Increase Absenteeism in Midle/Upper SES students not due to illness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

I am likely older than you, but when I was in school we had frequent tests and homework. I also recall a very lengthy "term paper," with footnotes, etc. History tests, were usually short answer, multiple choice, and a couple of essay questions. Our chemistry teacher made us memorize the periodic chart in order to do equations quickly. French had vocabulary and grammar quizzes every Friday. In English, we read assigned novels with essay questions on tests. I recall Red Badge of Courage and Moby Dick my junior year, but I think there was also a lot of poetry. Senior year English was Shakespeare and Canterbury Tales, as I recall Again, lots of writing involved along with discussion in class.
I do know we had frequent tests and quite a bit of homework in all classes. This was in a public school in a very red state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

Most core subject anssignments are graded based off of accuracy, besides a few elective teachers who grade based off of completion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

Most core subject anssignments are graded based off of accuracy, besides a few elective teachers who grade based off of completion.

Sorry, I still don’t believe it. Even for accuracy. (And how does an English teacher quickly grade a paragraph for accuracy?)

Those are completion grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a combination of parents remembering how schools handled covid-it was hey kids teach yourself, you don't need to be in person, and the calendar. For years the schools have sent the message that regular attendance doesn't matter.

Omg covid was ONE year of school. One. Many of the kids in school now weren’t even in school when covid happened!

New to FCPS?

It was 2 full years, plus 2-3 years of recovery here.

Maybe not in your red state, but blue FCPS,was all in on covid school for years.

It was NOT one full year. March - June 2020 = 3 months. Many schools went back in for optional hybrid in February 2021- June 2021. Everyone in this entire state was back in person August 2021. Some families CHOSE to remain online but even then it was NOT in any realm two full years.

You clearly didn't have kids in school during Covid.

It was not school.

FCPS was entirely online. The kids were in the building, but only 2x week with half of the kids there. Everyone sitting spaced apart on their computers with the teachers online and no interaction allowed with the teachers who volunteered to come in person.

Even the autistic and special needs kids had to do this type of learning. The local news had extensive coverage of this. The autistic students were the first ones allowed back due to lawsuits, but the fcps version of educatiolng these non verbal and low verbal kids was to put them in a room by themselves with a laptop they couldn't operate and one aide sitting behind a screen. All of the local news covered this.

Many classes had no in person teachers, just random aides over 18 years old whose only job was to make sure students stayed separate, didn't interact, and worked alone on their computers with headphones on.

The following year was again mostly on computer, with no students allowed to fail anything, and no zeros. Even if students turned in zero assignments on their computers, the lowest score they could receive was 50% which was still a passing grade.

The current high schoolers went through middle school under this computer based "learning" with no failures allowed by FCPS and a 50% guranteed points even if you did zero percdnt of the work, and the younger teens did all their primary education like this on unmonitored computers.

Of course they quickly internalized the idea that school doesn't really matter. Fcps taught them this.

It still wasn't two full years. That is hyperbolic and discredits the argument of anyone who states this.

My kids had some great teachers, even when virtual, who did an outstanding job making virtual learning meaningful and successful. There were a few duds, but the majority were excellent. It definitely helped prepare my kids for online Personal Finance, as well as online World Language in HS (plus online in college).

I had kids in ES, MS, and HS during the pandemic, and I feel all three levels had primarily great teachers, with only a couple duds.

Yes it was. And it was actually more because when schools shut down in March 2020, there wasn’t even school for a month and then there was fake school until the end of that school year. The next school year (2020-2021) was online/hybrid. The following school year (2021-2022) was a complete sh&tshow due to reasons PP stated above. The kids also had to come back masked and eat outdoors or have shorter lunches. Mask mandates were finally lifted by spring 2022. The first “normal” year back was 2022-2023 (no masks required).

That is some disturbingly twisted math.

March 2020 to June 2021 is ONE YEAR (plus three months).

2021-2022 was a normal school year. Mask mandates do not mean kids were not in school.

Are you thick? 2021-2022 was definitely not a normal school year. Everybody was masked and desks were apart. No group work. Kids ate outside or lunch in shifts. The teachers were scared. Zero field trips. Behavior was atrocious. Hardly any learning took place. Many teachers used the previous year’s virtual curriculum. We even had one teacher refuse to use any paper. It was a f&&king disaster.

DP. You're the one who's thick. Covid shutdowns started in March of 2020, so the rest of the 2019-20 school year was online, as was 2020-21 through about late January, when covid shots became available and schools reopened.
2021-22 was a normal school year. Yes, student behaviors were horrible, but it was a normal school year.

Different poster than the one you are arguing with.

School did not reopen during the 2020-21 school year.

What they did was not school

All of my kids were back in school buildings by March 2021. That means they were in a "reopened" school for three months ofmthe 2020-2021 school year. Before that, my kids all had teachers who did a phenomenal job with online learning. What they did was absolutely school.

Parent attitude had a lot to do with the success children felt and achieved. If your kid(s) had a bad experience, a lot of that was probably due to your poor attitude.

This is exactly the gaslighting that happens in our school, Anytime you have any sort of concern issue, etc..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

As a math teacher I want to have 20+ assignments a quarter. Mostly low stakes short assignments every day with almost no effect to grade (40 assignments were worth only 10%) to make sure students know what skill they are missing to prepare for the quiz or test in the future. However, I am not allowed to do this anymore and if I make these same assignments ungraded the kids don’t do them or cheat even when it’s for them to know what skills that are missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

Most core subject anssignments are graded based off of accuracy, besides a few elective teachers who grade based off of completion.

Sorry, I still don’t believe it. Even for accuracy. (And how does an English teacher quickly grade a paragraph for accuracy?)

Those are completion grades.

DP.

My kid has a Way ground practice and at least one No Red Ink practice due every week in his English class and he only gets credit if he gets 100% on them. For those assignments, his teacher can quickly look at scores to award credit, but it isn't just a completion grade because it has to be accurate to receive credit.

In that same class, he has a one or two paragraph written response to his reading due almost every week (it looks like he had five of those due last quarter). The teacher always leaves commentary on those responses. The teacher comments on the reading content but also on his use of the vocabulary and writing skills that have been the focus of the Wayground and No Red Ink assignments. These reading response assignments are also graded on accuracy.

Then he also has 4 summative grades per quarter, two reading and two writing. Those are also graded on accuracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the problems have been created by the county. They created mandatory SEL lessons which are completely overdone and so boring all the kids skip, time could be used to get kids extra help. They give the kids infinite options on assignments and due dates so the kids never learn any discipline. Teachers are basically forced to pass students that have no knowledge of the subject. Teachers spend all of their time helping the bottom 10% (because that is all admin cares about). The bottom 10% miss school and do not have the fundamentals for the class so that they ignore the other 90%. Now the other 90% have noticed this and figure out they don’t even need to go to school to stay ahead of their peers.

Until the county raises expectations and is willing to get tough on kids and parents that are behind nothing is going to change. If a child is behind in elementary school that is fine, get them extra help when you still can. Whether that is required summer school or extra help during recess. Tell the parents they will not go onto the next grade if they do not attend. However, what is happening is the snowball effect and these kids are so far behind once they get high school there is not much any teacher or student can do in the current system to catch them up. However the teachers are trying their best but sacrificing the rest of the class.

Expectations were dropped by Covid and we have not raised them back up since.

The mandatory SEL lessons are such a waste of time.

You always know when there is an SEL lesson or survey being given, because te local shopping plazas near the high school are packed with high schoolers skipping 4th period to grab lunch at Panera or Chipotle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

[Anonymous]

7 formative assignments is a lot. Many teachers create really long intense formatives which require a ton of work but then they barely count for anything. It’s awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

Most core subject anssignments are graded based off of accuracy, besides a few elective teachers who grade based off of completion.

Sorry, I still don’t believe it. Even for accuracy. (And how does an English teacher quickly grade a paragraph for accuracy?)

Those are completion grades.

DP.

My kid has a Way ground practice and at least one No Red Ink practice due every week in his English class and he only gets credit if he gets 100% on them. For those assignments, his teacher can quickly look at scores to award credit, but it isn't just a completion grade because it has to be accurate to receive credit.

In that same class, he has a one or two paragraph written response to his reading due almost every week (it looks like he had five of those due last quarter). The teacher always leaves commentary on those responses. The teacher comments on the reading content but also on his use of the vocabulary and writing skills that have been the focus of the Wayground and No Red Ink assignments. These reading response assignments are also graded on accuracy.

Then he also has 4 summative grades per quarter, two reading and two writing. Those are also graded on accuracy.

So you just listed 9 things the teacher actually has to manually grade (5 paragraphs and 4 summatives). Nowhere near 20-40. Lol.

Don’t count the computer graded stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

Most core subject anssignments are graded based off of accuracy, besides a few elective teachers who grade based off of completion.

Sorry, I still don’t believe it. Even for accuracy. (And how does an English teacher quickly grade a paragraph for accuracy?)

Those are completion grades.

DP.

My kid has a Way ground practice and at least one No Red Ink practice due every week in his English class and he only gets credit if he gets 100% on them. For those assignments, his teacher can quickly look at scores to award credit, but it isn't just a completion grade because it has to be accurate to receive credit.

In that same class, he has a one or two paragraph written response to his reading due almost every week (it looks like he had five of those due last quarter). The teacher always leaves commentary on those responses. The teacher comments on the reading content but also on his use of the vocabulary and writing skills that have been the focus of the Wayground and No Red Ink assignments. These reading response assignments are also graded on accuracy.

Then he also has 4 summative grades per quarter, two reading and two writing. Those are also graded on accuracy.

So you just listed 9 things the teacher actually has to manually grade (5 paragraphs and 4 summatives). Nowhere near 20-40. Lol.

Don’t count the computer graded stuff.

Did I say my kid had 20-40 assignments? Did you see the "DP" before my comment?

My comment was to show that teachers can grade a paragraph on accuracy and that a large quantity of assignments can have meaning. My kid's reading responses integrate all the vocabulary and grammar lessons, so everything has meaning. It isn't "oversaturation."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

As a math teacher I want to have 20+ assignments a quarter. Mostly low stakes short assignments every day with almost no effect to grade (40 assignments were worth only 10%) to make sure students know what skill they are missing to prepare for the quiz or test in the future. However, I am not allowed to do this anymore and if I make these same assignments ungraded the kids don’t do them or cheat even when it’s for them to know what skills that are missing.

Yes the big problem is the county is pushing the idea that the everyone needs to get the same education in every class. Which creates a cookie cutter classroom that leaks any creativity. Teachers basically have to break rules to do something creative or really do something to help their students. It’s sad, middle school is the worst, they basically just work out of workbooks even though most good teachers hate them. All about lowering the bar and helping the worst

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

What’s the value?

I’m a private school teacher. If I were to give 20-30 assignments a quarter, many of them would have to be graded for completion. There’s no way a teacher can genuinely, thoroughly comment on 20-30 assignments a quarter.

The math just doesn’t support it, unless you expect that teacher to give up all their off hours.

And what’s the value? There’s such a thing as over saturation. Are all of those assignments meaningful?

Most core subject anssignments are graded based off of accuracy, besides a few elective teachers who grade based off of completion.

Sorry, I still don’t believe it. Even for accuracy. (And how does an English teacher quickly grade a paragraph for accuracy?)

Those are completion grades.

DP.

My kid has a Way ground practice and at least one No Red Ink practice due every week in his English class and he only gets credit if he gets 100% on them. For those assignments, his teacher can quickly look at scores to award credit, but it isn't just a completion grade because it has to be accurate to receive credit.

In that same class, he has a one or two paragraph written response to his reading due almost every week (it looks like he had five of those due last quarter). The teacher always leaves commentary on those responses. The teacher comments on the reading content but also on his use of the vocabulary and writing skills that have been the focus of the Wayground and No Red Ink assignments. These reading response assignments are also graded on accuracy.

Then he also has 4 summative grades per quarter, two reading and two writing. Those are also graded on accuracy.

So you just listed 9 things the teacher actually has to manually grade (5 paragraphs and 4 summatives). Nowhere near 20-40. Lol.

Don’t count the computer graded stuff.

Did I say my kid had 20-40 assignments? Did you see the "DP" before my comment?

My comment was to show that teachers can grade a paragraph on accuracy and that a large quantity of assignments can have meaning. My kid's reading responses integrate all the vocabulary and grammar lessons, so everything has meaning. It isn't "oversaturation."

DP. Then you are presenting a different scenario. Sure, a teacher can grade 5 paragraphs and 4 summatives a quarter, which is considerably below the 30ish assignments mentioned above.

But a graded assignment a day, like the 30 assignments mentioned above? What’s the value? And I agree with the other poster. Online programs, like NoRedInk, have very limited value.