Why are there so many graded assignments in MCPS HS?

[Anonymous]

I’ve always thought that MCPS should grade more assignments. I think all assignments should be graded.

Giving homework for practice is fine, but if you don’t grade it, the kid may be practicing it wrong. Assignments should be grades rather than just checked for completion so that if there is a problem it is caught early and can be addressed before further practice has cemented bad habits.

Busy work is a separate issue, as is the Canvas system. I suggest that the easiest fix for your complaint would be to advise your child to ask for clarification, when given an assignment, as to whether or not it will be graded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve always thought that MCPS should grade more assignments. I think all assignments should be graded.

Giving homework for practice is fine, but if you don’t grade it, the kid may be practicing it wrong. Assignments should be grades rather than just checked for completion so that if there is a problem it is caught early and can be addressed before further practice has cemented bad habits.

Busy work is a separate issue, as is the Canvas system. I suggest that the easiest fix for your complaint would be to advise your child to ask for clarification, when given an assignment, as to whether or not it will be graded.

Who is going to grade 20-30 kids' work overload?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every teacher seems to have several dozen each quarter whereas our DC in private might have 10 total. A lot of it is busy work but it's difficult for teachers to grade and impossible for kids to keep track of. The Canvas system is so stupid that when the assignments are created it's unclear whether they are PP or AT until they show up as grades in the grades section which creates confusion for kids.

Are teachers incentivized to give more useless assignments?

No it’s called learning and given public’s teach better than privates in HS what the hell are you talking about?

No your private isn’t superior. And no you aren’t either because you spend money on private sup par education

College admissions I rest my case

With some people, you don't have to satirize them, you just quote :em.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve always thought that MCPS should grade more assignments. I think all assignments should be graded.

Giving homework for practice is fine, but if you don’t grade it, the kid may be practicing it wrong. Assignments should be grades rather than just checked for completion so that if there is a problem it is caught early and can be addressed before further practice has cemented bad habits.

Busy work is a separate issue, as is the Canvas system. I suggest that the easiest fix for your complaint would be to advise your child to ask for clarification, when given an assignment, as to whether or not it will be graded.

Who is going to grade 20-30 kids' work overload?!

It was the standard practice when I was growing up. Every assignment was graded. I’m sure it was a lot of work, but the teachers graded it all. I was shocked to discover that MCPS didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve always thought that MCPS should grade more assignments. I think all assignments should be graded.

Giving homework for practice is fine, but if you don’t grade it, the kid may be practicing it wrong. Assignments should be grades rather than just checked for completion so that if there is a problem it is caught early and can be addressed before further practice has cemented bad habits.

Busy work is a separate issue, as is the Canvas system. I suggest that the easiest fix for your complaint would be to advise your child to ask for clarification, when given an assignment, as to whether or not it will be graded.

Who is going to grade 20-30 kids' work overload?!

It was the standard practice when I was growing up. Every assignment was graded. I’m sure it was a lot of work, but the teachers graded it all. I was shocked to discover that MCPS didn’t.

PP here - Actually, in elementary, homework with objective answers (math, multiple choice worksheets, etc.), was graded by fellow students as we swapped papers and the teacher handed out red pencils. By high school, I think teachers just graded everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve always thought that MCPS should grade more assignments. I think all assignments should be graded.

Giving homework for practice is fine, but if you don’t grade it, the kid may be practicing it wrong. Assignments should be grades rather than just checked for completion so that if there is a problem it is caught early and can be addressed before further practice has cemented bad habits.

Busy work is a separate issue, as is the Canvas system. I suggest that the easiest fix for your complaint would be to advise your child to ask for clarification, when given an assignment, as to whether or not it will be graded.

Who is going to grade 20-30 kids' work overload?!

It was the standard practice when I was growing up. Every assignment was graded. I’m sure it was a lot of work, but the teachers graded it all. I was shocked to discover that MCPS didn’t.

I grew up in Fairfax. My high school teachers didn’t grade homework or practice assignments. We went over it all in class to check for accuracy, but it wasn’t graded. As a student, I knew I had to do the work if I wanted the practice for upcoming tests, etc.

Grading everything places the emphasis on the grade, not on the learning.

[Anonymous]

I remember switching papers and grading my peers in class growing up in FCPS.

For some teachers the assignments are formative assessments so they can determine if the students get the content in general.

For some students, more grades are better. If they bomb one quiz and only have 7 other grades for the quarter, it will be hard to bring it up. Having more decent grades can help bring up the average.

Kids these days are lazy and don’t pay attention in class. And no it’s not because the teachers aren’t interesting—they literally tune out when the teacher is talking and when it’s time to start the work they raise their hand and ask for directions. That have just been given. It’s infuriating. But if the kids don’t think they’ll be graded on something, they really really don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember switching papers and grading my peers in class growing up in FCPS.

For some teachers the assignments are formative assessments so they can determine if the students get the content in general.

For some students, more grades are better. If they bomb one quiz and only have 7 other grades for the quarter, it will be hard to bring it up. Having more decent grades can help bring up the average.

Kids these days are lazy and don’t pay attention in class. And no it’s not because the teachers aren’t interesting—they literally tune out when the teacher is talking and when it’s time to start the work they raise their hand and ask for directions. That have just been given. It’s infuriating. But if the kids don’t think they’ll be graded on something, they really really don’t care.

I’m the PP and a long-time AP teacher. Students generally meet the expectations we set for them. I used to grade everything as a form of classroom management; it kept students in line, but it wasn’t actually effective. It emphasized grades and not learning, so students merely did the work because they had to and I spent weekends grading shoddy work.

I spent a summer redesigning my classes. I now grade only 8-10 assignments a quarter. The quarter syllabus outlines all tasks, labeling them as graded/not graded. The progression is clear, so students can see how the not-graded assignments impact a future task. The syllabus also outlines what graded assignments are eligible for revisions (higher scores) and which are final products.

When I set this expectation, students still did the work. The class feels truly college-prep now, as well, and I get positive feedback from students and parents.

[Anonymous]

Some feel there are too many while others feel there are too few. This is a sure sign that there are the right amount of graded assignments @MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every teacher seems to have several dozen each quarter whereas our DC in private might have 10 total. A lot of it is busy work but it's difficult for teachers to grade and impossible for kids to keep track of. The Canvas system is so stupid that when the assignments are created it's unclear whether they are PP or AT until they show up as grades in the grades section which creates confusion for kids.

Are teachers incentivized to give more useless assignments?

No it’s called learning and given public’s teach better than privates in HS what the hell are you talking about?

No your private isn’t superior. And no you aren’t either because you spend money on private sup par education

College admissions I rest my case

LOL, MCPS sucks at preparing kids for college. With the exception of a percentage of kids at W schools and a very very small percentage at others, by and large, kids are in for a shock when they go to college. Case in point, my friend's daughter enrolled in Towson. She was a A/B student at her MCPS HS and struggled in her first year because she didn't know how to study for cumulative exams. MCPS hasn't given a final in years. Private schools have mid term and final exams for the most part. I don't know about OP's school, but most privates in the DMV are college prep level schools and do much better at preparing students for college. For one thing, they don't have the level of grade inflation that MCPS has and college admissions officers know this. That's why a larger percentage of students of the strong private schools get into top 20 colleges. At my daughter's private, 25% were admitted to top 20 schools. At the best W schools, it was only 5%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember switching papers and grading my peers in class growing up in FCPS.

For some teachers the assignments are formative assessments so they can determine if the students get the content in general.

For some students, more grades are better. If they bomb one quiz and only have 7 other grades for the quarter, it will be hard to bring it up. Having more decent grades can help bring up the average.

Kids these days are lazy and don’t pay attention in class. And no it’s not because the teachers aren’t interesting—they literally tune out when the teacher is talking and when it’s time to start the work they raise their hand and ask for directions. That have just been given. It’s infuriating. But if the kids don’t think they’ll be graded on something, they really really don’t care.

I’m the PP and a long-time AP teacher. Students generally meet the expectations we set for them. I used to grade everything as a form of classroom management; it kept students in line, but it wasn’t actually effective. It emphasized grades and not learning, so students merely did the work because they had to and I spent weekends grading shoddy work.

I spent a summer redesigning my classes. I now grade only 8-10 assignments a quarter. The quarter syllabus outlines all tasks, labeling them as graded/not graded. The progression is clear, so students can see how the not-graded assignments impact a future task. The syllabus also outlines what graded assignments are eligible for revisions (higher scores) and which are final products.

When I set this expectation, students still did the work. The class feels truly college-prep now, as well, and I get positive feedback from students and parents.

I appreciate your effort! I’m glad it worked well. Do you think it would work for non-AP students whose parents aren’t as involved with their student’s schooling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember switching papers and grading my peers in class growing up in FCPS.

For some teachers the assignments are formative assessments so they can determine if the students get the content in general.

For some students, more grades are better. If they bomb one quiz and only have 7 other grades for the quarter, it will be hard to bring it up. Having more decent grades can help bring up the average.

Kids these days are lazy and don’t pay attention in class. And no it’s not because the teachers aren’t interesting—they literally tune out when the teacher is talking and when it’s time to start the work they raise their hand and ask for directions. That have just been given. It’s infuriating. But if the kids don’t think they’ll be graded on something, they really really don’t care.

I’m the PP and a long-time AP teacher. Students generally meet the expectations we set for them. I used to grade everything as a form of classroom management; it kept students in line, but it wasn’t actually effective. It emphasized grades and not learning, so students merely did the work because they had to and I spent weekends grading shoddy work.

I spent a summer redesigning my classes. I now grade only 8-10 assignments a quarter. The quarter syllabus outlines all tasks, labeling them as graded/not graded. The progression is clear, so students can see how the not-graded assignments impact a future task. The syllabus also outlines what graded assignments are eligible for revisions (higher scores) and which are final products.

When I set this expectation, students still did the work. The class feels truly college-prep now, as well, and I get positive feedback from students and parents.

👏. This is exactly it. Set the expectations from Day 1, Document them and then don’t lower them. Students will rise to the expectations. Parents that complain, can read the syllabus. If kids are missing the prerequisite skills for HS, they should talk to the teachers and folks in their lives from before and then seek support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every teacher seems to have several dozen each quarter whereas our DC in private might have 10 total. A lot of it is busy work but it's difficult for teachers to grade and impossible for kids to keep track of. The Canvas system is so stupid that when the assignments are created it's unclear whether they are PP or AT until they show up as grades in the grades section which creates confusion for kids.

Are teachers incentivized to give more useless assignments?

I'm a high school AP teacher and there is no way that one graded assignment per week (basically what you are suggesting) is enough to keep kids practicing skills or memorizing content. My assignments aren't "useless." They are meant to make sure that kids read, write the content that they need to memorize (because this is what forms memories) and then synthesize/use the ideas and content in a new way. That takes a lot of practice.

Seriously. One assignment per week for a college-prep level course is absurd.

OP, go back to private. I have lots of criticism for MCPS but this isn’t one of them. If anything, MCPS high school rigor is insufficient to prepare most kids for college level assignments.

One assignment per week is normal for college.

Is it? I may be dating myself, but when I was in college (majored political science), almost of my classes had a midterm, a final, and a paper. That was it. There was required reading every week, but you just read it-- or didn't-- but there was nothing to turn in to ensure that you did.

College has been infantilized as more (and less qualified) people attend. There are often attendance quizzes, reading quizzes, "blog" posts about the week's reading, etc. I don't blame professors, they are struggling mightily to get kids to actually engage with content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every teacher seems to have several dozen each quarter whereas our DC in private might have 10 total. A lot of it is busy work but it's difficult for teachers to grade and impossible for kids to keep track of. The Canvas system is so stupid that when the assignments are created it's unclear whether they are PP or AT until they show up as grades in the grades section which creates confusion for kids.

Are teachers incentivized to give more useless assignments?

No it’s called learning and given public’s teach better than privates in HS what the hell are you talking about?

No your private isn’t superior. And no you aren’t either because you spend money on private sup par education

College admissions I rest my case

LOL, MCPS sucks at preparing kids for college. With the exception of a percentage of kids at W schools and a very very small percentage at others, by and large, kids are in for a shock when they go to college. Case in point, my friend's daughter enrolled in Towson. She was a A/B student at her MCPS HS and struggled in her first year because she didn't know how to study for cumulative exams. MCPS hasn't given a final in years. Private schools have mid term and final exams for the most part. I don't know about OP's school, but most privates in the DMV are college prep level schools and do much better at preparing students for college. For one thing, they don't have the level of grade inflation that MCPS has and college admissions officers know this. That's why a larger percentage of students of the strong private schools get into top 20 colleges. At my daughter's private, 25% were admitted to top 20 schools. At the best W schools, it was only 5%.

Students at W schools and others are having no problem being admitted to schools which they apply. I don’t know why folks are suddenly committing to the narrative that MCPS students can’t get admitted to good schools but it’s not true. If anything the only thing working against them is the number of students in their school and the district applying to the same school. Students are applying to schools that fit them and that they can afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every teacher seems to have several dozen each quarter whereas our DC in private might have 10 total. A lot of it is busy work but it's difficult for teachers to grade and impossible for kids to keep track of. The Canvas system is so stupid that when the assignments are created it's unclear whether they are PP or AT until they show up as grades in the grades section which creates confusion for kids.

Are teachers incentivized to give more useless assignments?

I'm a high school AP teacher and there is no way that one graded assignment per week (basically what you are suggesting) is enough to keep kids practicing skills or memorizing content. My assignments aren't "useless." They are meant to make sure that kids read, write the content that they need to memorize (because this is what forms memories) and then synthesize/use the ideas and content in a new way. That takes a lot of practice.

I teach AP in a private school. I have one graded assignment a week. Many of my assignments aren’t graded; there is an expectation that students complete them so they are prepared for the one graded assignment.

It works very well. Students still complete 2-3 assignments a week, but they are assessed on one. This aligns to what my own daughter experiences in college, where a lot of her work is not graded.

And your students have a lot of factors leading them to actually complete those assignments, including very active, involved parents, competition with peers and an environment that highly values college admissions. Lots of public school students will not complete assignments unless they are graded. In fact, many don't complete them even when they are graded.