan, grade, or make parent contact, that’s nice, but don’t feel entitled to it when warm bodies are needed to supervise children. We spend 4 periods a week in meetings and usually the other 5-6 in coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to us a couple of years ago, but the D grade made it back up to an A by the time the teacher finally finished grading.

I think many kids in the class emailed the teacher expressing surprise and concern, which caused him to either double check or else find extra points to avoid the hurricane of complaints.

Teachers who are too disorganized to grade before the deadline probably also made mistakes with uploads, etc. So what you're currently seeing may well not be the final final.

Why do you assume it is disorganization? Maybe this teacher is spending her planning periods covering for other teachers because that's what we all are doing.

Periods? A full time teacher is only required to have one planning period. Part time teachers get even less. Imagine being responsible for over 100 students but less than an hour a day to plan. Planning is different than grading by the way. In the best case scenario, a teacher gets time to grade the current assignments before planning the following lessons. But that’s now how MCPS works in most content areas. Teachers are required to keep shoving curriculum down kids’ throats regardless of mastery of previous content.

Our principal has made it clear that no one should expect a planning period until the coverage crisis is over. If you get one or two to plan, grade, or make parent contact, that’s nice, but don’t feel entitled to it when warm bodies are needed to supervise children. We spend 4 periods a week in meetings and usually the other 5-6 in coverage.

We are entitled to planning periods as stated in our contract.