1st Grader report card all P, no ES, is that normal?

[Anonymous]

I think the grades really vary a lot by school. At our school its almost impossible to get an ES so there is no way anyone is getting more than a few. So all Ps would be perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, totally think it's up to the school and the teacher. Our art teacher gives all ESs. Way to go MCPS - your grades mean nothing at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least you get report cards.... How often do kindergarteners get them? I only received one so far.

Here's something tough to figure out--in MCPS, kindergarten gets them every semester. You will get the next one in June.

Nothing to strive for, 80% plus of students get P.

Then 80% have met that standard. Grading is not about being better than the other students. Should we move to a bell curve system for 1st graders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much of money, effort and time was spent on such a BS grading system!!

I would like to have the following two things from the report card --

1) Did the child score at least 70% in his grade's curriculum (corresponds to a C - I am not asking MCPS to aim very high)
2) Where does my kid stand in the class. Is he 1st out of 26 kids in his class? 15th? 26th? Then I want to know where he stands in his grade for the whole school- 1st? 50th? 100th?

I do not mind any crazy alphabet, symbol, numbers they assign to this kind of information, I will learn to decode it!! But give me relevant info.

Class rank for first graders?

Also, to repeat: P = Meets the grade-level standard by demonstrating proficiency of the content or processes for the measurement topic. What would a "70%" tell you that a P doesn't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much of money, effort and time was spent on such a BS grading system!!

I would like to have the following two things from the report card --

1) Did the child score at least 70% in his grade's curriculum (corresponds to a C - I am not asking MCPS to aim very high)
2) Where does my kid stand in the class. Is he 1st out of 26 kids in his class? 15th? 26th? Then I want to know where he stands in his grade for the whole school- 1st? 50th? 100th?

I do not mind any crazy alphabet, symbol, numbers they assign to this kind of information, I will learn to decode it!! But give me relevant info.

Class rank for first graders?

Also, to repeat: P = Meets the grade-level standard by demonstrating proficiency of the content or processes for the measurement topic. What would a "70%" tell you that a P doesn't?

Yes - class rank for 1st graders! Revolutionary idea here, but a common one the world over. And isn't that the big push - to be competitive internationally? If a vast majority of the grade gets a "P" are they all at the same level? What happens when this first grader with a "P" reaches 3rd grade and is on the bottom of the heap where as another classmate with a "P" gets into a HGC or a GT class in school? What happens in MS? HS?

Who is this "non-grade" serving? Are we trying to save the feelings of first graders now, but setting them up for less than they can be for the rest of their lives? Are we trying to help the parents? Because trust me - if the parents knew where their kids stand in relation to other kids - they will get them the academic intervention they need sooner rather than later.

70% tells me that 30% of content was not mastered. "P" tells me nothing. I need to know what "P" stands for - 70%, 80%, 90% or 100%? Since everyone gets a "P" my take is that the bar is set low - not high.

I want to know what the %age of grade level content mastery is for ES, P and I. Not too much to ask is it?

[Anonymous]

And remember the Ps are for things like meta cognition, not even for subject mastery. Completely useless. Come on, MoCo parents, this report card needs to go.

[Anonymous]

What happens when this first grader with a "P" reaches 3rd grade and is on the bottom of the heap where as another classmate with a "P" gets into a HGC or a GT class in school? What happens in MS? HS?

I don't know, what does happen?

What I'm concerned about is whether my first-grader has learned what she is expected to learn. I am not concerned about the relative rank of my first-grader to all of the other first-graders in the class, the school, or the county.

[Anonymous]

Except the reports says nothing about what she learned what she needs to learn. I am sure you are edccated and aware and you can figure out by yourself. I can totally imagine some other parents be blindsided by these reports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Except the reports says nothing about what she learned what she needs to learn.

Yes, they do. That's exactly what a P means: that she has learned what she is expected to learn.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/2.0/reportcardfaq.aspx

[Anonymous]

I think everyone will agree we need AT LEAST the following from the report cards -

1) We need to know what needs to be learned by our students for each grade level.

2) How much did the student learn (as much detail as possible) - or content mastery.

3) What did the student not learn.

They had report cards somewhat like that 2 years ago for my DC Math in Kindergarten. So the capacity, framework of such reporting is there. The new reporting took it away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, they do. That's exactly what a P means: that she has learned what she is expected to learn.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/2.0/reportcardfaq.aspx

This is hilarious!! I am pretty much told to take the schools word for how the child is doing? Yet it is not backed by any hard data? What do they expect her to learn? How much of that she has learnt? Just telling me that "she has learnt what she is expected to learn" is insulting.

The new reporting was rolled out to do a "smoke and mirror" routine for curriculum 2.0 and it is doing just that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that it's normal. If it makes you feel better, my 3rd grader has not received any ES grades this year and he was accepted to a highly gifted center.

Same here. 3rd grader got almost no ES this year, though he had finished with all Os last year in 2nd grade. Got into HGC too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing to strive for, 80% plus of students get P.

Then 80% have met that standard. Grading is not about being better than the other students. Should we move to a bell curve system for 1st graders?

You're right, we are all equal in skill, talent and work ethic! We all have the same "grade"!
No need for real feedback, not when little and learning the ways of the world, not when a teenager and other students are kicking your butt, not in college if you even mge to get in, and not during a job search versus better schooled (and more self aware) candidates.

Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya....

[Anonymous]

This is hilarious!! I am pretty much told to take the schools word for how the child is doing? Yet it is not backed by any hard data?

How is this different from the previous elementary school grading systems?

What do they expect her to learn? How much of that she has learnt? Just telling me that "she has learnt what she is expected to learn" is insulting.

What do they expect her to learn? You could start by looking here:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/elementary/guides.aspx

And it's not just on line, either -- at least at first-grader's school, they send the curriculum guides out regularly in the take-home folders, and they also send out monthly newsletters with detailed information about what the students will be working on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing to strive for, 80% plus of students get P.

Then 80% have met that standard. Grading is not about being better than the other students. Should we move to a bell curve system for 1st graders?

You're right, we are all equal in skill, talent and work ethic! We all have the same "grade"!
No need for real feedback, not when little and learning the ways of the world, not when a teenager and other students are kicking your butt, not in college if you even mge to get in, and not during a job search versus better schooled (and more self aware) candidates.

Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya....

What the f are you talking about? Nothing in my post said anything about everyone being equal (or "equal") in skill. If the skill is to count to 100, and your kid has mastered it (gets a P), what does it matter what the other kids get? Is your kid smarter because he can count to 100 and 5 kids in his class can't? Is he dumber if everyone else can count to 100 too? No matter what the other students are able to do, your kid can count to 100 and is proficient in that skill. So that's the P on his report card.