Madison H.S. Parents - Principal Survey and Skills-Based Grading
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Anonymous
You need to watch the video explaining the new system again. Nothing drops out next year but the immediately preceding grade can be raised if the next one is higher. C B B A A B C Changes to B B A A A B C |
Anonymous
What a waste. The teachers probably have a list of stuff they’d prefer the school work on that is a mile long. Parents and students too. Why does fcps assume there aren’t things it’s own students and parents can’t bring forth? |
Anonymous
| Is this going to be at all schools in the future or just this one? |
Anonymous
This has been used at schools in the past in places like DC and Baltimore and doesn't look like it was successful. Some DC schools were trying this over a decade ago. ACPS is using this in all schools in the Fall. FCPS is not being transparent about what the plan is. When I asked Reid's office about the plan, I was told FCPS has focus groups of teachers, parents, students, administrators, and central office staff meeting to discuss the current system in part to deal with the lack of consistency. But based on what I've seen from looking into where this has been implemented elsewhere, the focus groups are just going to be used to further whatever FPCS's plan is and have nothing to do with shaping the plan. I found an interesting article from 2016 about SBG implementation in Baltimore. The beginning of this article (which I didn't post) is more about following the money - which corporations are lobbying and profiting from all this but I just posted the part about focus groups. http://towsonflyer.com/2016/10/21/op-ed-whats-behind-bcps-new-grading-policy/ "Here, for comparison, is language about the origins of BCPS’s policy, from Superintendent Dance in his Sept. Baltimore Sun op-ed: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-dance-grades-20160903-story.html “This approach to grading achievement and using a rubric to grade conduct is the result of two years of study, preparation and feedback involving all facets of Team BCPS — teachers, school and system leaders, students, advisory councils, and members of the teachers’ and administrators’ bargaining units. In 2014, BCPS convened the District Grading Committee to review Board Policy 5210 on Grading and Reporting, which had not been updated since 1997. The committee recommended updates based on their analysis of current research and practices.” https://www.bcps.org/system/policies_rules/rules/5000Series/RULE5210a.pdf Here are just a few of many district descriptions about how internal focus groups arrived at — voila — the same new grading policy! (I’m sure the participants worked very hard of course. Yet outside influences are also indicated by the time it gets to the district level.) In Prince George’s County, MD, which considered the no-lower-than-50 points this past summer, an administrator told the board “that the recommendations come after a year of “robust” discussions between parents, administrators and educators, and that the proposals are aligned with national best practices and supported by educational research.” http://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2016/06/prince-georges-mulls-major-changes-to-grading-policy/ The same goes for Orange County, Florida, and districts in Maine, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other states. In Boise, Idaho, schools adopted a similar grading policy in July, with the following words: “Focus groups from each of the schools in the Boise School District consisting of students and their parents have been used to see how beneficial this policy change would be.” http://www.ktvb.com/news/education/boise-school-district-makes-changes-to-its-grading-policy/277181845 Do these district focus groups–mostly made up of teachers, parents, principals, and other stakeholders–get together for a national conference that offers such phraseology? Especially those gigs that feature all those cocktail parties like the Digital Promise-BCPS (a co-sponsor!) summit coming up in early November in Baltimore. I’m thinking not. " |
Anonymous
| Baltimore students in the entire city are failing at a rate of 93% below national standards. Why would we implement similar policies here? |
Anonymous
Wouldnt that mean equal outcomes? Success. |
Anonymous
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I would like to know how much Madison has spent on consultants, workshops, ect... Wouldn't the money have been better spent on instruction for individual failing students during Warhawk time or lowering class sizes in some of the general classes? Just by lowering class size, a teacher has more time to give individual feedback or give some teachers fewer classes. Also, there are plenty of people in the Vienna community willing to help with a grassroots project of helping failing students.
A teacher at Justice H.S. recently warned about the spread of SBG: "Welch works with children who don’t have college-educated parents demanding they turn homework in on time no matter what the new rules say. To those calling for grading reform, he said, equity means “we should not expect students of color, low-income, and/or non-native English speaking backgrounds to do things like homework, participate in class, or meet deadlines because these students have disadvantages.” “I wholeheartedly believe this is not equity,” Welch said. His beginning years as a teacher in New York City and Fairfax County taught him that “equity means holding all students to high expectations, even when it may be difficult for them to meet those expectations.” To do otherwise, he said, “would be cheating students out of an education they deserve and need to compete in the world.” Advocates of grading reform insist that won’t happen, but there is little control-group research on either side of the argument to settle the issue. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/15/pandemic-easy-teaching-hurting-students/ |
Anonymous
| We need to do away with policy that penalizes school for not closing the gap. Until that happens-schools districts will keep trying to close the gap not by bringing students up to par but with stupid policies like changing grading. It needs to change at the federal level. |
Anonymous
Schools need incentives to raise the floor, not close the gap. |
Anonymous
Yes that is what I am saying. Until federal law changes/the goal changes, you can have 20 threads on how FCPS (and every other public school system) is failing. It won't change anything. Changing the SB won't change it. This is so much bigger than FCPS. And I don't see anyone on the national stage wanting to tackle it and change course. |
Anonymous
| Why would they have a new grading policy without asking families what they think first? Does their input mean nothing (rhetorical)? |
Anonymous
| Did they have a public hearing on this already? |
Anonymous
There was never a public hearing. It seems that school administrations in FCPS have a lot of leeway with grading systems. The attitude seems to be: don’t care if you don’t like it. There are 9-10 SBG training/informational sessions that are supposed to happen in the fall |
Anonymous
Always have time for their stuff over what students, parents, and teachers ask for. |
Anonymous
I wonder what that costs compared to extra staff to help struggling students. |