Should/ Do students at MCPS get 50% for just being able to write their name on assignments

[Anonymous]

Why not inflate their way to a crappy overpriced college. Give them the opportunity to get some of that free loan money. Everyone likes money!
Even if they can't read the contract with financial literacy their grades say they can. Why should they miss out on free money. Everyone knows that they must be smart. So smart that the teachers don't even have to assess with grades plus teachers can focus on their second and third jobs and why administrators tolerate violent behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Churchill, they are still giving 50% for missing assignments. Isn’t that a Board of Ed policy or is Churchill still doing their own thing?

I think students should get 0% for 0 effort. No matter if a student is college bound or workforce bound, in the real world people are held to expectations that work is due when it is due.

The policy of giving credit for no work is grade inflation. Students need the impact and consequences to learn to be organized and motivated to do the work.

You seem upset about this, but I don’t understand how it impacts you. Did your child solely pass a class because they got a 50% instead of a 0? In that case, punish your own child. Allow others to follow their own paths. A child barely squeaking by with a 60 still had to turn in and pass over half of the assignments. This child is not getting into any colleges and might have a different goal after high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Churchill, they are still giving 50% for missing assignments. Isn’t that a Board of Ed policy or is Churchill still doing their own thing?

I think students should get 0% for 0 effort. No matter if a student is college bound or workforce bound, in the real world people are held to expectations that work is due when it is due.

The policy of giving credit for no work is grade inflation. Students need the impact and consequences to learn to be organized and motivated to do the work.

Actually, in my real world of paid employment, some people are sometimes held to expectations that work is due when it is due. Some people sometimes; not nobody ever, not everybody always.

Also, flunking generally does not teach a person how to be organized and motivated.

Not to mention, as various PPs have said, that a 50% is not a passing grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not inflate their way to a crappy overpriced college. Give them the opportunity to get some of that free loan money. Everyone likes money!
Even if they can't read the contract with financial literacy their grades say they can. Why should they miss out on free money. Everyone knows that they must be smart. So smart that the teachers don't even have to assess with grades plus teachers can focus on their second and third jobs and why administrators tolerate violent behavior.

Some of what "free loan money"?!

[Anonymous]

That article is old. MCPS has changed a couple of the grading policies that make grades function differently. All courses now are using a 90% (all tasks) 10% (practice/preparation) template. All assignments are 50% minimum automatically, whether or not turned in. This effectively is a switch to a mastery grading scale by force-fitting it into an old points based system. Does it help students pass a course with minimum effort? Yes. Does it automatically inflate grades so everyone has an A? Only if teachers continued using old practices of giving BS assignments that boosted kids grades by everyone getting 100% on them. If teachers rethink their assessment practices and only assess things that have real meaning and use a real mastery scale on those things, grades will still match actual performance and ability.

Am I the only who who thinks that a high school diploma is so devalued that there is no harm giving kids who show up at least a D? We’re not talking about inflating their way into a great college, we’re talking about getting them across the stage.

You are not alone. But it is the state of Maryland who devalued the HS diploma by creating "bridge" projects for students who couldn't pass the state English and Math proficiency tests. There are students graduating who cannot read, write a coherent sentence, or do basic math skills. Once there is no real bar that kids actually have to meet to show proficiency, then the pressure shifts down to all the classes to pass them. Know why they have trouble passing classes? Because they can't read, write a sensible sentence, or do basic math.

I teach 11th and 12th graders in a course required for graduation. My job is to somehow get them to pass the course. Can I solve all the problems? No. Can I provide them opportunity? Yes. Do some of them deserve to graduate? Absolutely. Am I concerned about some of them being able to function as an independent adult? Absolutely. But some of those kids plan to just stay at home and play video games after high school .... It will become the problem of their parents who have failed to raise and launch a kid successfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only who who thinks that a high school diploma is so devalued that there is no harm giving kids who show up at least a D? We’re not talking about inflating their way into a great college, we’re talking about getting them across the stage.

Your attitude is why they are devalued.

[Anonymous]

I thought a zero could be given after x number of days and parental notification? Either way, for a good student who bombs one test or assignment, it’s nearly impossible to come back from a zero or near there so I see some logic in an E and A averaging a C instead of an E.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:No, they should fail. We are not doing kids favors by socially passing them.

50% is failing. How can you not know that?

?? Did you read the article? "The 50 percent rule bumps students who would be receiving failing grades, such as a 31 percent, to a passing grade, such 60 percent. This graduates students who should not be graduating."

A 50% can never move a person from 31% to passing. Think about it!

so the article is incorrect?

Yes. A 50% is still a failing grade. Work on your own math skills and you will see that it can never move someone up to 60%.

It could if the 50% was replacing a 0%. If a kid had 3 assignments and did only one of them, and got 100% on that one, if the incomplete assignments were given 0 points, they’d have a 33%. But in the same case, if the incompletes were worth 50, they’d have 67%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought a zero could be given after x number of days and parental notification? Either way, for a good student who bombs one test or assignment, it’s nearly impossible to come back from a zero or near there so I see some logic in an E and A averaging a C instead of an E.

It’s not just parental notification. It has to be two way communication. Even if a parent is notified, they could simply not respond.

[Anonymous]

The BOE greenlighted this last year full-scale when distance learning started. Students who didn't show up at all for class or do any work got 50% instead of 0% for each assignment. They did this to prevent huge swaths of kids from failing (some would barely show up) since they were doing only a few assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear what you’re saying, but a 50 is still a failing grade. If a kid does 2 assignments and earns an A on the first and an E on the second, I think it makes sense that it averages to a C, which only happens in this scenario. (95 + 0 /2= E vs 95 + 50/2 = C).

I question the semester grades more. My DD only wants to work hard for the 1st and 3rd quarters because once she has earned an A, she can relax for the 2nd and 4th quarters. I hate that!

Same here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear what you’re saying, but a 50 is still a failing grade. If a kid does 2 assignments and earns an A on the first and an E on the second, I think it makes sense that it averages to a C, which only happens in this scenario. (95 + 0 /2= E vs 95 + 50/2 = C).

I question the semester grades more. My DD only wants to work hard for the 1st and 3rd quarters because once she has earned an A, she can relax for the 2nd and 4th quarters. I hate that!

When I was in public high school (different State) our grade ranges were

A 94-100
B 85-93
C 77-84
D 68-76
F 67 or lower

We not only got zeros for work that wasn’t turned in or had zero correct answers, but if you got one wrong answer on a test with 12 questions, you got a B, even if you showed mastery of the material. There were no retakes, but teachers could offer extra credit questions or projects. Furthermore, the trend in your quarterly grades influenced your semester grade. If you had an A in 1st quarter and a B in 2nd quarter, your semester grade was a B. But if you earned a B in 3rd quarter and then an A in 4th quarter, your semester grade was an A. One kid could earn 2 A’s and 2 B’s during the year in a given class and end up with a final grade of B, while another student in the same class could earn those same grades in a different sequence and have a final grade of A.

I was okay with rampant grade inflation during the pandemic because it was all such a struggle and students (and teachers!) needed flexibility to hang in there, but it does seem as though grades don’t necessarily reflect performance in general.

[Anonymous]

Am I the only who who thinks that a high school diploma is so devalued that there is no harm giving kids who show up at least a D? We’re not talking about inflating their way into a great college, we’re talking about getting them across the stage.

There is a huge value to getting kids across the stage. A HS diploma is the ticket to a full time job with health insurance and paid sick leave. Not every kid is book smart or has the capability to perform well in school. Before the days of transparency and online grades, teachers would D students out. It was a huge service to those kids that needed the push to become productive and contributing members of society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Am I the only who who thinks that a high school diploma is so devalued that there is no harm giving kids who show up at least a D? We’re not talking about inflating their way into a great college, we’re talking about getting them across the stage.

There is a huge value to getting kids across the stage. A HS diploma is the ticket to a full time job with health insurance and paid sick leave. Not every kid is book smart or has the capability to perform well in school. Before the days of transparency and online grades, teachers would D students out. It was a huge service to those kids that needed the push to become productive and contributing members of society.

That “service” was not applied objectively though. It was very common for teachers to save kids they liked and failed those that they disliked. Just as extra credit was not offered objectively. I was a decent student in math, but really struggled alone because I was poor and my parents were in bad health and busy working. I was shocked to learn at the end of Geometry that the teacher awarded up to a hundred extra credit points for random things. She didn’t tell everyone this, just the students she liked —mostly the wealthier girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear what you’re saying, but a 50 is still a failing grade. If a kid does 2 assignments and earns an A on the first and an E on the second, I think it makes sense that it averages to a C, which only happens in this scenario. (95 + 0 /2= E vs 95 + 50/2 = C).

I question the semester grades more. My DD only wants to work hard for the 1st and 3rd quarters because once she has earned an A, she can relax for the 2nd and 4th quarters. I hate that!

Same here!

I'm a parent who thinks this approach is more of a smart strategy to succeed in school and enjoy life. To each her/his/their own.