do most kids get all As in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Coming from another school district I don't understand this question.

I've never looked at my kid's "grades" in elementary that closely unless they were low. They used a 4-point scale and 3 meant on target and 4 meant exceeding target. Usually my kid would get mostly 3s at the beginning of the year and mostly 4s at the end of the year. This was probably fairly accurate (as a PP noted elementary school is not hard for a kid with educated and supportive parents) but it's not what I would focus on. Especially since a lot of the grades were for stuff like art and PE -- no one's kid is failing those subjects in elementary school unless they are super disruptive or not participating at all. The point of those parts of elementary is simply to participate.

Instead I'd focus on objective assessments like DIBELs for reading or iReady for math and look at where my kid was landing within the bands for her grade as well as how she was progressing across trimesters and grades. This gave me a much better sense of how she was doing on core subjects and whether we needed to offer more support or supplement.

So "grade inflation" in elementary sounds like a dumb concept to me. Teachers will absolutely flag a kid who is behind via grades but the focus should be a lot more precise than that. Are they getting a 2 in ELA because they are struggling with reading or writing. Is the issue decoding or comprehension. Is there a developmental issue like fine motor skills impacting their writing. Do they have signs of a learning disorder. And so one. Elementary school is fundamentally different from middle or high school and grades operate in a different way. Talking about "grade inflation" when you are getting a report card that provides scores on assessment tests and learning disorder screenings is weird. Grow up.

+1 to the bolded. If you're looking for information on how your kid is doing, we live in a golden age. Grades are less useful than the other measures.

Our third grade got all As last year, all Ps the two years before that. She finally got a B on this most recent interim, but her grades are suddenly all over the place, like her B was in a subject where she got an A on one standard and a D on the other, based on only two grades. We're trying to figure out what's going on there (her teacher hasn't explained it to us yet and the work hasn't come home), but I also find that B based on two pieces of classwork a lot less helpful than looking at her MAP scores.

[Anonymous]

My 3rd grader has definitely gotten a few Bs and Cs on assignments this year and last, although alll As on actual report cards so far. At BTSN they said to get an A on an assignment you have to get the answers right totally independently... if you need teacher guidance then the grades will be lower, although how much lower depends on how much help you need. My kid's assignments are mostly As so I'm not surprised that's where the report card grades have landed, but I assume some other kids in the class/grade are getting lower report card grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been following the discussion about grade inflation in MCPS high schools, but is the same true for elementary school too? We moved to MCPS recently, and my ES kid got an interim report card with straight As, even though in their prior school district they were below grade level in one of the core subjects....

You look at ES interim grades ??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If Meeting minimum standards for grade level proficiency is an A and a child who is regularly receiving enrichment two grade levels above current grade is also A, the A range is huge and it’s not particularly informative.

Agree, it is not informative, unless your kid is getting below an A, in which case you need to get on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

And there we have it, that private school admission human. The thread was started by a private school, as usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following the discussion about grade inflation in MCPS high schools, but is the same true for elementary school too? We moved to MCPS recently, and my ES kid got an interim report card with straight As, even though in their prior school district they were below grade level in one of the core subjects....

You look at ES interim grades ??

You have time to post on DCUM, but you're asking why people bother to look at ES interim grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

And there we have it, that private school admission human. The thread was started by a private school, as usual.

Actually, no-OP here, and I just wondered if all my kid's academic deficiencies have magically disappeared or if grading was lighter. But not sure why people from outside of MCPS are responding--that was not the infomation I wanted to gather from the post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following the discussion about grade inflation in MCPS high schools, but is the same true for elementary school too? We moved to MCPS recently, and my ES kid got an interim report card with straight As, even though in their prior school district they were below grade level in one of the core subjects....

You look at ES interim grades ??

You have time to post on DCUM, but you're asking why people bother to look at ES interim grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

And there we have it, that private school admission human. The thread was started by a private school, as usual.

I am the one who provided the link, and I am not a private school person. My kid is solidly in MCPS. But anyone who thinks there should be a curve needs to look elsewhere--MCPS teachers have no discretion about this; grading on a curve is prohibited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Why? And what makes you assume everyone is hitting the mark at the same time? The point of ES is to instill primary foundational skills in everyone. That’s why it uses standards based grading

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

And there we have it, that private school admission human. The thread was started by a private school, as usual.

Actually, no-OP here, and I just wondered if all my kid's academic deficiencies have magically disappeared or if grading was lighter. But not sure why people from outside of MCPS are responding--that was not the infomation I wanted to gather from the post.

What grade is your kid? Did they have deficiencies before or did they just need time to catchup?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

Nobody is talking about forcing grades into a curve. Raise the expectations, and the curve it appear by itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If everyone is hitting the mark, the mark is too low.

Then you need to go private. MCPS grading regulations specifically prohibits curves. https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ikara.pdf

"The following grading practices are prohibited: ...
b) Forcing grades into a normal frequency distribution or any other
kind of curve that compares students in relation to others."

And there we have it, that private school admission human. The thread was started by a private school, as usual.

Actually, no-OP here, and I just wondered if all my kid's academic deficiencies have magically disappeared or if grading was lighter. But not sure why people from outside of MCPS are responding--that was not the infomation I wanted to gather from the post.

MCPS Elementary parent here, and my kid has gotten a fair number of Bs. Older child in middle school got all As in ES, but to be fair, is a super bright kid who scores in the 99th percentile on MAP-M or MAP-R; so I can't say it was grade inflation. Younger kid still in ES is genuinely what I would call a solid B student. Maybe this school dependent but I feel like their grades are pretty fair. Also, there are lots of objective assessments that go into the grades (math quizzes, vocabulary quizzes) so the final quarter grades do have some basis in reality.