50% rule fading away a bit…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, at my high school we were informed in a staff meeting that admin has realized too many students are abusing the 50% rule. BasicAlly skipping class all day and then showing up for a few days to get their grades up. Sometimes this meant a kid showed up in class at the end of a semester after never seeing the teacher for a few months.

We were informed we can now give 0% if we contact home at least three times even if no one responds.

Also, students that skip classes repeatedly will have all grades changed to 0’s if admin requests it as a consequence.

Also, if a student disappears from school for 15 school days without a valid reason they will be unenrolled. (Official MCPS policy)

I am curious what the thoughts are here. Personally I am looking forward to it. Finally some teeth in the accountability.

This will be condemned soon because The black and brown collation will tell you that the change is targeting the black and brown kids and prevent tem receive good GPA.

I'm not the PP but I often use dictation rather than type on my phone and that is exactly the kind of thing it does.

Don't use words you can't spell. And no, "autocorrect" did not change correctly-spelled "coalition" to "collation," so don't even try it.

Don’t bother. PP used an ad hominem on the collation poster because s/he can’t actually refute what was said.

The "collation" poster gets a failing grade. No bullshit excuses about how dictation made the difference. That is an excuse -- why do you need an excuse for failing? Are you one of those "collation" people who just can't do things right and need extra help? Huh, hypocrite?

I didn't read their post but it does sound like a dictation issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I though the 50% was the minimum for work turned in. Not for work not done at all. You're a teacher OP?

They made this the lowest possible score for anything. It's not a concern of mine personally. My kids shoot higher. I'd prefer to leave this to the experts.

[Anonymous]

50% rule is terrible.
It needs to be gone. Not sure why 3 different communications are needed.
It is very easy to pass a class with the 50% rule but many kids were passing but not learning anything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ES parent here. What is the 50% rule?

It’s a rule that says that grades are assigned like GPA’s, or IB or AP test scores, with equal distance between each letter. It has pros and cons, but people who don’t actually understand the math get up in arms because they think it’s “giving kids 50%”.

Another issue is that students can only have about 10 practice (not for accuracy) grades per quarter. For a math teacher that wants to assign homework every night so that students are regularly practicing, they need to find a work around. Some math teachers will then track if the student did the homework each day, and then put in a grade for the week. If the student attempted at least one day of those 5 days, they receive 100% for the week. That is because accuracy does not matter. The parent then thinks the student is doing all their homework when they are really only doing 20% of it. How would a parent know? Yes, the teacher can email them, and I am sure that some do, but it is another example of where teachers and parents need to jump through extra hoops because of the constraints of the grading and reporting policy and the synergy system.

The purpose of grades isn't to help parents. It's to communicate what a student knows. Emphasizing homework completion, rather than actual performance in the classroom is a huge problem. If a student isn't doing their homework, it will either show up on assessments, or it won't, in which case the kid doesn't deserve to be penalized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ES parent here. What is the 50% rule?

It’s a rule that says that grades are assigned like GPA’s, or IB or AP test scores, with equal distance between each letter. It has pros and cons, but people who don’t actually understand the math get up in arms because they think it’s “giving kids 50%”.

Another issue is that students can only have about 10 practice (not for accuracy) grades per quarter. For a math teacher that wants to assign homework every night so that students are regularly practicing, they need to find a work around. Some math teachers will then track if the student did the homework each day, and then put in a grade for the week. If the student attempted at least one day of those 5 days, they receive 100% for the week. That is because accuracy does not matter. The parent then thinks the student is doing all their homework when they are really only doing 20% of it. How would a parent know? Yes, the teacher can email them, and I am sure that some do, but it is another example of where teachers and parents need to jump through extra hoops because of the constraints of the grading and reporting policy and the synergy system.

The purpose of grades isn't to help parents. It's to communicate what a student knows. Emphasizing homework completion, rather than actual performance in the classroom is a huge problem. If a student isn't doing their homework, it will either show up on assessments, or it won't, in which case the kid doesn't deserve to be penalized.

That is true. Grades should show what students know. I wonder if the 50% rule + 10% for completion = what a student knows or not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, at my high school we were informed in a staff meeting that admin has realized too many students are abusing the 50% rule. BasicAlly skipping class all day and then showing up for a few days to get their grades up. Sometimes this meant a kid showed up in class at the end of a semester after never seeing the teacher for a few months.

We were informed we can now give 0% if we contact home at least three times even if no one responds.

Also, students that skip classes repeatedly will have all grades changed to 0’s if admin requests it as a consequence.

Also, if a student disappears from school for 15 school days without a valid reason they will be unenrolled. (Official MCPS policy)

I am curious what the thoughts are here. Personally I am looking forward to it. Finally some teeth in the accountability.

Which school? We are still under pandemic rules at Eastern. If the parents never respond, you can’t give the zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I though the 50% was the minimum for work turned in. Not for work not done at all. You're a teacher OP?

I don’t know if OP is a teacher, but I am. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to assign a zero for missing work unless your principal is willing to die on that hill. We were told that you need affirmative two-way communication with parents before a zero. That means unreturned voicemails and unanswered emails do not count. You need the parent to acknowledge the work wasn’t turned in. You are SOL if the parent says “I watched Larlo did it so I’m sure he turned it in.” So much easier to 50% it and move on.

[Anonymous]

Op here. I am a MCPS high teacher at a somewhat lower tier high school. My original post is what we were told in a full staff meeting. Dialing back the difficulty of the 50% rule so that two way communication (basically parent permission) is not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:50% rule is terrible.
It needs to be gone. Not sure why 3 different communications are needed.
It is very easy to pass a class with the 50% rule but many kids were passing but not learning anything

Who cares? Seriously, why would it matter to you? Do your kids do so poorly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I though the 50% was the minimum for work turned in. Not for work not done at all. You're a teacher OP?

I don’t know if OP is a teacher, but I am. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to assign a zero for missing work unless your principal is willing to die on that hill. We were told that you need affirmative two-way communication with parents before a zero. That means unreturned voicemails and unanswered emails do not count. You need the parent to acknowledge the work wasn’t turned in. You are SOL if the parent says “I watched Larlo did it so I’m sure he turned it in.” So much easier to 50% it and move on.

It's fine who cares? This is not the source of grade inflation. If you want fair grading, try a bell curve but otherwise you're not serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, at my high school we were informed in a staff meeting that admin has realized too many students are abusing the 50% rule. BasicAlly skipping class all day and then showing up for a few days to get their grades up. Sometimes this meant a kid showed up in class at the end of a semester after never seeing the teacher for a few months.

We were informed we can now give 0% if we contact home at least three times even if no one responds.

Also, students that skip classes repeatedly will have all grades changed to 0’s if admin requests it as a consequence.

Also, if a student disappears from school for 15 school days without a valid reason they will be unenrolled. (Official MCPS policy)

I am curious what the thoughts are here. Personally I am looking forward to it. Finally some teeth in the accountability.

Students should be held accountable for attending classes and turning in work. MCPS is doing society by devaluing a high school diploma by not holding students accountable. Accountability supports teaching honesty, integrity, and work ethic to students.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. Last year, for any missing assignment, we had to assign 50%. Then, if we had two-way communication, meaning we actually reached the parent, and the assignment still wasn't turned in, we could assign a zero. Most teachers, including myself, just gave the 50% because 1) there are not enough hours in the day to call home for every missing assignment and 2) it essentially rewards students whose parent do not respond to you, and punishes those whose do.

This year, they are acting as though they have really become more strict, and given us a lot more ability to give a zero. The only change is, we do not have to have two-way communication, so we can issue a zero even if we do not hear back from parents. However, we have to make three documented attempts, per assignment, and bulk emails through Canvas or Synergy do not count. Essentially what this means is that for every missing assignment, in order to give a zero, we need to send a direct email 1-2 times, and also call home 1-2 times, depending on how many emails we sent. This is per student, per assignment. I can tell you in my "on level" classes, I can have 30+ students across different class periods not turn in one assignment. This becomes 90 contacts to assign a zero for ONE assignment for all those students. I think the county knows this is not even possible for a teacher to keep up with, so while they act like they're giving us more power, they expect we will just continue giving 50% because we can't keep up with the communication requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Last year, for any missing assignment, we had to assign 50%. Then, if we had two-way communication, meaning we actually reached the parent, and the assignment still wasn't turned in, we could assign a zero. Most teachers, including myself, just gave the 50% because 1) there are not enough hours in the day to call home for every missing assignment and 2) it essentially rewards students whose parent do not respond to you, and punishes those whose do.

This year, they are acting as though they have really become more strict, and given us a lot more ability to give a zero. The only change is, we do not have to have two-way communication, so we can issue a zero even if we do not hear back from parents. However, we have to make three documented attempts, per assignment, and bulk emails through Canvas or Synergy do not count. Essentially what this means is that for every missing assignment, in order to give a zero, we need to send a direct email 1-2 times, and also call home 1-2 times, depending on how many emails we sent. This is per student, per assignment. I can tell you in my "on level" classes, I can have 30+ students across different class periods not turn in one assignment. This becomes 90 contacts to assign a zero for ONE assignment for all those students. I think the county knows this is not even possible for a teacher to keep up with, so while they act like they're giving us more power, they expect we will just continue giving 50% because we can't keep up with the communication requirement.

I'd stick with the 50% because that sounds like busy work. Also, 50% is still a terrible grade, and the 50% rule is fine.

Better to focus your efforts on the kids interested in learning, not on those who can't be bothered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, at my high school we were informed in a staff meeting that admin has realized too many students are abusing the 50% rule. BasicAlly skipping class all day and then showing up for a few days to get their grades up. Sometimes this meant a kid showed up in class at the end of a semester after never seeing the teacher for a few months.

We were informed we can now give 0% if we contact home at least three times even if no one responds.

Also, students that skip classes repeatedly will have all grades changed to 0’s if admin requests it as a consequence.

Also, if a student disappears from school for 15 school days without a valid reason they will be unenrolled. (Official MCPS policy)

I am curious what the thoughts are here. Personally I am looking forward to it. Finally some teeth in the accountability.

Students should be held accountable for attending classes and turning in work. MCPS is doing society by devaluing a high school diploma by not holding students accountable. Accountability supports teaching honesty, integrity, and work ethic to students.

OMG OMG OMG the sky is falling!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, at my high school we were informed in a staff meeting that admin has realized too many students are abusing the 50% rule. BasicAlly skipping class all day and then showing up for a few days to get their grades up. Sometimes this meant a kid showed up in class at the end of a semester after never seeing the teacher for a few months.

We were informed we can now give 0% if we contact home at least three times even if no one responds.

Also, students that skip classes repeatedly will have all grades changed to 0’s if admin requests it as a consequence.

Also, if a student disappears from school for 15 school days without a valid reason they will be unenrolled. (Official MCPS policy)

I am curious what the thoughts are here. Personally I am looking forward to it. Finally some teeth in the accountability.

Which school? We are still under pandemic rules at Eastern. If the parents never respond, you can’t give the zero.

Well, that is strange because a teacher at Eastern in 7th grade (during online school) gave 0s to my kid who was having a hard time keeping up with the work. We talked with the teacher who explained the 0s would stand because the kid was behind and had not attempted the assignment so it was a 0. I guess we should not have responded.