Changes to grading for all MCPS high school students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't something the BOE votes on. It's a regulation, not a policy, so it's up to Taylor and CO to rewrite it.

True, but when they informed the BOE about it maybe a month ago, and said they planned to do a phased roll-out, the BOE pushed back. That's why it's 6-12 now.

Really unhappy with the BOE on this one. My rising current high schooler is in tears over the anticipated additional stress next year. She could manage with the one quarter on, next quarter relax pace, but constant pressure to perform all year will be felt. Especially when there are 4 tests on the same day. Ugh, Ugh, Ugh

I'm sorry she and others in this situation are stressed, but you can't do one on/one off in college. This is good preparation for what she (and others) will face after MCPS.

I disagree. Part of academic success in college is strategic time management and prioritization of tasks, figuring out where you can cut corners without sacrificing performance when too many things are due at the same time. Figuring out the most advantageous way to work within given parameters is an important skill in the workplace, as well. The same kids who have figured out how to game their high school grading system will figure out how to succeed in college and in the office. They’ll work hard but they’ll also work smarter and have a decent work/life balance.

YMMV but I think the real world values entirely different skills/strengths from these. I was in for a rude awakening when I discovered that those who got ahead or found success in the workplace were no longer the smartest in the room or the most organized/efficient. They were the people with good networks, good people skills, good management instincts, pretty privilege, and honestly a bit of good luck. I think what’s valued in school is a complete mismatch for a lot of professions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the guidance and two other things stood out to me.

First, there will no longer be semester grades for year long classes. They will just have full year grades averaging all four quarters. This seems like a big shift.

Second, two retakes will be allowed per quarter (with some exceptions), which is a major shift from today when retakes are not permitted. That should help students during the shift to more rigorous grading.

What are you talking about? My DS who just graduated from an MCPS high school this year has been allowed to do test retakes all four years of high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the guidance and two other things stood out to me.

First, there will no longer be semester grades for year long classes. They will just have full year grades averaging all four quarters. This seems like a big shift.

Second, two retakes will be allowed per quarter (with some exceptions), which is a major shift from today when retakes are not permitted. That should help students during the shift to more rigorous grading.

What are you talking about? My DS who just graduated from an MCPS high school this year has been allowed to do test retakes all four years of high school.

+1 Gradebook literally codes certain assignments as NRT (Not-retakable). Other assignments are retakable obviously-my kid has retakes pretty frequently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the guidance and two other things stood out to me.

First, there will no longer be semester grades for year long classes. They will just have full year grades averaging all four quarters. This seems like a big shift.

Second, two retakes will be allowed per quarter (with some exceptions), which is a major shift from today when retakes are not permitted. That should help students during the shift to more rigorous grading.

What are you talking about? My DS who just graduated from an MCPS high school this year has been allowed to do test retakes all four years of high school.

+1 Gradebook literally codes certain assignments as NRT (Not-retakable). Other assignments are retakable obviously-my kid has retakes pretty frequently.

I can only think of one class that offered one retake on one test in both my kids HS careers so far (I have two rising juniors). It would be good if this standardized across schools.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure this will make a huge difference for E and D students. Many of them fail intentionally, so that they can just do the online make-up programs. They will just google answers, use AI, or have a friend help them with the answers. And then just click there way through with endless retakes.

It’s demoralizing as a teacher to see kids skip most of a semester, or sit in class on their phone, refuse to do work in a required class and then walk for graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the guidance and two other things stood out to me.

First, there will no longer be semester grades for year long classes. They will just have full year grades averaging all four quarters. This seems like a big shift.

Second, two retakes will be allowed per quarter (with some exceptions), which is a major shift from today when retakes are not permitted. That should help students during the shift to more rigorous grading.

What are you talking about? My DS who just graduated from an MCPS high school this year has been allowed to do test retakes all four years of high school.

+1 Gradebook literally codes certain assignments as NRT (Not-retakable). Other assignments are retakable obviously-my kid has retakes pretty frequently.

I can only think of one class that offered one retake on one test in both my kids HS careers so far (I have two rising juniors). It would be good if this standardized across schools.

I would be surprised if that were true in any school. Check your kid's gradebook for the NRT label--most kids don't report the details of every test to their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure this will make a huge difference for E and D students. Many of them fail intentionally, so that they can just do the online make-up programs. They will just google answers, use AI, or have a friend help them with the answers. And then just click there way through with endless retakes.

It’s demoralizing as a teacher to see kids skip most of a semester, or sit in class on their phone, refuse to do work in a required class and then walk for graduation.

That is a good point. OPTG is a joke. What do you think will help?

Still the students who get A then 79.5 to get an A will benefit from this new policy so that is something

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the guidance and two other things stood out to me.

First, there will no longer be semester grades for year long classes. They will just have full year grades averaging all four quarters. This seems like a big shift.

Second, two retakes will be allowed per quarter (with some exceptions), which is a major shift from today when retakes are not permitted. That should help students during the shift to more rigorous grading.

What are you talking about? My DS who just graduated from an MCPS high school this year has been allowed to do test retakes all four years of high school.

+1 Gradebook literally codes certain assignments as NRT (Not-retakable). Other assignments are retakable obviously-my kid has retakes pretty frequently.

I can only think of one class that offered one retake on one test in both my kids HS careers so far (I have two rising juniors). It would be good if this standardized across schools.

We’ve only had a few teachers allow retakes on tests and quizzes. Some allow for assignments others do not. No consistency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure this will make a huge difference for E and D students. Many of them fail intentionally, so that they can just do the online make-up programs. They will just google answers, use AI, or have a friend help them with the answers. And then just click there way through with endless retakes.

It’s demoralizing as a teacher to see kids skip most of a semester, or sit in class on their phone, refuse to do work in a required class and then walk for graduation.

I am a fan of these changes. But I disagree that it won’t make a big difference for lower performing students. Some kids just don’t have the capability to earn more than a D in certain classes and no amount of tutoring or IEP services will change that. The ability to recover from a Q1 and Q3 F is a game changer for them. Or at least it was for my kid.

I’m really surprised to hear so many parents worried that their high performing kid can’t slack off 50% of the time anymore with these changes. I don’t actually know any high performing kids that approached school that way and I know tons of high performing kids who perform at high levels all the time.

As far as teacher feedback on writing assignments, my daughter had quite a lot of both written and in person discussion on her writing assignments. She has turned into an excellent writer with much better skills than some people who work for me.

And last thing. Montgomery College is not only nationally very highly ranked. It also has one of the largest, if not the largest, populations of international students. If I am remembering correctly, when my son started a year and a half ago, the student population included people from 151 countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the responses on here are very harsh toward students. Do you really think final semester tests or projects are going to encourage better school attendance? What evidence based foundation is that hypothesis resting on?

Bs at High performing MCPS high schools knock kids out of UMD. We're not just talking about Princeton here. Kids who have to work rather than spend time with Tutors are going to suffer most.

MCPS has a presentation that shows that attendance drops a lot in MP2 and MP4 due to the current grading policy. You might try reading it. There is actual data behind this.

Correlation is not causation.

Q2 has winter break when a lot of families take a long break to see family, and also I think Thanksgiving plus cold and flu season.
q4 has a lot of ditching because many of the AP teachers don’t teach anything the last few weeks and basically tell the kids it’s okay to skip as they’ll just be watching a movie or signignvyearbooks or whatever.

Yet somehow miraculously data show these attendance issues worsened with the enactment of the current grading policy. You can try your best to spin a narrative that suits your agenda, but the data show something different.

[Anonymous]

Are they going to help the teachers who were ousted when grade fraud and violence non reporting was the business as usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the guidance and two other things stood out to me.

First, there will no longer be semester grades for year long classes. They will just have full year grades averaging all four quarters. This seems like a big shift.

Second, two retakes will be allowed per quarter (with some exceptions), which is a major shift from today when retakes are not permitted. That should help students during the shift to more rigorous grading.

What are you talking about? My DS who just graduated from an MCPS high school this year has been allowed to do test retakes all four years of high school.

+1 Gradebook literally codes certain assignments as NRT (Not-retakable). Other assignments are retakable obviously-my kid has retakes pretty frequently.

I can only think of one class that offered one retake on one test in both my kids HS careers so far (I have two rising juniors). It would be good if this standardized across schools.

We’ve only had a few teachers allow retakes on tests and quizzes. Some allow for assignments others do not. No consistency.

There’s definitely no consistency, but I’m not sure that’s bad. I have kids at two different high schools. Both of my children’s math teachers interpreted the rule as they must offer *at least* two retakes, so one teacher grudgingly offered two, while the other teacher allows everything that isn’t expressly prohibited from retakes to be retaken. Is it a coincidence that my child who has a learning disability with regards to math and who really struggles in on-grade level classes gets lots of retakes and my child who is a straight A student in advanced math classes gets the bare minimum of retakes? Their teachers recognize how much flexibility their students need. My A student had to study for every single test because the two that could be reassessed might not be the ones that they got the lowest grades on anyway, so the retakes might not even help them. My kid who struggles was able to hang in there and keep fighting to learn the material by being able to get one on one help from the teacher at lunchtime and working with a private tutor after school. They needed more time to master material, and being able to retake quizzes allowed them to see progress and reap some rewards for not giving up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't something the BOE votes on. It's a regulation, not a policy, so it's up to Taylor and CO to rewrite it.

True, but when they informed the BOE about it maybe a month ago, and said they planned to do a phased roll-out, the BOE pushed back. That's why it's 6-12 now.

Really unhappy with the BOE on this one. My rising current high schooler is in tears over the anticipated additional stress next year. She could manage with the one quarter on, next quarter relax pace, but constant pressure to perform all year will be felt. Especially when there are 4 tests on the same day. Ugh, Ugh, Ugh

I'm sorry she and others in this situation are stressed, but you can't do one on/one off in college. This is good preparation for what she (and others) will face after MCPS.

I disagree. Part of academic success in college is strategic time management and prioritization of tasks, figuring out where you can cut corners without sacrificing performance when too many things are due at the same time. Figuring out the most advantageous way to work within given parameters is an important skill in the workplace, as well. The same kids who have figured out how to game their high school grading system will figure out how to succeed in college and in the office. They’ll work hard but they’ll also work smarter and have a decent work/life balance.

YMMV but I think the real world values entirely different skills/strengths from these. I was in for a rude awakening when I discovered that those who got ahead or found success in the workplace were no longer the smartest in the room or the most organized/efficient. They were the people with good networks, good people skills, good management instincts, pretty privilege, and honestly a bit of good luck. I think what’s valued in school is a complete mismatch for a lot of professions.

There are plenty of people who manage to game every system, no matter what the rules are. They are shapeshifters who will embody whatever is rewarded.

[Anonymous]

good high school exams are back!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would students not get into college? These changes just better reflect the learning in class over a full semester rather than the better quarter.

I don't think it's about not getting into college at all, it's about some kids having a harder time getting into the more selective colleges they want, especially if the colleges are still thinking "well we know MCPS has rampant grade inflation, so getting any Bs is a big deal." And that it's especially frustrating for kids who would have made different decisions about what classes to take what year if they knew this was coming.

I personally think that the benefits for the student body as a whole of applying it to everyone immediately are important enough to balance out those concerns, but I do see why it bothers people.

Kids who are unable to persevere through these changes don’t deserve the more selective universities. This will separate those who truly want it from those who are only half in it. This is not keeping kids from the high grades- only making sure they work throughout the whole semester to EARN the grade! A B might knock them out from HYP, but certainly not selective colleges!

Agree with this. It will be clear who the true A students are. They deserve that edge in elite college admissions.

Let's be real. Grades measure attention and time commitment to irrelevant detail, and concordance with teacher's personal biases.

Irrelevant detail? It's called content mastery, dear.

It’s called trivialities and having the same nonstandard sense of language that the teacher has, and ignoring glaring mistakes and guessing what the teacher was trying to ask about. Most teachers don’t understand what they are teaching, which is why they are teachers and not having a career in the field.

Go ahead and say what you wanted to say: Those who can, do. And those who can’t, teach.

You, my friend, are the reason why teachers leave. You are disgusting and should be ashamed of yourself. *Most* teachers can—and have—had great careers in their field. I’m sorry you have such a bleak outlook on the incredible humans who have to put up with your kid.

And I pray you never have to experience how hard teaching can be—especially having to put up with parents like you.