HS teacher not grading papers for two straight semesters. Does FCPS have a policy on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t we shift school so that a teacher teaches but someone else does the grading. Particularly for writing heavy things.

Because that’s two FTEs.

[Anonymous]

Parent here:

It sounds like you are looking for feedback for your child--which is extremely important with an AP class. However, if you are concerned about grades, here is my experience:

DS (who is long graduated now) had a teacher who gave him a mediocre grade at mid-term. We sat on him and he worked very hard and his work improved greatly. (That's the purpose of mid-term grades.) However, at end of quarter, his grade was worse than at mid-term. Turns out that the work that brought his grade down had been turned in long before mid-term, but his teacher had not yet graded the work. As I recall, it even included a test. It was English, so it was mostly papers.

I looked up the policy on FCPS website, and it said that the grade should reflect the work before that time. In other words, the teacher was not following policy. She was grading retroactively. I contacted the counselor and we had a meeting with the teacher and the counselor. I did not bring up the policy, but it was clear the counselor was aware. The grade was changed.

The policy was quite clear--I'm not sure I stated it clearly, but grades reflect the work during the appropriate period.

[Anonymous]

HS teacher here. I agree that grading takes way more time than I have available, but it is still very important to give feedback. I have my own young children at home and simply do not have 10 hours on a Saturday to grade (though I have definitely had days like this before). This means that sometimes students take a quiz and then we grade it as a class for immediate formative feedback and the quiz does not go in the grade book. I also don't grade homework but we go over assignments in the following class and I post keys. This reduces my grading to only tests, some quizzes/activities, and larger assignments like reports. There are ways to provide feedback. Something is going on with this teacher that is affecting their ability to grade. They might have other obligations outside of school that they didnt have previously. I know of one AP teacher at my school who had a family emergency early in the year and they are still dealing with the fallout from that. Perhaps reach out as a concerned parent and request an in-person conference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HS teacher here. I agree that grading takes way more time than I have available, but it is still very important to give feedback. I have my own young children at home and simply do not have 10 hours on a Saturday to grade (though I have definitely had days like this before). This means that sometimes students take a quiz and then we grade it as a class for immediate formative feedback and the quiz does not go in the grade book. I also don't grade homework but we go over assignments in the following class and I post keys. This reduces my grading to only tests, some quizzes/activities, and larger assignments like reports. There are ways to provide feedback. Something is going on with this teacher that is affecting their ability to grade. They might have other obligations outside of school that they didnt have previously. I know of one AP teacher at my school who had a family emergency early in the year and they are still dealing with the fallout from that. Perhaps reach out as a concerned parent and request an in-person conference.

Good points here. (Another HS teacher here - who posted above)

I also wonder whether there’s a personal reason this teacher can’t give hours outside of school to grading. I have no work-life balance, so I devote entire weekends to getting the grading done. The teacher next door to me has four children, one with medical needs. She can’t, and therefore her grading is always backed up. I’ve heard complaints that she never grades, but the reality is much more complex. When the expectation is that all grading get done in our own time, some teachers can’t (and increasingly won’t) devote the hours.

I’m very vocal that the profession needs to change. If providing feedback is such an important part of my job - and it is - then I should be given time at work to get it done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exhibit A of grade inflation in public schools. Teachers aren’t even grading assignments. This would never be acceptable at a private. Such a joke.

Private school teacher here. Did you catch the teacher above who wrote that one set of responses can take 10 hours of grading? That’s on top of the teacher’s other work, which doesn’t stop for a stack of papers. I have my alarm set for 6am tomorrow (on a weekend) to grade all day, just to get comments back to my juniors on Monday. I anticipate 10-12 hours of work.

Don’t make this public vs. private. Teachers everywhere are exhausted. We should have time at work to grade if you want comments back. The expectation shouldn’t be sacrificed weekends.

+1

I am a middle school teacher who has stopped working outside contract hours. I grade strategically and grade during class when students are working on other assignments. I am exhausted and burned out. I do know some teachers who essentially don’t grade and make up report card grades

[Anonymous]

Another AP teacher here.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your DC is giving you an accurate/complete picture of what is going on.
I've had a couple of parents blow up at me in the last two weeks about their child's grade (not related to ungraded assignments since I kill myself to return assessments very quickly). When I pointed out that the student is missing a lot of homework/hasn't come for help/ is skipping assessments/ is on their phone in class etc., the parents backed off.

Your children will lie to you and/or cheat when they feel cornered, especially if you're placing unrealistic expectations on them and they're worried about your reaction to their grades. This is intensified by the stupid 50% minimum grade policy (which absurdly inflates grades) and open enrollment policy (which allows completely unprepared students to sign up for whatever they want and overload on classes they can't handle because that's what the valedictorian types are doing).

Otherwise, I echo what other teachers here have said. I'm spending functionally all my weekend grading again. Our planning time wouldn't be sufficient to grade, let alone plan lessons, and most of it is taken away for meetings and other duties, not including trainings and other meetings and expectations outside of school hours.

I actually became a teacher when my children were teenagers and self sufficient. There is no way I would have lasted in this job with young children, or care giving duties, or health issues. I don't even know how young teachers make ends meet--my spouse makes many times what I make so no worries here--they probably have to take on a second job, hence no time to grade haha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP teacher.

Those free response questions are the death of me. They take 3-4 minutes each to grade, our tests have two each, so 7 minutes per kid x87 kids = 10 hrs of grading for one test. I have fantasized about not grading them…but I just suck it up and devote one Sunday every 2-3 weeks to nothing but free response grading.

Next year I am going to try to be more strategic and have the kids “pre grade” it themselves using the rubric. Is the teacher showing them what the rubric for the short answer questions looks like? Are they going over what a solid answer looks like and picking apart examples of weaker ones? Are they writing a sample solution as a class after they write individual ones? Are they told what year the question was from so they can look up the rubric in college board’s website?

I think all of these are ways to give feedback without grades. If none of that is happening, then I’d be frustrated and would have my kid reach out to the teacher (cc you on the email for accountability) and ask how to get feedback on the written part. If no answer, then go to the administrator in charge of that department and ask how your child can get feedback on their written portions. That’s the more important piece than the grade, IMO. They are having graded assignments (the gradebook isn’t blank! No surprise entries at the end of the quarter) but your child needs guidance to pass the AP test.

I'm sympathetic, as I used to teach writing, but you have to be joking for the bolded. Those rubrics re idiotic and subjective, for one. But also, it is YOUR job to grade and provide the feedback. I don't know the answer here to help you get that done but it is not the kids doing it for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another AP teacher here.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your DC is giving you an accurate/complete picture of what is going on.
I've had a couple of parents blow up at me in the last two weeks about their child's grade (not related to ungraded assignments since I kill myself to return assessments very quickly). When I pointed out that the student is missing a lot of homework/hasn't come for help/ is skipping assessments/ is on their phone in class etc., the parents backed off.

Your children will lie to you and/or cheat when they feel cornered, especially if you're placing unrealistic expectations on them and they're worried about your reaction to their grades. This is intensified by the stupid 50% minimum grade policy (which absurdly inflates grades) and open enrollment policy (which allows completely unprepared students to sign up for whatever they want and overload on classes they can't handle because that's what the valedictorian types are doing).

Otherwise, I echo what other teachers here have said. I'm spending functionally all my weekend grading again. Our planning time wouldn't be sufficient to grade, let alone plan lessons, and most of it is taken away for meetings and other duties, not including trainings and other meetings and expectations outside of school hours.

I actually became a teacher when my children were teenagers and self sufficient. There is no way I would have lasted in this job with young children, or care giving duties, or health issues. I don't even know how young teachers make ends meet--my spouse makes many times what I make so no worries here--they probably have to take on a second job, hence no time to grade haha.

I think these are fair points. HOWEVER, there are also many teachers who are not grading and providing feedback in a timely manner. It's not just "kids are lying to you."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP teacher.

Those free response questions are the death of me. They take 3-4 minutes each to grade, our tests have two each, so 7 minutes per kid x87 kids = 10 hrs of grading for one test. I have fantasized about not grading them…but I just suck it up and devote one Sunday every 2-3 weeks to nothing but free response grading.

Next year I am going to try to be more strategic and have the kids “pre grade” it themselves using the rubric. Is the teacher showing them what the rubric for the short answer questions looks like? Are they going over what a solid answer looks like and picking apart examples of weaker ones? Are they writing a sample solution as a class after they write individual ones? Are they told what year the question was from so they can look up the rubric in college board’s website?

I think all of these are ways to give feedback without grades. If none of that is happening, then I’d be frustrated and would have my kid reach out to the teacher (cc you on the email for accountability) and ask how to get feedback on the written part. If no answer, then go to the administrator in charge of that department and ask how your child can get feedback on their written portions. That’s the more important piece than the grade, IMO. They are having graded assignments (the gradebook isn’t blank! No surprise entries at the end of the quarter) but your child needs guidance to pass the AP test.

I'm sympathetic, as I used to teach writing, but you have to be joking for the bolded. Those rubrics re idiotic and subjective, for one. But also, it is YOUR job to grade and provide the feedback. I don't know the answer here to help you get that done but it is not the kids doing it for you.

The answer isn’t expecting teachers to give up 20 hours over a weekend. It simply isn’t.

I get less than an hour a day at work to myself. That is all I get to grade papers, plan lessons, answer emails, eat lunch, go to the bathroom, etc. When I collect a stack of essays, I’m then committed to spending over 35 hours grading that assignment ALONE. My other work does not stop.

Something has to be done. I’m watching teachers leave the profession in droves. We lost three in my department mid-year this year, and all because of workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another AP teacher here.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your DC is giving you an accurate/complete picture of what is going on.
I've had a couple of parents blow up at me in the last two weeks about their child's grade (not related to ungraded assignments since I kill myself to return assessments very quickly). When I pointed out that the student is missing a lot of homework/hasn't come for help/ is skipping assessments/ is on their phone in class etc., the parents backed off.

Your children will lie to you and/or cheat when they feel cornered, especially if you're placing unrealistic expectations on them and they're worried about your reaction to their grades. This is intensified by the stupid 50% minimum grade policy (which absurdly inflates grades) and open enrollment policy (which allows completely unprepared students to sign up for whatever they want and overload on classes they can't handle because that's what the valedictorian types are doing).

Otherwise, I echo what other teachers here have said. I'm spending functionally all my weekend grading again. Our planning time wouldn't be sufficient to grade, let alone plan lessons, and most of it is taken away for meetings and other duties, not including trainings and other meetings and expectations outside of school hours.

I actually became a teacher when my children were teenagers and self sufficient. There is no way I would have lasted in this job with young children, or care giving duties, or health issues. I don't even know how young teachers make ends meet--my spouse makes many times what I make so no worries here--they probably have to take on a second job, hence no time to grade haha.

I think these are fair points. HOWEVER, there are also many teachers who are not grading and providing feedback in a timely manner. It's not just "kids are lying to you."

I agree. All I was saying was that she needs to make sure that what her DC says is true without assuming right off the bat that it's true.

[Anonymous]

I work in a private school and there are plenty of teachers who don’t grade much.

I do, but I can prep my lessons very quickly, so it get done during the school day with minimal spillover. We have less students and meetings which helps.

If schools continue to give one teacher multiple jobs, this is what will happen. And the new ones will burn out and thus not evolve into teachers like me, who are able to prepare quality lessons quickly and grade efficiently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP teacher.

Those free response questions are the death of me. They take 3-4 minutes each to grade, our tests have two each, so 7 minutes per kid x87 kids = 10 hrs of grading for one test. I have fantasized about not grading them…but I just suck it up and devote one Sunday every 2-3 weeks to nothing but free response grading.

Next year I am going to try to be more strategic and have the kids “pre grade” it themselves using the rubric. Is the teacher showing them what the rubric for the short answer questions looks like? Are they going over what a solid answer looks like and picking apart examples of weaker ones? Are they writing a sample solution as a class after they write individual ones? Are they told what year the question was from so they can look up the rubric in college board’s website?

I think all of these are ways to give feedback without grades. If none of that is happening, then I’d be frustrated and would have my kid reach out to the teacher (cc you on the email for accountability) and ask how to get feedback on the written part. If no answer, then go to the administrator in charge of that department and ask how your child can get feedback on their written portions. That’s the more important piece than the grade, IMO. They are having graded assignments (the gradebook isn’t blank! No surprise entries at the end of the quarter) but your child needs guidance to pass the AP test.

I'm sympathetic, as I used to teach writing, but you have to be joking for the bolded. Those rubrics re idiotic and subjective, for one. But also, it is YOUR job to grade and provide the feedback. I don't know the answer here to help you get that done but it is not the kids doing it for you.

Well, guess you’ll have to cope with your displeasure about it.

(not teacher PP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP teacher.

Those free response questions are the death of me. They take 3-4 minutes each to grade, our tests have two each, so 7 minutes per kid x87 kids = 10 hrs of grading for one test. I have fantasized about not grading them…but I just suck it up and devote one Sunday every 2-3 weeks to nothing but free response grading.

Next year I am going to try to be more strategic and have the kids “pre grade” it themselves using the rubric. Is the teacher showing them what the rubric for the short answer questions looks like? Are they going over what a solid answer looks like and picking apart examples of weaker ones? Are they writing a sample solution as a class after they write individual ones? Are they told what year the question was from so they can look up the rubric in college board’s website?

I think all of these are ways to give feedback without grades. If none of that is happening, then I’d be frustrated and would have my kid reach out to the teacher (cc you on the email for accountability) and ask how to get feedback on the written part. If no answer, then go to the administrator in charge of that department and ask how your child can get feedback on their written portions. That’s the more important piece than the grade, IMO. They are having graded assignments (the gradebook isn’t blank! No surprise entries at the end of the quarter) but your child needs guidance to pass the AP test.

I'm sympathetic, as I used to teach writing, but you have to be joking for the bolded. Those rubrics re idiotic and subjective, for one. But also, it is YOUR job to grade and provide the feedback. I don't know the answer here to help you get that done but it is not the kids doing it for you.

Well, guess you’ll have to cope with your displeasure about it.

(not teacher PP)

Not “teacher PP” but another lazy teacher. -signed a teacher who is well aware of how much work it is

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP teacher.

Those free response questions are the death of me. They take 3-4 minutes each to grade, our tests have two each, so 7 minutes per kid x87 kids = 10 hrs of grading for one test. I have fantasized about not grading them…but I just suck it up and devote one Sunday every 2-3 weeks to nothing but free response grading.

Next year I am going to try to be more strategic and have the kids “pre grade” it themselves using the rubric. Is the teacher showing them what the rubric for the short answer questions looks like? Are they going over what a solid answer looks like and picking apart examples of weaker ones? Are they writing a sample solution as a class after they write individual ones? Are they told what year the question was from so they can look up the rubric in college board’s website?

I think all of these are ways to give feedback without grades. If none of that is happening, then I’d be frustrated and would have my kid reach out to the teacher (cc you on the email for accountability) and ask how to get feedback on the written part. If no answer, then go to the administrator in charge of that department and ask how your child can get feedback on their written portions. That’s the more important piece than the grade, IMO. They are having graded assignments (the gradebook isn’t blank! No surprise entries at the end of the quarter) but your child needs guidance to pass the AP test.

I'm sympathetic, as I used to teach writing, but you have to be joking for the bolded. Those rubrics re idiotic and subjective, for one. But also, it is YOUR job to grade and provide the feedback. I don't know the answer here to help you get that done but it is not the kids doing it for you.

The answer isn’t expecting teachers to give up 20 hours over a weekend. It simply isn’t.

I get less than an hour a day at work to myself. That is all I get to grade papers, plan lessons, answer emails, eat lunch, go to the bathroom, etc. When I collect a stack of essays, I’m then committed to spending over 35 hours grading that assignment ALONE. My other work does not stop.

Something has to be done. I’m watching teachers leave the profession in droves. We lost three in my department mid-year this year, and all because of workload.

Then they should leave and force the issue. I'm serious. Because the answer is also not have kids grade their own work and/or not give feedback. It simply is not, also.

[Anonymous]

Slow/incomplete grading is a huge problem in FCPS that negatively affects learning at the lower grades and college opportunity at the higher grades. The issue will not improve, however, until teachers decide to shift their priorities. Yes, they are overworked, but they are choosing to not grade in order to cope. Chose to not do something else that doesn’t have such a direct negative effect on students.

Alas, they won’t as we see from these comments time and time again. It’s almost as if they don’t care.