More skills based grading at madison hs
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Anonymous
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From back to school night, the new skills-based grading policy is back, this time a tad draconian:
- only tests matter, no grade assigned for other class activities (essays, projects, homework, class participation). There may be some exceptions for their project-based cohort classes, not sure. - no retakes. - each class has a group of about 5 skills, and a current skill test may replace the grade in the immediately previous skill test if it is better. - no more exceptions and accommodations for kids that have a 504/IEP plan incompatible with test taking While last year's skills based implementation looked at where the kid was at the end of the year (averaged latest 3 skill-based tests), this year the entire year's average is taken, with the possibility to replace a grade once. Kids could recover nicely if they put in the work last year. Not so this year. Importantly, teachers no longer have the option to use alternative ways to test skills -- only tests matter. Thoughts? Personally, I feel the new policy is no longer a skills-based grading policy, but a test-based one. Skills-based would mean reporting on where the student is at the time of the report, as measured holistically across the entirety of their work. This is not it. Test-based means many snapshots of test performance throughout the school year, without any other input, averaged over the year. Works well for good test takers, leaves behind kids with attention deficit, dyslexia, anxiety, or simply poor test takers, at a time when even colleges and educators are moving away from test-based evaluations. I'm not sure why this seems like a good idea. Any other FCPS HS schools following a similar policy? Marshall? Oakton? |
Anonymous
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no more exceptions and accommodations for kids that have a 504/IEP plan incompatible with test taking.
What?!?!? I'm confused what this means |
Anonymous
Yeah, I’m thinking OP has completely misinterpreted it. They can’t deny IEP/504s legally. Lol. |
Anonymous
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From square #1, OP is misrepresenting the policy. But I get it, OP...you are against it and want to persuade others to be against it as well.
For everyone else, you might read the details straight from Madison's website. Misrepresentation #1 is that nothing but tests make us the grade. From the published policy: "Assessment is defined as a culminating learning experience (i.e. project, presentation, exhibition, test, essay, etc.). " So that tells you something about OP's rant. Here's the full policy: https://madisonhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting I think my kid will adapt to this just fine. He's smart enough to receive the message that he won't do well in AP physics or Precalc/Trig if he doesn't do the practice work. If this message isn't getting through to your kid, I'd work on that. |
Anonymous
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Wow, OP. You are batsh*t and a liar.
Madison students are reassessed on skills over time with opportunities for grade replacement rather than a traditional retake on each assessment. Madison’s reassessment model focuses on decreasing student stress while encouraging the development of mastery over time. |
Anonymous
Absolutely false. Your post should be taken down. |
Anonymous
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Glad you have the neurotypical kid who can adapt pp. Keep up the good work. Those of use parenting smart kids with learning differences don't feel quite as easy about the change.
The communication from teachers during bts night was extremely crisp: tests only. There may be some exceptions in some classes, but that is not what I heard from the teachers i listened to. Because you seem unfamiliar with learning differences, schools are under no legal obligation to honor an accommodation request (504). While an IEP is binding, it only covers the need for special instruction, rather than anything about in-class evaluation and grading. Test accommodations apply to state mandated tests, and not in-classroom test-based grading. Bottom line, the school is still expected to evaluate kids on an inclusive and fair basis that works for a diverse range of kids in attendance. Under this policy, kids with learning differences do not have a recourse. If the math, chem, history, even english teacher decides -- as they have -- that tests are the "culminating learning experience", then these kids will fall through the cracks. I can fill my kid with dyslexia and adhd with all the ritalin their dr will allow -- there will be mistakes made in a 1.5h test with 60-100 multi-choice problem taken in their 5th hour of attendance. They simply cannot keep the focus that long. When those 100 problems are divided along the 5 or so skills, solid chances are that skills tested at the end of the period will consistently be weak -- often triggering a failing grade. Without a chance to make over the skills over a few testing periods, even if the teachers rotate the order of skills assessed from one test to the next, the failing grade remains. I'm not talking about beating your kid into princeton through A+s on all-AP classes. I'm talking about a fair B in their non-HN class, that reflects their solid understanding of the material and skills developed, rather than their inability to focus for 1.5h on a test and making careless mistakes along the way. This policy is detrimental to both their mental well being and unfair to their grades. More importantly, this is not implemented as a "skills-based" grade. And, it is the type of grading that the world has been moving away from. And yes, I am posting here, to better figure out if the community understands the more minute implications of the policy. There was a long conversation about this in May, and many good points were surfaced. But back then, people were only looking at the skills-based policy from last years, which was uniquely able to equalize achievement for non-typical kids. The new one reuses the name but is a 180 change from last year. |
Anonymous
I am experienced, not a liar. I understand what worked uniquely well last year, and understand this is fundamentally different. Last year, we indeed had the opportunity to reassess skills over time, and grades that reflected the final achievement of students over the school year. While testing was still 90-100% of the grade, distribution over time allowed for a fairer asessment for kids who could not deliver focussed attention over 60-90 minutes of testing at the end of the day. This year, that is replaced with one single opportunity for grade replacement, still in one long sitting. This is not the same, and does not work for students with learning differences. |
Anonymous
| Multiple teachers at back to school night openly acknowledged how confusing/ridiculous this new grading scheme was. It seemed over the top confusing to me as an adult, I can’t imagine how teens are supposed to understand it. Doesn’t seem like there is any recourse for parents/students if even the teachers are powerless to change the system. One potential idea to fix things at least for this year might be to just go with the highest score of the multiple tests on a skill, rather than this weird replacement strategy of the most recent test only. |
Anonymous
The whole point is to confuse, that way it is much easier to use SBG to create a better grade distribution across the school. Less Fs, Ds, and As, and more Cs and Bs. All part of the equity plan. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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This is how Madison explains it. It is insanity! However, it seems more like grade inflation than a detriment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNvfPlr3YKI&t=715s |
Anonymous
^ FF to 8:50 |
Anonymous
It is grade inflation for the students who would previously had failed. But it is also grade deflation at the top, which teachers confirmed at back to school night. Much harder to get an A. |
Anonymous
How? This example would have been B C B A vs what it was B B A A. A good student at the top would just have A A A A or maybe 3 Bs and an A or what this example kid got 2 Bs and 2 As. How does that deflate a top student? It doesn't. You can only go up, not down. Trick is to start strong and keep your grades up, which is what every kid has to do. Madison is actually making things easier because the kid doesn't have to improve on content (re-assess), just do better on next content. Seems a poster child for grade inflation. |