EOC exams - are there more than biology and government for HS?

[Anonymous]

They started these end of course exams that count towards the final grade last year. We just got an email from the PTSA saying there will be many more starting this year for many of the classes DC is taking.

Has anyone heard this? Where can I find official information? DC is in high school and is panicking because they are not a good tester and they had never been told this by teachers and it is the first I'm hearing about it.

[Anonymous]

The only other one I’m aware of is the Algebra exam, which is also an MCAP test.

[Anonymous]

Email also includes English all grades 9, 10, 11, 12 and many math courses up through Honors Precal. Why don't they give notice of these things if it's going to impact students' grades in high school? This is a huge change. Was there discussion at the BOE?

[Anonymous]

Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.

Unacceptable!!!

[Anonymous]

Does the letter say these tests will count as "10% towards the marking period grade" or that they will count towards the "practice and prep" (PP) grade, which is 10% of their quarter grade?

My honors pre-calc student mentioned a county- or state-wide test this week that the teacher barely gave them notice for. I asked why they didn't have time to prepare and she said that it just goes into the PP grade. (Which means it is pooled with all of the quarter's homework and may or may not be graded simply for 'completion' as most of the other PP grades are.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.

So these course-specific tests aren't coming from MCPS. They're coming from the state and they're tied to Maryland's Blueprint plan.

Here's more on this from the state on the math side: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DAAIT/Assessment/MCAP/Math.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.

So these course-specific tests aren't coming from MCPS. They're coming from the state and they're tied to Maryland's Blueprint plan.

Here's more on this from the state on the math side: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DAAIT/Assessment/MCAP/Math.aspx

Are you sure? This seems like something separate from the MCAP state assessments. If you look at the calendar of assessments, these are identified as internal assessments, while the MCAP is shown as external. It seems to be something different. I think these are what used to be called "progress checks" but now they are being weighed differently in marking period grades.

[Anonymous]

Isn't MCAP that new test that everyone fails?

[Anonymous]

They are different from MCAP. They are the regular district assessments that students take in a variety of courses (like Illustrative Math assessments for algebra).

[Anonymous]

My question got redirected to this thread:

This year, County Math assessments in HS Courses are weighted at 10% of the quarter grade.

My DD took the assessment in Hon AlgII a week or so ago, and it was out of 14 points.

I feel that this is not much margin for error for these kids for 10% of the grade.

Wondering how others feel about the new importance of the County assessment, and how the requirement is being administered?

[Anonymous]

Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

To me, a 14 point assessment makes sense as part of the AT 90% (and may actually be 10% of the points in a quarter for the class) but pulling that out as a separate 10% assessment seems a little too hard-azz and makes it hard for kids on the border of the different letter grades to have mobility over the course of the semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.

So these course-specific tests aren't coming from MCPS. They're coming from the state and they're tied to Maryland's Blueprint plan.

Here's more on this from the state on the math side: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DAAIT/Assessment/MCAP/Math.aspx

My kid got an extremely low grade on this test. I don't really know what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

To me, a 14 point assessment makes sense as part of the AT 90% (and may actually be 10% of the points in a quarter for the class) but pulling that out as a separate 10% assessment seems a little too hard-azz and makes it hard for kids on the border of the different letter grades to have mobility over the course of the semester.

You don't even know what the 14 is out of and it will be different for each teacher. It could be all quizzes are 5 points so could be a lot more than 10% of the grade. My child's teacher never told them these tests count as a grade. She just assumed they don't count because they have never counted. What the heck?