Are Other Upper School Students at Potomac Not Getting Tests and Papers Back for Weeks at a Time?

[Anonymous]

Well I am sure the DCUM admin will contact the school and raise your concerns in a cogent and compelling fashion, as you appear unwilling to do that directly. Clearly an anonymous forum is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I am sure the DCUM admin will contact the school and raise your concerns in a cogent and compelling fashion, as you appear unwilling to do that directly. Clearly an anonymous forum is the way to go.

Not a bad idea to post here first to get validated by others, before taking it to the admin.

[Anonymous]

It appears that at least a few people have raised these concerns with the administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My US student also has been in the position of receiving “surprise” grades at the end of the semester. Based upon assignments returned during the first half of the semester, our child statistically had an A. At the parent-teacher conferences, the teachers would rave about how well our child was doing. Then, no assignments, or very few, would be returned for the rest of the semester, and our child would mysteriously end up with an A- grade. Did he bomb a test or assignment? Probably not because he was doing so well before and put in the same amount of effort, etc. If he had been getting assignments back consistently, he could have addressed any weak areas, gotten a tutor, etc. instead, it is just a mysterious disappointment at the end. Some students are wondering if there might be grading quotas, i.e. only four kids can get an A, etc. and that could account for this. I truly don’t think it is sour grapes or slacking off on my child’s part. And these mystery grades have occurred with his friends as well.

Is all this drama about kids getting a surprise A- instead of an A?? The horror.

NP you and your kids are perhaps low performers? When you are aiming for top schools, A vs. A- does matter. And in any case, regardless of the grades, it’s bad practice to keep your students in the dark about their grades for that long.

No, my kid is at a big 3 and gets As. But I think it’s interesting that in most threads people rant about how hard and rare it is to get all
or mostly As in privates (in contrast to public HS), and here people are posting about how devastating an A- is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lets stay focused here.

Teachers should grade assignments and return them graded with comments in a timely fashion period!

I think one week is sufficient time to grade any assignment, unless the teacher is out sick etc.

Students, parents, and administrators at a "top" private school like Potomac should accept no less!

One week might be realistic for, say, math or science teachers, but for teachers who grade essays, one week is not realistic. It also depends on how many students teachers have in their classes. For example, one teacher might have four sections of one class with fifteen students in each. To me, two weeks seems more realistic and still within the time period for students to benefit from the constructive criticism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lets stay focused here.

Teachers should grade assignments and return them graded with comments in a timely fashion period!

I think one week is sufficient time to grade any assignment, unless the teacher is out sick etc.

Students, parents, and administrators at a "top" private school like Potomac should accept no less!

One week might be realistic for, say, math or science teachers, but for teachers who grade essays, one week is not realistic. It also depends on how many students teachers have in their classes. For example, one teacher might have four sections of one class with fifteen students in each. To me, two weeks seems more realistic and still within the time period for students to benefit from the constructive criticism.

The problem is not limited to the History and English departments.

[Anonymous]

Agree that English teachers in particular would need more than a week. But seems that this problem goes way beyond a couple of weeks’ delay

[Anonymous]

Sections with only 15 students each?? That would be a dream load!
Try 30 or more students per section and teaching 5 or more sections!

[Anonymous]

The problem has been spread across various disciplines in my child’s case.

[Anonymous]

That's the point. If you want better writing (a common reason for going private), it takes time.

And is it that had to grasp that things get harder over the semester. "Mysterious" A- means that the last assignment was not an A and the grade went down.

I understand the frustration about not getting feedback as soon as you would like and have no doubt that is a problem. But the point is not each *interim* grade, it is what happens over the entire year. All these complaints about a grade THAT NEVER GETS SEEN are silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sections with only 15 students each?? That would be a dream load!
Try 30 or more students per section and teaching 5 or more sections!

Are sections really that large in Potomac US?

[Anonymous]

The mid-year grades are seen. We just got these grades this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My US student also has been in the position of receiving “surprise” grades at the end of the semester. Based upon assignments returned during the first half of the semester, our child statistically had an A. At the parent-teacher conferences, the teachers would rave about how well our child was doing. Then, no assignments, or very few, would be returned for the rest of the semester, and our child would mysteriously end up with an A- grade. Did he bomb a test or assignment? Probably not because he was doing so well before and put in the same amount of effort, etc. If he had been getting assignments back consistently, he could have addressed any weak areas, gotten a tutor, etc. instead, it is just a mysterious disappointment at the end. Some students are wondering if there might be grading quotas, i.e. only four kids can get an A, etc. and that could account for this. I truly don’t think it is sour grapes or slacking off on my child’s part. And these mystery grades have occurred with his friends as well.

Is all this drama about kids getting a surprise A- instead of an A?? The horror.

NP you and your kids are perhaps low performers? When you are aiming for top schools, A vs. A- does matter. And in any case, regardless of the grades, it’s bad practice to keep your students in the dark about their grades for that long.

No, my kid is at a big 3 and gets As. But I think it’s interesting that in most threads people rant about how hard and rare it is to get all
or mostly As in privates (in contrast to public HS), and here people are posting about how devastating an A- is.

Hmm. Good point.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think people are saying that an A- is devastating, but rather surprising when all the assignments that were returned were high A grades. It is confusing and disappointing, but nobody is saying devastating.

[Anonymous]

I believe the word PP used was “annoying” and it is. Something easily remedied by having an online grade book!!