50% rule question - do different schools interpret it different?

[Anonymous]

This rule has come up in a few threads recently but at DC's school the teachers definitely give 0s. It's not just one teacher. Some give 0s for assignments not turned in while others give 0s at their discretion when they think a student has not put in enough effort. How does your child's school interpret this?

[Anonymous]

It’s interpreted different by different departments in our HS.

[Anonymous]

At my DS high school, it is a 0 if a PP assignment is not turned in by the due date, but 50% in the AT category. At least that’s what he understands.

[Anonymous]

Our teachers do give lower than 50% so if you get an assignment wrong you are better off not doing it but we have not seen 50%, just 0 or low scores. They are not allowed to make up tests or quizzes, just a limited number of some assignments. Its not consistent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my DS high school, it is a 0 if a PP assignment is not turned in by the due date, but 50% in the AT category. At least that’s what he understands.

At DC's school they do give 0s on AT assignments. Why can't MCPS offer guidance to create consistency?

[Anonymous]

The 50% rule officially reads: The following grading practices are prohibited: Assigning a grade lower than 50 percent to a task/assessment. However, if a student does no work on the task/assessment, the teacher will assign a zero. If a teacher determines the student did not attempt to meet the basic requirements of the task/assessment or the student engaged in academic dishonesty, the teacher may assign a zero.

I have taught at schools where we could never give below a 50%. Others that say that we can give a zero if we had two way communication with the parents about a missing assignment.


https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

[Anonymous]

what do PP and OT stand for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 50% rule officially reads: The following grading practices are prohibited: Assigning a grade lower than 50 percent to a task/assessment. However, if a student does no work on the task/assessment, the teacher will assign a zero. If a teacher determines the student did not attempt to meet the basic requirements of the task/assessment or the student engaged in academic dishonesty, the teacher may assign a zero.

I have taught at schools where we could never give below a 50%. Others that say that we can give a zero if we had two way communication with the parents about a missing assignment.


https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

So I respond to your first email only...my kid gets a 50. If I respond to your second email he gets a 0. If I were a teacher I would only rarely bother to contact a parent.

[Anonymous]

I’m a high school teacher at Wheaton. We are not allowed to give anything below a 50% in the All Task Category (90% of the grade). If the student “tries” (basically puts their name on it), we have to give at least a 55%.

For the Practice Prep Category (10% of the grade), we are allowed to give 0% for assignments not turned in by the due date. Some teachers still give 50%. IMO, PP is worth so little of the grade, a 0% does nothing. I don’t give 50% for PP because I feel like it’s the only piece of accountability the teacher still has left. I also refuse to grade tons of late PP at the end of the quarter. It literally stands for “Practice.” If the kids are not practicing on time, what good does it do to turn it in last minute?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 50% rule officially reads: The following grading practices are prohibited: Assigning a grade lower than 50 percent to a task/assessment. However, if a student does no work on the task/assessment, the teacher will assign a zero. If a teacher determines the student did not attempt to meet the basic requirements of the task/assessment or the student engaged in academic dishonesty, the teacher may assign a zero.

I have taught at schools where we could never give below a 50%. Others that say that we can give a zero if we had two way communication with the parents about a missing assignment.


https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

What is written above is the official BOE policy. A few years back, Central Office staff decided that parents should be contacted if a student is to receive a zero. That is when the rule of two way communication was started. However, this was not an official MCPS policy as dictated by the BOE. It was a "rule" decided upon by the Central Office staff who cannot actually make policy without the BOE's consent. As a result, different schools and even departments within a school have different procedures in place.


I do wonder -- is there a difference in passing rates, student engagement, student achievement, etc between schools giving zeros and schools with the mandatory 50%?

[Anonymous]

Dumbest idea of all time. How do you get 50% of a score when you don't hand anything in on time? Give them all the zeros they deserve. Fail them all. If kids cannot pass, then start fining the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school teacher at Wheaton. We are not allowed to give anything below a 50% in the All Task Category (90% of the grade). If the student “tries” (basically puts their name on it), we have to give at least a 55%.

For the Practice Prep Category (10% of the grade), we are allowed to give 0% for assignments not turned in by the due date. Some teachers still give 50%. IMO, PP is worth so little of the grade, a 0% does nothing. I don’t give 50% for PP because I feel like it’s the only piece of accountability the teacher still has left. I also refuse to grade tons of late PP at the end of the quarter. It literally stands for “Practice.” If the kids are not practicing on time, what good does it do to turn it in last minute?

Absolutely mind warping. America is hopeless.

All of these kids need be given F grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 50% rule officially reads: The following grading practices are prohibited: Assigning a grade lower than 50 percent to a task/assessment. However, if a student does no work on the task/assessment, the teacher will assign a zero. If a teacher determines the student did not attempt to meet the basic requirements of the task/assessment or the student engaged in academic dishonesty, the teacher may assign a zero.

I have taught at schools where we could never give below a 50%. Others that say that we can give a zero if we had two way communication with the parents about a missing assignment.


https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

What is written above is the official BOE policy. A few years back, Central Office staff decided that parents should be contacted if a student is to receive a zero. That is when the rule of two way communication was started. However, this was not an official MCPS policy as dictated by the BOE. It was a "rule" decided upon by the Central Office staff who cannot actually make policy without the BOE's consent. As a result, different schools and even departments within a school have different procedures in place.


I do wonder -- is there a difference in passing rates, student engagement, student achievement, etc between schools giving zeros and schools with the mandatory 50%?

Can I ask a very basic question? I don’t recall any teachers contacting my parents about any assignments ever. Yes this was 30 years ago and in my case I am sure I turned in all assignments on time. But why do teachers need to involve parents in two-way communication? Can’t they just speak directly to the students? It’s much more efficient to stay on top of grading, and post in the portal if parents are interested in knowing. If the students are chronically absent, then obviously the school should be in touch to determine root causes/barriers. But why on earth would a teacher need to notify parents about every missing assignment? That’s so much extra paperwork.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 50% rule officially reads: The following grading practices are prohibited: Assigning a grade lower than 50 percent to a task/assessment. However, if a student does no work on the task/assessment, the teacher will assign a zero. If a teacher determines the student did not attempt to meet the basic requirements of the task/assessment or the student engaged in academic dishonesty, the teacher may assign a zero.

I have taught at schools where we could never give below a 50%. Others that say that we can give a zero if we had two way communication with the parents about a missing assignment.


https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

What is written above is the official BOE policy. A few years back, Central Office staff decided that parents should be contacted if a student is to receive a zero. That is when the rule of two way communication was started. However, this was not an official MCPS policy as dictated by the BOE. It was a "rule" decided upon by the Central Office staff who cannot actually make policy without the BOE's consent. As a result, different schools and even departments within a school have different procedures in place.


I do wonder -- is there a difference in passing rates, student engagement, student achievement, etc between schools giving zeros and schools with the mandatory 50%?

Can I ask a very basic question? I don’t recall any teachers contacting my parents about any assignments ever. Yes this was 30 years ago and in my case I am sure I turned in all assignments on time. But why do teachers need to involve parents in two-way communication? Can’t they just speak directly to the students? It’s much more efficient to stay on top of grading, and post in the portal if parents are interested in knowing. If the students are chronically absent, then obviously the school should be in touch to determine root causes/barriers. But why on earth would a teacher need to notify parents about every missing assignment? That’s so much extra paperwork.

And by the way, that is time spent on kids who don’t do the work, vs time the teacher could be spending giving meaningful feedback to the kids who actually bother to complete the assignments.

[Anonymous]

These are our (MS) grading rules moving forward:

A student’s final marking period grade will continue to be based on graded assessments (90% of a student’s final grade) and practice and/or homework assignments (10% of a student’s final grade.)

All teachers will aim for roughly one graded assignment per week for a total of 9-12 graded assignments each marking period.

Teachers using the Practice/Preparation grading category will assign a total of 4-9 practice assignments per marking period.

A score of “Z” in gradebook indicates an assignment which is missing but can still be made up. A score of 0 (zero) indicates a student did not attempt the assignment and can no longer submit that assignment.

A deadline will be set for 7 days after an assignment due date. If the assignment has not been turned in by that deadline, the teacher may assign a 0 (zero) as the grade.

Teachers will mark assignments that may be reassessed with an R in gradebook. Students will be given an opportunity to reassess no more than 3 assignments in any class over the course of a marking period.