Grade changes

[Anonymous]

My child has had two classes in the past year where his grade has been inaccurate on the report card. He is in middle school.

Once was due to Covid-related absences when the teacher said he was excused, then didn't actually excuse the grade, he asked again, she said sorry she'd change it, and she still never changed it. He would have happily done the work but it wasn't Canvas accessible and she kept tell him not to worry. This was Q4 and she left the school so I contacted the counsellor since it was so complicated. Report card was re-issued.

Now it's happened again: with an assignment he clearly did, but the teacher never graded it in Synergy. I know he did it because she graded it, on time, in Canvas. He asked her about it and she said it would be there. Then it wasn't. When he mentioned it after the grading period ended she sighed and said that it was a lot of work for her to change it. Apparently another kid had the same issue and my kid witnessed the same conversation. It's almost as if she is refusing to correct her mistake?

In both cases it was documented as a B for the quarter but he earned an A. I am not letting that slide.

I asked him to write his counsellor directly this time. His email was fine, but obviously awkward and it isn't totally clear he did the work (he was trying to be polite). I am concerned the counsellor will think he's a grade grubber, which he isn't, and he's already admitted to a magnet, so I guess there's nothing on the line. But I am frustrated this has happened twice! Is this happening anyone else?

[Anonymous]

You had your kid do the correct thing. Learning to advocate for oneself is a necessary skill. You and your child should absolutely follow this up until it is corrected properly. Your child should give it a couple of days and if no response is received. Your child should send a followup email to the counselor and teacher asking when this situation will be resolved and copy you. That way you can then come in as their advocate and followup as necessary.

[Anonymous]

You need to address it to the teacher, not the counselor. You should fill out a grade change form.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/forms/pdf/355-27a.pdf

Have kid email teacher and cc counselor and you. Stand over kid and dictate the email. Something like “Dear teacher- it seems that at the end of the quarter one of my grades didn’t transfer properly from canvas to synergy and my final grade is a B when it should be an A. I have attached the change request form. Please let me know if this is the correct way to fix it, or if I should use a different process. Thank you. -student”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You had your kid do the correct thing. Learning to advocate for oneself is a necessary skill. You and your child should absolutely follow this up until it is corrected properly. Your child should give it a couple of days and if no response is received. Your child should send a followup email to the counselor and teacher asking when this situation will be resolved and copy you. That way you can then come in as their advocate and followup as necessary.

Let me guess - is your child is Asian? I've seen it happen before. A warning that this is how underlying racism at MCPS occurs.

If anyone says this phrase, my guess is this is probably someone at MCPS covering these incidents up. I truly believe MCPS CO doesn't want other parents knowing or making a fuss about it.

DOCUMENT E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G AND HAVE A LAWYER READY.

If another "accident" occurs, bypass the MCPS CFP route and file a formal complaint directly with the Department of Education OCR.

[Anonymous]

And if anyone says it isn't true - just start a class action lawsuit and advertise it in the news.

My guess is that you'll see more than one instance of this pop out of the woodwork...

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you did all the right things. I agree with PP about teaching kids to advocate. Ignore the crazy conspiracy theorist!

But, I also think you will want to keep an eye on this and follow up if needed. After all, kud is only in middle school. I would email teacher and copy counselor if you think you need to weigh in.

Congrats on tge admit!

[Anonymous]

Interesting, almost the same thing happened to my middle schooler. Teacher said she was going to grade three assignments in science but then didn’t. I had my son advocate for himself but she scolded him. I emailed her myself and she completely ignored me. In this case, his grade was a high C but should have been an A. He is not going to be considered for a magnet program because of this. All his other grades are As. I’ve had conference with her previously and she just basically said my son doesn’t participate and is checked out. No other teacher has said anything like that. We are Asian but I don’t think that has anything to do with it, but it really feels like the teacher has it in for him. I just used it as a learning lesson that there will be difficult people throughout your life and you have to find ways to deal with them.

[Anonymous]

I had this just this last Q. Teacher excused my DD from something when she was excused absent and said it was just a one day thing and she can't make it up. She asked multiple times in person and via email to remove it from the grade. She never did. She received an 89.2 - a B because of it. Still working on getting it fixed as her grade without would be a 91.4

It's exhausting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You had your kid do the correct thing. Learning to advocate for oneself is a necessary skill. You and your child should absolutely follow this up until it is corrected properly. Your child should give it a couple of days and if no response is received. Your child should send a followup email to the counselor and teacher asking when this situation will be resolved and copy you. That way you can then come in as their advocate and followup as necessary.

Let me guess - is your child is Asian? I've seen it happen before. A warning that this is how underlying racism at MCPS occurs.

If anyone says this phrase, my guess is this is probably someone at MCPS covering these incidents up. I truly believe MCPS CO doesn't want other parents knowing or making a fuss about it.

DOCUMENT E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G AND HAVE A LAWYER READY.

If another "accident" occurs, bypass the MCPS CFP route and file a formal complaint directly with the Department of Education OCR.

You would be wrong in your assumption that this was written by an MCPS employee. I’m actual a parent, of color at that. Children do need to learn to advocate for themselves. They also need to learn confidence, grace, and when/how to push for things. Same as they need to understand how to ask for help. The reason I suggested the OP child’s start the chain is so that these skills are built in the student, but also so there is a paper trail. The followup email which includes the parent furthers that paper trail and shows that not only was a teacher not responsive on a critical issue for a student, but then neither was a counselor. This way when a parent gets involved and goes to admin or worse a lawyer there is evidence of several instance of lack of respect and accountability. Hopefully, it doesn’t come to this and instead what is gained is not only the proper grade but an opportunity for a child to grow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You had your kid do the correct thing. Learning to advocate for oneself is a necessary skill. You and your child should absolutely follow this up until it is corrected properly. Your child should give it a couple of days and if no response is received. Your child should send a followup email to the counselor and teacher asking when this situation will be resolved and copy you. That way you can then come in as their advocate and followup as necessary.

Let me guess - is your child is Asian? I've seen it happen before. A warning that this is how underlying racism at MCPS occurs.

If anyone says this phrase, my guess is this is probably someone at MCPS covering these incidents up. I truly believe MCPS CO doesn't want other parents knowing or making a fuss about it.

DOCUMENT E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G AND HAVE A LAWYER READY.

If another "accident" occurs, bypass the MCPS CFP route and file a formal complaint directly with the Department of Education OCR.

OP here.

Couple things:

1. When this happened the first time they counsellor changed the grade pretty quickly without asking for proof. Which was weird but I knew it was right so I was happy. I was nervous about the "reissued report card" but the magnet my child got into was actually centered around the subject with the grade at issue, so that worked out.

2. My child is a straight up white boy. Whitest of white. Weird rant. Thanks tho?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You had your kid do the correct thing. Learning to advocate for oneself is a necessary skill. You and your child should absolutely follow this up until it is corrected properly. Your child should give it a couple of days and if no response is received. Your child should send a followup email to the counselor and teacher asking when this situation will be resolved and copy you. That way you can then come in as their advocate and followup as necessary.

Let me guess - is your child is Asian? I've seen it happen before. A warning that this is how underlying racism at MCPS occurs.

If anyone says this phrase, my guess is this is probably someone at MCPS covering these incidents up. I truly believe MCPS CO doesn't want other parents knowing or making a fuss about it.

DOCUMENT E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G AND HAVE A LAWYER READY.

If another "accident" occurs, bypass the MCPS CFP route and file a formal complaint directly with the Department of Education OCR.

Oh FFS Asians aren’t discriminated against in schools. Quite the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has had two classes in the past year where his grade has been inaccurate on the report card. He is in middle school.

Once was due to Covid-related absences when the teacher said he was excused, then didn't actually excuse the grade, he asked again, she said sorry she'd change it, and she still never changed it. He would have happily done the work but it wasn't Canvas accessible and she kept tell him not to worry. This was Q4 and she left the school so I contacted the counsellor since it was so complicated. Report card was re-issued.

Now it's happened again: with an assignment he clearly did, but the teacher never graded it in Synergy. I know he did it because she graded it, on time, in Canvas. He asked her about it and she said it would be there. Then it wasn't. When he mentioned it after the grading period ended she sighed and said that it was a lot of work for her to change it. Apparently another kid had the same issue and my kid witnessed the same conversation. It's almost as if she is refusing to correct her mistake?

In both cases it was documented as a B for the quarter but he earned an A. I am not letting that slide.

I asked him to write his counsellor directly this time. His email was fine, but obviously awkward and it isn't totally clear he did the work (he was trying to be polite). I am concerned the counsellor will think he's a grade grubber, which he isn't, and he's already admitted to a magnet, so I guess there's nothing on the line. But I am frustrated this has happened twice! Is this happening anyone else?

This is an 8th grader. He needs to learn to advocate for himself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting, almost the same thing happened to my middle schooler. Teacher said she was going to grade three assignments in science but then didn’t. I had my son advocate for himself but she scolded him. I emailed her myself and she completely ignored me. In this case, his grade was a high C but should have been an A. He is not going to be considered for a magnet program because of this. All his other grades are As. I’ve had conference with her previously and she just basically said my son doesn’t participate and is checked out. No other teacher has said anything like that. We are Asian but I don’t think that has anything to do with it, but it really feels like the teacher has it in for him. I just used it as a learning lesson that there will be difficult people throughout your life and you have to find ways to deal with them.

This is NOT how the STEM magnet admissions work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You had your kid do the correct thing. Learning to advocate for oneself is a necessary skill. You and your child should absolutely follow this up until it is corrected properly. Your child should give it a couple of days and if no response is received. Your child should send a followup email to the counselor and teacher asking when this situation will be resolved and copy you. That way you can then come in as their advocate and followup as necessary.

Let me guess - is your child is Asian? I've seen it happen before. A warning that this is how underlying racism at MCPS occurs.

If anyone says this phrase, my guess is this is probably someone at MCPS covering these incidents up. I truly believe MCPS CO doesn't want other parents knowing or making a fuss about it.

DOCUMENT E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G AND HAVE A LAWYER READY.

If another "accident" occurs, bypass the MCPS CFP route and file a formal complaint directly with the Department of Education OCR.

OP here.

Couple things:

1. When this happened the first time they counsellor changed the grade pretty quickly without asking for proof. Which was weird but I knew it was right so I was happy. I was nervous about the "reissued report card" but the magnet my child got into was actually centered around the subject with the grade at issue, so that worked out.

2. My child is a straight up white boy. Whitest of white. Weird rant. Thanks tho?

Glad it worked out for you, but yes, it happens to white kids as well - just more to asians, I believe.

For any parents out there who has this happen to their child, make a fuss and let others know. The people who do this will only be outed if enough proof builds up.

Don't let it slide.