Jun 15 school board meeting & Return in Fall presentation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% rule?

Grade inflation. No child can ever get below a 50% on an assignment. Even if they don't turn it in.

BAD IDEA. I specifically asked Dr Presidio to stop that shit. Do you think a college professor is going to allow that? They are setting these kids up to fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s very different from half day Mondays and it was Brabrand’s idea, not the school board.

Why didn’t this occur to them when they were approving the calendar?

If you pull up the 21-22 calendar, it still says “draft”

They continually show a lack of respect for working parents & how far in advance they have to plan childcare for the following year.

As a teacher, I can reassure you that I, too, am appalled by the lack of thought, care, and respect this leadership team has shown toward ALL of its constituents. They think nothing of the cost of suddenly upending plans, schedules, systems…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% rule?

Grade inflation. No child can ever get below a 50% on an assignment. Even if they don't turn it in.

BAD IDEA. I specifically asked Dr Presidio to stop that shit. Do you think a college professor is going to allow that? They are setting these kids up to fail.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s very different from half day Mondays and it was Brabrand’s idea, not the school board.

Why didn’t this occur to them when they were approving the calendar?

If you pull up the 21-22 calendar, it still says “draft”

They continually show a lack of respect for working parents & how far in advance they have to plan childcare for the following year.

As a teacher, I can reassure you that I, too, am appalled by the lack of thought, care, and respect this leadership team has shown toward ALL of its constituents. They think nothing of the cost of suddenly upending plans, schedules, systems…

Yes, as a parent it was appalling how many times administrators and teachers as well as families had to take extensive time to plan for something that never happened or lasted a couple weeks at most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% rule?

Grade inflation. No child can ever get below a 50% on an assignment. Even if they don't turn it in.

It isn’t inflation, nimrod. A 50 is still an F. It reduces an F to a 10% range the same as any other letter grade and ensures if a kid has one bad quarter their entire year isn’t unrecoverable.

Agree with PP. I don't understand why people are so against the 50% rule. These are kids. They make mistakes. They forget things or get sick or are just having a hard time. Why the need to be punitive? So a kid messes up and doesn't turn in an assignment. Do we want them to blow off the rest of the year because they are going to fail anyway or do we want them to have the motivation to work hard and learn the rest of the material? The kids that are "benefitting" from this aren't taking anything away from your AP/Honors student with a weighted GPA of 4.5, so calm down. And a kid that turns nothing in and does no work all year -- so they have a 50% instead of a 0% - it is still an F and they won't get credit for the class.

My 7th grader has ASD and ADHD; he is in on-level classes and did really well this year, in part because he re-did assignments, turned some assignments in late, and re-took tests (the highest grade he could earn on a re-take was 80%). It taught him the value of hard work and that it's okay to make mistakes, the important thing is to learn the material. These are incredibly valuable lessons and his report card reflects that. How does him getting As/A- in 7th grade classes at all affect the 7th graders who do everything right the first time and are in AAP and Algebra I? It doesn't. At all. They are not in the same league academically. How does it affect him? He has confidence; he trusts his teachers; he is ready for 8th grade. And isn't that the point of school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% rule?

Grade inflation. No child can ever get below a 50% on an assignment. Even if they don't turn it in.

It isn’t inflation, nimrod. A 50 is still an F. It reduces an F to a 10% range the same as any other letter grade and ensures if a kid has one bad quarter their entire year isn’t unrecoverable.

Agree with PP. I don't understand why people are so against the 50% rule. These are kids. They make mistakes. They forget things or get sick or are just having a hard time. Why the need to be punitive? So a kid messes up and doesn't turn in an assignment. Do we want them to blow off the rest of the year because they are going to fail anyway or do we want them to have the motivation to work hard and learn the rest of the material? The kids that are "benefitting" from this aren't taking anything away from your AP/Honors student with a weighted GPA of 4.5, so calm down. And a kid that turns nothing in and does no work all year -- so they have a 50% instead of a 0% - it is still an F and they won't get credit for the class.

My 7th grader has ASD and ADHD; he is in on-level classes and did really well this year, in part because he re-did assignments, turned some assignments in late, and re-took tests (the highest grade he could earn on a re-take was 80%). It taught him the value of hard work and that it's okay to make mistakes, the important thing is to learn the material. These are incredibly valuable lessons and his report card reflects that. How does him getting As/A- in 7th grade classes at all affect the 7th graders who do everything right the first time and are in AAP and Algebra I? It doesn't. At all. They are not in the same league academically. How does it affect him? He has confidence; he trusts his teachers; he is ready for 8th grade. And isn't that the point of school?

Plus, it's not like FCPS is the only county doing this.

[Anonymous]

Plus, high school and middle school AREN'T college and college isn't a job. Kids can and have made the adjustment between new environments and expectations. We don't need to set the same goal posts for e very level of learning and life.

Part of learning is understanding new requirements and not expecting things to say exactly the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% rule?

Grade inflation. No child can ever get below a 50% on an assignment. Even if they don't turn it in.

It isn’t inflation, nimrod. A 50 is still an F. It reduces an F to a 10% range the same as any other letter grade and ensures if a kid has one bad quarter their entire year isn’t unrecoverable.

Agree with PP. I don't understand why people are so against the 50% rule. These are kids. They make mistakes. They forget things or get sick or are just having a hard time. Why the need to be punitive? So a kid messes up and doesn't turn in an assignment. Do we want them to blow off the rest of the year because they are going to fail anyway or do we want them to have the motivation to work hard and learn the rest of the material? The kids that are "benefitting" from this aren't taking anything away from your AP/Honors student with a weighted GPA of 4.5, so calm down. And a kid that turns nothing in and does no work all year -- so they have a 50% instead of a 0% - it is still an F and they won't get credit for the class.

My 7th grader has ASD and ADHD; he is in on-level classes and did really well this year, in part because he re-did assignments, turned some assignments in late, and re-took tests (the highest grade he could earn on a re-take was 80%). It taught him the value of hard work and that it's okay to make mistakes, the important thing is to learn the material. These are incredibly valuable lessons and his report card reflects that. How does him getting As/A- in 7th grade classes at all affect the 7th graders who do everything right the first time and are in AAP and Algebra I? It doesn't. At all. They are not in the same league academically. How does it affect him? He has confidence; he trusts his teachers; he is ready for 8th grade. And isn't that the point of school?

Plus, it's not like FCPS is the only county doing this.

Yes. Go pull up the APS grading scale and compare it to FCPS. Then take a look at MCPS. You will see that FCPS is already significantly harder on grading than surrounding counties.

A 50 is still an F, and still goes onto a report card as such. There are no percentages on a report card. A 0% and a 50% look the same and result in the same gpa calculation.

[Anonymous]

The 50% rule isn't new. We talked about it 15 years ago in grade school about how it should be the grading policy--I had a whole semester course about grading philosophies. FCPS "strongly suggested" no major assignments be graded under 50% for probably 10 years, but is actually late to the game in adopting it universally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:News: two SOL dates --- which I think is a good idea.

One set in the fall to assess where kids are.

Another set in the spring to see what progress kids have made.

Ugh. More standardized testing is bad. They need to get rid of SOLs altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! Would someone be able to share what was actually said about half-day Mondays? Is there a time line for when these calendar changes will be decided? Would be helpful for those of us with, ya know, jobs . . .

No timeline was provided. And it would be one Monday per month.

FCPS hates working parents. They think this is 1950 and every family has a SAHM so it’s ok to give random days off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News: two SOL dates --- which I think is a good idea.

One set in the fall to assess where kids are.

Another set in the spring to see what progress kids have made.

Ugh. More standardized testing is bad. They need to get rid of SOLs altogether.

How do you propose we hold FCPS accountable for learning loss/"unfinished learning" without a fall test? I'm not trying to be snarky - if there's an alternative that works that isn't testing, great! But at some point, given FCPS's lack of a plan to use ESSR money for real learning, I would like accountability. They have an awful lot of millions sloshing around that are supposed to be used for catching kids up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! Would someone be able to share what was actually said about half-day Mondays? Is there a time line for when these calendar changes will be decided? Would be helpful for those of us with, ya know, jobs . . .

No timeline was provided. And it would be one Monday per month.

FCPS hates working parents. They think this is 1950 and every family has a SAHM so it’s ok to give random days off.

I believe Melanie Meren said they could just use SACC.

Because the SACC situation isn't totally up in the air, SACC waitlists aren't years long, and SACC is completely covered by tax dollars like school is...

Oh, wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! Would someone be able to share what was actually said about half-day Mondays? Is there a time line for when these calendar changes will be decided? Would be helpful for those of us with, ya know, jobs . . .

No timeline was provided. And it would be one Monday per month.

FCPS hates working parents. They think this is 1950 and every family has a SAHM so it’s ok to give random days off.

I believe Melanie Meren said they could just use SACC.

Because the SACC situation isn't totally up in the air, SACC waitlists aren't years long, and SACC is completely covered by tax dollars like school is...

Oh, wait.

Right. I would really like to hear what’s up with SACC and specifically if I have to find alternate care for my kindergartner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! Would someone be able to share what was actually said about half-day Mondays? Is there a time line for when these calendar changes will be decided? Would be helpful for those of us with, ya know, jobs . . .

No timeline was provided. And it would be one Monday per month.

FCPS hates working parents. They think this is 1950 and every family has a SAHM so it’s ok to give random days off.

I believe Melanie Meren said they could just use SACC.

Because the SACC situation isn't totally up in the air, SACC waitlists aren't years long, and SACC is completely covered by tax dollars like school is...

Oh, wait.

I'm pretty sure SACC can't take a couple hundred kids for half a day.