MCPS Giving out As?

[Anonymous]

DC attends MCPS high school and we feel they are not learning much, but get excellent grades. Do others have the impression schools are extremely lenient with grading? I am worried MCPS students will not be prepared for college if teachers are handing out easy As. Am I off base here?

[Anonymous]

Some classes yes; others no. Definitely not in Honors Pre Calc and AP Calc. If your kid feels that way in Calc, they are strong in math. There’s no fluff work to prop up grades - it’s exam performance. And even good students fail some of these tests.

[Anonymous]

Not at ours school.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Not at our school

[Anonymous]

Like candy!

[Anonymous]

Yes, there is rampant grade inflation at MCPS. Lots of high grades for minimal or mediocre effort.

[Anonymous]

No. My 11th grader is working so hard right now. She takes several AP classes and the amount of work is surprising. Her honors math class is challenging as well. All of her A’s are earned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. My 11th grader is working so hard right now. She takes several AP classes and the amount of work is surprising. Her honors math class is challenging as well. All of her A’s are earned.

DD 11th grader has an unweighted 3.9 and doesn't seem to work hard at it. Obviously I love DD but those grades are not due to her brilliance. I suspect teachers handing out grades or cheating.

[Anonymous]

While my 12th graders are working hard (all MC courses for one and 5 APs for the other), I know that some students in MCPS are given misleading grades that do not reflect mastery.

[Anonymous]

Blair is not giving out As easily! But it could be different depending on the teacher. My kids are in honors classes so teachers expect a lot (which I'm fine with).

[Anonymous]

What evidence do you have to justify they are not learning much? Are courses they are taking at appropriate challenge level? Also I don’t believe anyone needs mastery in every subject to be successful in life. In the end, you can only focus on a couple of things in life, if at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC attends MCPS high school and we feel they are not learning much, but get excellent grades. Do others have the impression schools are extremely lenient with grading? I am worried MCPS students will not be prepared for college if teachers are handing out easy As. Am I off base here?

Is your DC in 9th? Otherwise, you should have a sense from AP scores how well they are learning.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the teacher, OP, and the rigor of the course. For example, my son had straight As in AP Calc AB in 11th grade, then had a lowly 2 on the AP exam. He had an inkling the teacher was too lenient, and failed to take corrective measures, like request a tutor, or alert us that there was an issue. It was a learning experience for him. All his other AP teachers were appropriately demanding and he had to work for his As, and received 5s on his exams.

If it's not an AP course with a non-MCPS exam at the end, then all bets are off, and you're at the mercy of the teacher and school culture for whatever's taught to your kid. My son was at Walter Johnson in Rockville, where most teachers weren't slackers, so for the non-AP courses he took, I believe some learning did happen. But if you want to teach your kids to write, you HAVE to insist on AP Comp and AP Lit. Nothing else compares in MCPS.

Bottom line: pay close attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the teacher, OP, and the rigor of the course. For example, my son had straight As in AP Calc AB in 11th grade, then had a lowly 2 on the AP exam. He had an inkling the teacher was too lenient, and failed to take corrective measures, like request a tutor, or alert us that there was an issue. It was a learning experience for him. All his other AP teachers were appropriately demanding and he had to work for his As, and received 5s on his exams.

If it's not an AP course with a non-MCPS exam at the end, then all bets are off, and you're at the mercy of the teacher and school culture for whatever's taught to your kid. My son was at Walter Johnson in Rockville, where most teachers weren't slackers, so for the non-AP courses he took, I believe some learning did happen. But if you want to teach your kids to write, you HAVE to insist on AP Comp and AP Lit. Nothing else compares in MCPS.

Bottom line: pay close attention.

Yup. You can tell the grade inflation and leniency is happening when there's a wide disparity between the classroom grade the AP/IB exam grade. Also, if you bother to look at the graded work, assuming it's available, you can see what kids are getting away with and still getting an "A" for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC attends MCPS high school and we feel they are not learning much, but get excellent grades. Do others have the impression schools are extremely lenient with grading? I am worried MCPS students will not be prepared for college if teachers are handing out easy As. Am I off base here?

There are some grade pumps in college too. Drop the lowest score or extra credit or???