Transcripts - what does the notation about the grading changes say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

If none of your students is capable of writing a flawless essay, perhaps you ought to rethink your approach to writing instruction. At this point in the year, your students should be able to follow the writing process and produce a proper essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

On a written assignment, there's probably merit to this approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

I get your point but your students are being judged against kids taking your colleagues’ classes and getting 100s on papers with thousands of errors. Someone needs to standardize this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

If none of your students is capable of writing a flawless essay, perhaps you ought to rethink your approach to writing instruction. At this point in the year, your students should be able to follow the writing process and produce a proper essay.

When you give students 100s, they have nothing to work towards in terms of improvement. When they get 100s on essays in 9th grade, they will always produce 9th grade essays because they have never been told how to improve them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

If none of your students is capable of writing a flawless essay, perhaps you ought to rethink your approach to writing instruction. At this point in the year, your students should be able to follow the writing process and produce a proper essay.

When you give students 100s, they have nothing to work towards in terms of improvement. When they get 100s on essays in 9th grade, they will always produce 9th grade essays because they have never been told how to improve them.

I can accept having your top grade be a 98 or a 99 rather than 100 on principle (although it's silly to say that a 100 implies "perfection" or that you can't give any corrections/suggestions for improvement on a 100 paper, and later on give the same level of writing a lower grade if those suggestions are not being implemented in future assignments.) But it's ridiculous to have a hard ceiling of 95% and refuse to give even the very best writers anything higher... that's halfway to a B. (And I bet that also means you are giving very good but not outstanding assignments Bs when they should be low As.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

If none of your students is capable of writing a flawless essay, perhaps you ought to rethink your approach to writing instruction. At this point in the year, your students should be able to follow the writing process and produce a proper essay.

When you give students 100s, they have nothing to work towards in terms of improvement. When they get 100s on essays in 9th grade, they will always produce 9th grade essays because they have never been told how to improve them.

If you are giving less than a 100, I do hope that you are giving the student specific, constructive criticism to enable them to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

If none of your students is capable of writing a flawless essay, perhaps you ought to rethink your approach to writing instruction. At this point in the year, your students should be able to follow the writing process and produce a proper essay.

A proper essay does not mean a 100% essay. A C paper is still is a proper essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

This is almost certainly illegal and also shows why we need higher math standards for English teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

If none of your students is capable of writing a flawless essay, perhaps you ought to rethink your approach to writing instruction. At this point in the year, your students should be able to follow the writing process and produce a proper essay.

A proper essay does not mean a 100% essay. A C paper is still is a proper essay.

And a 100% of course level standards essay does not mean a perfect essay. Almost no one in the world can write a perfect essay, even professionals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This such a non issue. No one impacted by this grading change is going to a college where tiny GPA differences matter.

You don't think top students ever get Bs for a marking period or two, ones that used to be As for the semester but are now sometimes Bs?

Top students can pull the 90 average across two semesters almost every time, and occasional misses don't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

On a written assignment, there's probably merit to this approach.

Sure. I do hope the department coordinates though. Because if one English teacher does this and the other seven don't, the kids in their class are kind of screwed to have a B in a sea of As for, say, AP Lang. Which is really kind of awful for those kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This such a non issue. No one impacted by this grading change is going to a college where tiny GPA differences matter.

You don't think top students ever get Bs for a marking period or two, ones that used to be As for the semester but are now sometimes Bs?

Top students can pull the 90 average across two semesters almost every time, and occasional misses don't matter.

Mostly true, but for juniors with many APs, all these changes at once coupled with inconsistent grading practices really ratcheted up the stress.

My kid’s grades dipped a bit third quarter and it will be tough to recover for the semester. And colleges may interpret the notation as meaning he didn’t earn his As in 9th and 10th, which he did.

I’ve been an MCPS defender for 15 years but right now I’m just so tired of them and can’t wait to be out of here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more teachers would grade appropriately. I teach English and I refuse to hand out anything over a 95% on any written assignment. I won't give 100s anymore. It's blatantly false to admit that any student is capable of perfection. The highest grade a student has received for a MP all year in my class is a 94% and I don't see that changing

On a written assignment, there's probably merit to this approach.

Sure. I do hope the department coordinates though. Because if one English teacher does this and the other seven don't, the kids in their class are kind of screwed to have a B in a sea of As for, say, AP Lang. Which is really kind of awful for those kids.

I may be the only one who grades like this in my department but I am also the only one that allows for every assignment other than writing assignments to be corrected and resubmitted. If you got a 16 out of 20 on our reading guide I will let you resubmit for those extra 4 points with zero questions asked. My students being held to high writing standards is making them better writers and not hurting their grades at all. The kids who are A students are still getting As. They just might be a 93% instead of a 97%