Board resolution on middle school grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this gone into effect? Will people cover up their world language 1 and 2 As to get their gpas higher above 4.0?

It's a done deal.

Why don’t our affected kids know?

Although I was aware of the policy, I also came across it on their website a few weeks ago. It's not like they haven't made this perfectly clear to anyone who wants to know.

They should have sent an email out to everyone. We didn’t receive one. Can you please post the supposed change in policy? I can’t find it anywhere.

We have not heard anything about it. DD has all As in middle school classes, but most aren’t weighted as honors so they bring down weighted GPA. Are you saying they can still be on transcript but not bring down GPA?

wait a freaking second. Are you telling me that one can drop their middle school language classes from their GPA so it doesn't bring down the weighted GPA? Same with not including middle school Geometry grades?

Yes.

I wish I had known this last year, though...!

This is getting ridiculous. My sophomore DD has a 4.0 unweighted and 4.52 weighted GPA. She received A's in her middle school foreign language classes and her 8th grade Honors Geometry class. Are we really at the point where I need to consider dropping her A's from her middle school language classes to bump up her weighted GPA even more? No wonder our kids are so stressed out - talk about gaming the system.

[Anonymous]

Colleges will look at the transcripts and the grades received for core courses and will recalculate GPAs in a way that works for their needs.

[Anonymous]

So feasibly, a kid that received all As in these courses could end up lowering their GPA as a result of these courses? Particularly if they take all honors/AP/ IB classes. I suppose more the language & engineering class as opposed to Geometry. IIRC, Geometry was honors level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges will look at the transcripts and the grades received for core courses and will recalculate GPAs in a way that works for their needs.

Hopefully! My son signed up for an elective he was interested in but it’s not an AP or honors class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this gone into effect? Will people cover up their world language 1 and 2 As to get their gpas higher above 4.0?

It's a done deal.

Why don’t our affected kids know?

Although I was aware of the policy, I also came across it on their website a few weeks ago. It's not like they haven't made this perfectly clear to anyone who wants to know.

They should have sent an email out to everyone. We didn’t receive one. Can you please post the supposed change in policy? I can’t find it anywhere.

We have not heard anything about it. DD has all As in middle school classes, but most aren’t weighted as honors so they bring down weighted GPA. Are you saying they can still be on transcript but not bring down GPA?

wait a freaking second. Are you telling me that one can drop their middle school language classes from their GPA so it doesn't bring down the weighted GPA? Same with not including middle school Geometry grades?

Yes.

I wish I had known this last year, though...!

This is getting ridiculous. My sophomore DD has a 4.0 unweighted and 4.52 weighted GPA. She received A's in her middle school foreign language classes and her 8th grade Honors Geometry class. Are we really at the point where I need to consider dropping her A's from her middle school language classes to bump up her weighted GPA even more? No wonder our kids are so stressed out - talk about gaming the system.

Hi, I'm the pp who said I wish I had known last year...

... when my child -- who has learning disabilities -- was struggling with distance learning, failing Algebra and French, and was deeply distraught about what this would do to their HS GPA -- at age 12.

That was not great. Of course I was worried about the kid and not the GPA, but that nugget of info would have come in handy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this gone into effect? Will people cover up their world language 1 and 2 As to get their gpas higher above 4.0?

It's a done deal.

Why don’t our affected kids know?

Although I was aware of the policy, I also came across it on their website a few weeks ago. It's not like they haven't made this perfectly clear to anyone who wants to know.

They should have sent an email out to everyone. We didn’t receive one. Can you please post the supposed change in policy? I can’t find it anywhere.

We have not heard anything about it. DD has all As in middle school classes, but most aren’t weighted as honors so they bring down weighted GPA. Are you saying they can still be on transcript but not bring down GPA?

wait a freaking second. Are you telling me that one can drop their middle school language classes from their GPA so it doesn't bring down the weighted GPA? Same with not including middle school Geometry grades?

Yes.

I wish I had known this last year, though...!

This is getting ridiculous. My sophomore DD has a 4.0 unweighted and 4.52 weighted GPA. She received A's in her middle school foreign language classes and her 8th grade Honors Geometry class. Are we really at the point where I need to consider dropping her A's from her middle school language classes to bump up her weighted GPA even more? No wonder our kids are so stressed out - talk about gaming the system.

Hi, I'm the pp who said I wish I had known last year...

... when my child -- who has learning disabilities -- was struggling with distance learning, failing Algebra and French, and was deeply distraught about what this would do to their HS GPA -- at age 12.

That was not great. Of course I was worried about the kid and not the GPA, but that nugget of info would have come in handy!

I have no issue with not counting MS grades in those classes if your child did poorly. I get that. What I think is ridiculous is if kids get As in their foreign language middle school classes and parents want to drop those grades since those As are unweighted and that brings down their high school weighted GPA.

[Anonymous]

They should also stop weighting AP and honors classes extra. They don't weigh advanced classes more at many independent schools, including the most competitive ones in this area. The districts is rendering grades meaningless to colleges. All grades should be weighted the same, and the colleges should then look at rigor of classes as a separate component. Then people also wouldn't load up on far more than they could handle. And no middle school grade should hurt a high school GPA. Only help, at most.

[Anonymous]

PP again. The way it translates now, is that it's the top kids who can't distinguish themselves via their GPA. If the schools are serious about lowering the stress level for them and everyone else, the answer isn't to inflate grades and force students to game the system in ridiculous ways, it's to make sure that kids aren't loading up on more difficult classes than they can handle. At the competitive private high schools, only a very small percentage of the class takes advanced math and science, and only once every several years does someone take every advanced class that is offered, meaning only that they also add an accelerated language course to their load. I'm sure that's in part because there's no percentage in taking a class that you're not strong in. Most competitive private schools in this area no longer even offer APs, or are phasing them out now, though kids often take the tests anyway because they want the credits (eg they're going to a state school or plan to attend one of the private colleges that will either use them to let them place out of their entry courses or earn credit if they get a high score).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should also stop weighting AP and honors classes extra. They don't weigh advanced classes more at many independent schools, including the most competitive ones in this area. The districts is rendering grades meaningless to colleges. All grades should be weighted the same, and the colleges should then look at rigor of classes as a separate component. Then people also wouldn't load up on far more than they could handle. And no middle school grade should hurt a high school GPA. Only help, at most.

Most competitive colleges look at the rigor of the studies, unweight the grades and calculate based on their own formula, anyway. It's not about colleges seeing the GPA and MCPS doesn't rank.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know what's going on with the proposal to make it so kids can drop middle school grades from their high school transcript?

I think it's insane a couple Cs in middle school should factor into my kid's high school Gpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what's going on with the proposal to make it so kids can drop middle school grades from their high school transcript?

I think it's insane a couple Cs in middle school should factor into my kid's high school Gpa.

I find it absolutely infuriating. It’s absurd that a C in a 6th grade foreign language class should impact a kid’s high school gpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what's going on with the proposal to make it so kids can drop middle school grades from their high school transcript?

I think it's insane a couple Cs in middle school should factor into my kid's high school Gpa.

I find it absolutely infuriating. It’s absurd that a C in a 6th grade foreign language class should impact a kid’s high school gpa.

It definitely is infuriating and absurd. Take solace that even if MCPS foes not change the policy for over HS kids ('24, '23) colleges recalculate. If your kid is now meeting FL req another way in HS, don't sweat it too much.

[Anonymous]

But does UMD recalculate? Seems unlikely but I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But does UMD recalculate? Seems unlikely but I don’t know.

I think that is a good question for the HS counselor or for the UMD admissions office. On their site, they have 26 factors that they look at for admissions, and both "grades in academic subjects" and "extenuating circumstances" are among them.

If you are the parent whose child was struggling last year in middle school, however, you are already in the choice group. Choice was initially started for '25 grads and after. Now they are considering it for older HS kids, too.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know what happened with this? The Board was supposed to take it up in December.