90/10 grading system

[Anonymous]

Can someone, maybe a teacher, explain the rationale behind this new grading system our public school has adopted? It’s where 90% of your grade is quizzes and tests and 10% of the grade is homework or in class assignments. Vast majority of graded assignments are class work and homework. There are only a few quizzes/tests per semester.

[Anonymous]

I believe that there is a law in Virginia that requires homework now in all classes. So, there is homework, it is 10% of the grade.

In FCPS I believe that the grading requires 70% of the grade come from summative exercises (tests), 20% from formative (quizzes, in class assignments), and 10% from homework. I may have reversed the formative and summative. Kids are supposed to have 2 summative grades per quarter, and at least 4 formative/homework assignments. My kid's math and language class has homework daily, the kids need the practice. He has less homework in English, Civics, and Science.

The homework and quizzes/in-class assignments should help kids do better on tests, so it is all connected.

[Anonymous]

There are a few reasons schools are moving this way.

In-class work and homework are meant to be formative assessment. They allow students to get independent practice and for teachers to see common areas of challenge and misconception. That said, they should be part of the learning process. No one expects perfection during initial practice. For this reason, such assignments are often graded on completion, rather than accuracy.

Another reason for this policy is an effort to keep grades up. Rates of homework completion are way down. Getting students of any age to follow directions is a nightmare. Principals and parents are reluctant to assign consequences, and at the scale that work is missing it’s nearly impossible for teachers to stay on top of enforcing quality standards. We know too that AI is enabling a lot of cheating. Class assignments and homework don’t seem like an honest assessment of student abilities.

Finally, this policy is motivated by teacher workloads. With public school teachers handling 120+ students, there’s no time to meaningfully grade daily assignments. If a teacher spends just one minute per student, that’s two hours of grading per day—on top of lesson planning, parent contacts, and faculty meetings. To the extent that daily assignments are marked, it’s usually just for completion.

[Anonymous]

The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

But in order to have mastery, kids need to complete their homework and assignments. Making homework essentially not graded removes the motivation for kids to actually do it. It’s seen as optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

But in order to have mastery, kids need to complete their homework and assignments. Making homework essentially not graded removes the motivation for kids to actually do it. It’s seen as optional.

If the kid wants a lower letter grade, the kid gets a lower letter grade. Be the parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

In law school my grade was based on a single exam at the end of the quarter. In college my grade was usually based on 2-3 exams or papers. But in high school and middle school I typically had many grades that went into my score.

It's developmentally inappropriate to have only 1-2 grades that determine a quarter grade for a kid in middle school. That's an expectation for college or grad school. It's one thing to work towards that goal for adults, but high stakes testing for quarterly grades isn't appropriate for a kid. Last quarter my 12 yo only had one math test that quarter, so it was essentially her whole grade. That's really not okay. Kids need to have a series of smaller assessments and assignments over the quarter so they know how they're doing and if they understand the material on an ongoing basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

But in order to have mastery, kids need to complete their homework and assignments. Making homework essentially not graded removes the motivation for kids to actually do it. It’s seen as optional.

The motivator is to do well on the quiz/test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a few reasons schools are moving this way.

In-class work and homework are meant to be formative assessment. They allow students to get independent practice and for teachers to see common areas of challenge and misconception. That said, they should be part of the learning process. No one expects perfection during initial practice. For this reason, such assignments are often graded on completion, rather than accuracy.

Another reason for this policy is an effort to keep grades up. Rates of homework completion are way down. Getting students of any age to follow directions is a nightmare. Principals and parents are reluctant to assign consequences, and at the scale that work is missing it’s nearly impossible for teachers to stay on top of enforcing quality standards. We know too that AI is enabling a lot of cheating. Class assignments and homework don’t seem like an honest assessment of student abilities.

Finally, this policy is motivated by teacher workloads. With public school teachers handling 120+ students, there’s no time to meaningfully grade daily assignments. If a teacher spends just one minute per student, that’s two hours of grading per day—on top of lesson planning, parent contacts, and faculty meetings. To the extent that daily assignments are marked, it’s usually just for completion.

Thanks, ChatGPT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a few reasons schools are moving this way.

In-class work and homework are meant to be formative assessment. They allow students to get independent practice and for teachers to see common areas of challenge and misconception. That said, they should be part of the learning process. No one expects perfection during initial practice. For this reason, such assignments are often graded on completion, rather than accuracy.

Another reason for this policy is an effort to keep grades up. Rates of homework completion are way down. Getting students of any age to follow directions is a nightmare. Principals and parents are reluctant to assign consequences, and at the scale that work is missing it’s nearly impossible for teachers to stay on top of enforcing quality standards. We know too that AI is enabling a lot of cheating. Class assignments and homework don’t seem like an honest assessment of student abilities.

Finally, this policy is motivated by teacher workloads. With public school teachers handling 120+ students, there’s no time to meaningfully grade daily assignments. If a teacher spends just one minute per student, that’s two hours of grading per day—on top of lesson planning, parent contacts, and faculty meetings. To the extent that daily assignments are marked, it’s usually just for completion.

Thanks, ChatGPT

have no idea why people rush to comment on an ANONYMOUS forum with chatGPT slop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

But in order to have mastery, kids need to complete their homework and assignments. Making homework essentially not graded removes the motivation for kids to actually do it. It’s seen as optional.

The motivator is to do well on the quiz/test.

Yes, but kids need graded homework and assignment feedback leading up to quizzes and tests. This “completion” BS is just that. Parents can’t see what their kid is actually doing well in and teachers aren’t really checking either. I was told the grading moved toward 90/10 because 1) less work for teachers and 2) more equitable since many kids weren’t doing homework anyway and it was taking their grade and making them less likely to even try since their grade was already super low and couldn’t be recovered even if they did ok on a test

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

But in order to have mastery, kids need to complete their homework and assignments. Making homework essentially not graded removes the motivation for kids to actually do it. It’s seen as optional.

The motivator is to do well on the quiz/test.

Yes, but kids need graded homework and assignment feedback leading up to quizzes and tests. This “completion” BS is just that. Parents can’t see what their kid is actually doing well in and teachers aren’t really checking either. I was told the grading moved toward 90/10 because 1) less work for teachers and 2) more equitable since many kids weren’t doing homework anyway and it was taking their grade and making them less likely to even try since their grade was already super low and couldn’t be recovered even if they did ok on a test

I totally agree that kids need feedback on how they are doing along the way. It's not appropriate to have it all rest on one or two assessments.

[Anonymous]

They should report three separate grades.

[Anonymous]

Math teacher:

Because anything that goes home cannot be assumed to be their work. Why should a child get more than 10% of their grade from something a parent, a tutor, google, or ChatGPT did for them? Or even something done in class where I had to hold their hand and prompt each step of every problem, where they needed to use their notes to remember a procedure, or ask their friend if they got the same answer. If they need that to learn, then they should absolutely use those supports, but eventually the goal is that they demonstrate their own ability to solve problems. 10% free points for trying seems fair.

A grade in a class should represent the percent of standards mastered. The only way a teacher can guarantee a student did 100% of their work themselves is through individual assessments, done within the 4 walls of the classroom.

I would be 1000% okay with giving two separate grades: “effort” for classwork and homework, and “ability” for tests and quizzes. But if it is going to be a combined one, the subject mastery needs to be weighted significantly more than effort—otherwise why is my class called “algebra 2” vs “worksheet completion”?

I do think that grades have been inflated way too long, so we are used to straight As being the normal for a hard working kid. It’s going to be a while for us to adapt to a new normal where a hard working kid who only masters 75% of the material has a B or a B- vs an A- when homework and classwork was 30%, and that’s okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The point of an education is mastery of the subject material so that grading weighting makes sense.

But in order to have mastery, kids need to complete their homework and assignments. Making homework essentially not graded removes the motivation for kids to actually do it. It’s seen as optional.

The motivator is to do well on the quiz/test.

Yes, but kids need graded homework and assignment feedback leading up to quizzes and tests. This “completion” BS is just that. Parents can’t see what their kid is actually doing well in and teachers aren’t really checking either. I was told the grading moved toward 90/10 because 1) less work for teachers and 2) more equitable since many kids weren’t doing homework anyway and it was taking their grade and making them less likely to even try since their grade was already super low and couldn’t be recovered even if they did ok on a test

I totally agree that kids need feedback on how they are doing along the way. It's not appropriate to have it all rest on one or two assessments.

If there’s only one or two tests all year, that’s crazy. My class has 10 tests/14 quizzes/1 final exam (grade level high school math) and 9 tests/9 quizzes/1 final (AP math)

No single assignment at the end of the year is worth more than 5% (in regular math)/6% (AP) of their overall grade (except the final, it is 10%)

I’m still grading and correcting and returning daily papers, but most kids throw them straight in the trash or leave them in desk trays, so it’s not exactly valued feedback by the majority of kids.