Gaming high school grades

[Anonymous]

In MCPS, if quarter 1 grade is an A and quarter 2 grade is a B - then the semester grade is an A, correct? And only semester grades go on the transcript or are used to calculate GPA, correct? Do kids just slack off in Q2/4 if they've already received an A the previous quarter?

[Anonymous]

Yes, kids can do this. What is your purpose in raising the topic though?

[Anonymous]

And when I was a kid I remember not worrying about the last few assignments of the period if I had a high enough grade. Nothing new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, kids can do this. What is your purpose in raising the topic though?

Just curious if kids widely do this, how it impacts the learning environment, etc. I have a 9th grader and he's not aware of this and I'm not planning to discuss until later. He got straight As in Q1 and we'll continue to expect him to do his best...but as classes get harder and his life gets busier I can see potentially suggesting that he prioritize his homework time/studying time accordingly (ie spending a little less time on a class where he only has to maintain a B in order to get the A on his transcript).

[Anonymous]

My kids have certainly done this to some extent. They strive for all As every quarter, but if the get a B in Q1, they’ll definitely focus their efforts in that class above the others in Q2. We would be having some discussions if they were earning mostly Bs in Q2 after an all-A Q1. That’s lazy and disrespectful to the teachers in my view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, kids can do this. What is your purpose in raising the topic though?

Just curious if kids widely do this, how it impacts the learning environment, etc. I have a 9th grader and he's not aware of this and I'm not planning to discuss until later. He got straight As in Q1 and we'll continue to expect him to do his best...but as classes get harder and his life gets busier I can see potentially suggesting that he prioritize his homework time/studying time accordingly (ie spending a little less time on a class where he only has to maintain a B in order to get the A on his transcript).

I don't think you'll be able to get a quantitatively valid look at how many students are adopting this strategy, but it's common enough that it comes up in student newspaper publications. Walt Whitman's student newspaper did an "informal survey" on this behavior though: https://theblackandwhite.net/72364/opinion/mcps-deflate-grade-inflation-and-reform-the-grading-system/

In an informal Black & White survey of 31 students, 55% of respondents reported a decrease in the amount of effort they put into a class during the second or fourth quarter if they secured an A during the prior quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And when I was a kid I remember not worrying about the last few assignments of the period if I had a high enough grade. Nothing new.

Admittedly, it’s simpler and more clear-cut with the quarter letter grades, rather than having to do the math to figure out how much you can slack at the end of the marking period.

But you’re right, kids have been doing this forever.

[Anonymous]

I suspect it’s the high-achieving kids who are gaming the system with this level of intent. The ones who don’t care aren’t consciously putting much effort in anywhere, no matter what their grades.

And under the “old” system, they’d have been the ones frantically averaging all their grades to figure out which final to prioritize, and which one they could cram the night before and still be confident of an A in the class.

[Anonymous]

It lets you focus on a few classes one quarter, then other classes the next quarter. My kids have learned real-world applications of math this way, down the the needed scores on the last few assignments to be certain they get the 79.5 to round to a B.

[Anonymous]

Actually, it happens often that a student will have a C quarter 1 and then not even bother to do anything quarter 2. I have had kids ask me to "bump up" their D grade. When I discuss ways they can raise their grade to a C on their second quarter and still have a C on their transcript, they laugh me off and say they don't care about that. They just want to pass the class. Turns out a C on quarter 1 and an E on quarter 2 (even if they have a 0%) is a D for the semester.


You are right that kids have always gamed the system. The problem is that we are making it easier for them to game the system. As more and more kids do it, they pull the rest down with them. They divert resources from kids trying to learn because the teachers are spending all their time trying to get a kid to work who has already decided they just won't do it.

[Anonymous]

Teachers game the system right back atcha by holding on to late work until the day before grades are due so kids don’t have the opportunity to retake or raise their grades so there's that.

[Anonymous]

This applies to unweighted GPA only, I assume? Because the number grade impacts the weighted GPA, at least in our district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This applies to unweighted GPA only, I assume? Because the number grade impacts the weighted GPA, at least in our district.

This is MCPS, not your district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers game the system right back atcha by holding on to late work until the day before grades are due so kids don’t have the opportunity to retake or raise their grades so there's that.

Some late work is actual past the deadline work. In that case, it should not be graded at all.

Some late work requires a teacher to make a new assignment because the teacher has already gone over the answers in class so that students who did it on time could learn from their mistakes. In that case, the teacher has made the original assignment, the make up assignment, and the retake assignment. You want the teacher to make a 4th assignment?

In some cases, the students have a real reason for the late work. Most teachers understand and will help them out. Sometimes students are late because they are not coming to class. They are coming to school and roaming the halls.

Bottom line, as much as we would like teachers to have unlimited extra chances, there will always be only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. There is a limit to what anyone can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS, if quarter 1 grade is an A and quarter 2 grade is a B - then the semester grade is an A, correct? And only semester grades go on the transcript or are used to calculate GPA, correct? Do kids just slack off in Q2/4 if they've already received an A the previous quarter?

HS teacher here. It depends on the student. Most students who care about their grades and who are placed in appropriate level classes work equally hard all year long. In 11th and 12th grade when students are stretching themselves and taking a rigorous course load they definitely balance the quarters. They start aiming for all As, but near the end of 1st they may make some strategic decisions about focusing on some classes to get As, and accepting Bs in the others. Then in 2nd they shift focus to gets As in the other classes so their semester grades are all As. Are there kids with 4.0 GPAs who have never had 4.0 quarters? Yup.

At the other end, I will never bump up grades in the 1st or 3rd quarters and am not flexible about taking work past deadlines. If I bump a D to a C, I won’t see that kid most of 2nd and 4th quarter because they figure they have a guaranteed D. If I bump a C to a B because “I want to get an A for the semester” in reality the kid will barely scrape a C and end up with a B on their transcript.