Superintendent Taylor admits there is grade inflation in MCPS during BoE meeting

[Anonymous]

This debate about grade inflation seems silly. Maybe there is but I feel my kids are learning a lot more today than I had 30 years ago at my W high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason they got rid of final exams has to do with the rubrics and teaching to the test. The high flyers who got As all semesters (including those with 89.6) figured put they could get a 54 on the final exam and keep their As.

54s on final exams are not a good look, and so, no more final exams

Interesting. So kids were using the final exams to game the grades in the opposite way of what they're doing now.

Just goes to show that MCPS sucks at its jobs and can't come up with solutions that get to the root of the problem and anticipates loopholes in their shoddily constructed policies.

Agree, only include exams if they are meaningful. I'd like to see them move to year-long classes and have each marking period percentage (not grade) and the final exam percentage (not grade) count 20% toward the course grade. I know, I'm dreaming.

There were a couple attempts to overhaul final exams before they were done away with. I believe they were worth a high percentage (at least 20%) of the overall grade as late as at least 2012. I know at high achieving high schools prepping and paying for tutoring for final exams was very common under that system. I'd like to see them start with using numerical percentages for quarter grades then averaging those quarter grades to the semester grade. See what happens, then decide how to weight final exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason they got rid of final exams has to do with the rubrics and teaching to the test. The high flyers who got As all semesters (including those with 89.6) figured put they could get a 54 on the final exam and keep their As.

54s on final exams are not a good look, and so, no more final exams

Interesting. So kids were using the final exams to game the grades in the opposite way of what they're doing now.

Just goes to show that MCPS sucks at its jobs and can't come up with solutions that get to the root of the problem and anticipates loopholes in their shoddily constructed policies.

Agree, only include exams if they are meaningful. I'd like to see them move to year-long classes and have each marking period percentage (not grade) and the final exam percentage (not grade) count 20% toward the course grade. I know, I'm dreaming.

There were a couple attempts to overhaul final exams before they were done away with. I believe they were worth a high percentage (at least 20%) of the overall grade as late as at least 2012. I know at high achieving high schools prepping and paying for tutoring for final exams was very common under that system. I'd like to see them start with using numerical percentages for quarter grades then averaging those quarter grades to the semester grade. See what happens, then decide how to weight final exams.

I think that's in fact what is being proposed for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This debate about grade inflation seems silly. Maybe there is but I feel my kids are learning a lot more today than I had 30 years ago at my W high school.

How shocking that there might be progress after 30 years. That should not be the metric.

[Anonymous]

The current grading system encourages students blowoff the second quarter of a semester. So much laziness, skipping classes and attendance issues during 2nd and 4th quarters. For kids going to college an A 1st quarter locks in an A for the semester. For kids just looking to graduate, a C in the 1st quarter means they don’t even need to show up for the next quarter since they have already passed the class even with an E.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The current grading system encourages students blowoff the second quarter of a semester. So much laziness, skipping classes and attendance issues during 2nd and 4th quarters. For kids going to college an A 1st quarter locks in an A for the semester. For kids just looking to graduate, a C in the 1st quarter means they don’t even need to show up for the next quarter since they have already passed the class even with an E.

Alternatively, if a kid has a bad first quarter of the semester they have an opportunity to redeem themselves. My kid is working hard for As in q4 in the classes where he got a B in q3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason they got rid of final exams has to do with the rubrics and teaching to the test. The high flyers who got As all semesters (including those with 89.6) figured put they could get a 54 on the final exam and keep their As.

54s on final exams are not a good look, and so, no more final exams

Interesting. So kids were using the final exams to game the grades in the opposite way of what they're doing now.

Just goes to show that MCPS sucks at its jobs and can't come up with solutions that get to the root of the problem and anticipates loopholes in their shoddily constructed policies.

Agree, only include exams if they are meaningful. I'd like to see them move to year-long classes and have each marking period percentage (not grade) and the final exam percentage (not grade) count 20% toward the course grade. I know, I'm dreaming.

There were a couple attempts to overhaul final exams before they were done away with. I believe they were worth a high percentage (at least 20%) of the overall grade as late as at least 2012. I know at high achieving high schools prepping and paying for tutoring for final exams was very common under that system. I'd like to see them start with using numerical percentages for quarter grades then averaging those quarter grades to the semester grade. See what happens, then decide how to weight final exams.

I think that's in fact what is being proposed for next year.

When will they vote on that proposal? I want to weite in to support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason they got rid of final exams has to do with the rubrics and teaching to the test. The high flyers who got As all semesters (including those with 89.6) figured put they could get a 54 on the final exam and keep their As.

54s on final exams are not a good look, and so, no more final exams

Interesting. So kids were using the final exams to game the grades in the opposite way of what they're doing now.

Just goes to show that MCPS sucks at its jobs and can't come up with solutions that get to the root of the problem and anticipates loopholes in their shoddily constructed policies.

Agree, only include exams if they are meaningful. I'd like to see them move to year-long classes and have each marking period percentage (not grade) and the final exam percentage (not grade) count 20% toward the course grade. I know, I'm dreaming.

There were a couple attempts to overhaul final exams before they were done away with. I believe they were worth a high percentage (at least 20%) of the overall grade as late as at least 2012. I know at high achieving high schools prepping and paying for tutoring for final exams was very common under that system. I'd like to see them start with using numerical percentages for quarter grades then averaging those quarter grades to the semester grade. See what happens, then decide how to weight final exams.

I think that's in fact what is being proposed for next year.

When will they vote on that proposal? I want to weite in to support.

I think the board doesn't vote on it since it's a change being made in the Regulation, not the Policy.

[Anonymous]

Get rid of the 50% rule.

[Anonymous]

Mcps teaches kids they can get away with anything...until they are on the 5 o'clock news. It's the school to prison pipeline folks .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The current grading system encourages students blowoff the second quarter of a semester. So much laziness, skipping classes and attendance issues during 2nd and 4th quarters. For kids going to college an A 1st quarter locks in an A for the semester. For kids just looking to graduate, a C in the 1st quarter means they don’t even need to show up for the next quarter since they have already passed the class even with an E.

Alternatively, if a kid has a bad first quarter of the semester they have an opportunity to redeem themselves. My kid is working hard for As in q4 in the classes where he got a B in q3.

While that is great he is working hard, that doesn't mean the B should equal an A.

[Anonymous]

For the college bound kids, stress and anxiety about the GPAs is SO high. I don't think there's anything wrong with a little breathing room and lessons in setting priorities.

[Anonymous]

Another reason college should be free. Should scholarships be influenced by helicopter parents that pressure teachers and admin to inflate grades. Also, as a teacher if I was pressured to inflate 1 or 2 then I usually just inflated everyone else's for free bc they deserve a fair boost too bc they had more honor and discipline not to try to manipulate the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another reason college should be free. Should scholarships be influenced by helicopter parents that pressure teachers and admin to inflate grades. Also, as a teacher if I was pressured to inflate 1 or 2 then I usually just inflated everyone else's for free bc they deserve a fair boost too bc they had more honor and discipline not to try to manipulate the system.

Why should college be free? More affordable, yes, but not free. It’s free to low income. Try MC if you want close to free. I’m not seeing grade inflation. There is no 50% at out school and most teachers don’t allow redos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another reason college should be free. Should scholarships be influenced by helicopter parents that pressure teachers and admin to inflate grades. Also, as a teacher if I was pressured to inflate 1 or 2 then I usually just inflated everyone else's for free bc they deserve a fair boost too bc they had more honor and discipline not to try to manipulate the system.

That sounds more like a private school to me.