Help me understand the logic behind Weighting All Tasks/Assessments so heavily

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

I know! I'm so grateful MCPS is preparing my kids for college and beyond!

Only difference is universities actually have midterms and finals...a glaring omission at MCPS.

This. My DH used to tutor and would get a lot of requests from college students right after midterms. Most of the time, the students had failed the midterm and panicked. My DH would ask about the weight of the midterm before deciding to accept the student. Many of them just had no experience taking cumulative exams so they didn't know how to study for them.

We used to have finals when I was an MCPS high school student. Why did MCPS get rid of them? I can see not doing them in 9th and 10th grade, but I think it's very helpful to have finals for juniors and seniors, the majority of whom are going to deal with them in college.

They were eliminated in 2015, against the wishes of teachers.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2015/11/11/despite-opposition-from-teachers-board-of-education-drops-final-exams/

Anyone who wants finals can take APs.

The AP exams are not equivalent to finals since the AP exams do not impact your grade.

Why are people like you intentionally being obtuse about this topic? Either engage with good intention or just ignore the topic if you don't have anything meaningful to add.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After reading this thread, it sounds like MCPS has the perfect policy regarding homework.

Do everyone a favor and just don't bother hitting "Add Reply" to topics you don't agree with if this is the level of discourse you have to offer. What a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

I know! I'm so grateful MCPS is preparing my kids for college and beyond!

Only difference is universities actually have midterms and finals...a glaring omission at MCPS.

This. My DH used to tutor and would get a lot of requests from college students right after midterms. Most of the time, the students had failed the midterm and panicked. My DH would ask about the weight of the midterm before deciding to accept the student. Many of them just had no experience taking cumulative exams so they didn't know how to study for them.

We used to have finals when I was an MCPS high school student. Why did MCPS get rid of them? I can see not doing them in 9th and 10th grade, but I think it's very helpful to have finals for juniors and seniors, the majority of whom are going to deal with them in college.

They were eliminated in 2015, against the wishes of teachers.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2015/11/11/despite-opposition-from-teachers-board-of-education-drops-final-exams/

WOW! That is so disheartening. Are there any educators still fighting to bring them back or to force the BOE to prove its claim that eliminating finals improves instruction time or whatever KPIs they were trying to hit?

I do agree that there is a bit of overtesting going on, but replacing final exams with PARCC benefits the school district but not the student, since PARCC scores don't factor into students' grades.

[Anonymous]

And students know that MCAP doesn’t impact their grade. Just watch older kids taking the test. Many just click through it so they can be done. They don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And students know that MCAP doesn’t impact their grade. Just watch older kids taking the test. Many just click through it so they can be done. They don’t care.

Some of them even purposely put the wrong answers to sabotage the tests because they hope that messing the tests up will make the school districts stop making them take them. It's crazy how broken the whole thing is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

This only works if the appropriate homework is actually being assigned, though, and if kids realize that they have to do the homework to do well on the tests. I'm in DCPS right now, but what I'm hearing is that no homework or useless homework is being assigned due to the "equity" concerns. Alternatively if the homework really is essential, it doesn't really help kids not to convey that through making it part of the grade. Then only the students with parents who are on top of things know that homework is worth more than its percentage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

Again, homework is not the only thing that falls under the prep/practice category. There is a good chunk of classwork (such as warm-ups) that also fall under this category.

Grades are supposed to be a measure of student understanding of content. Why should practice and preparation, even done in class, be part of the 90% category? We are grading knowledge, not behavior. In this age of everyone get a trophy, the idea that classwork is only worth doing if it “earns points” has crept into student (and parent) thinking, and it is a real problem. Students shouldn’t need an extrinsic motivation (like points) to do what they need to do to learn.

Oh dear lord. Is this really the trendy new belief? How do you think you gain knowledge? Through BEHAVIOR. The behavior of studying. Such as, the practice and discipline of homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

This only works if the appropriate homework is actually being assigned, though, and if kids realize that they have to do the homework to do well on the tests. I'm in DCPS right now, but what I'm hearing is that no homework or useless homework is being assigned due to the "equity" concerns. Alternatively if the homework really is essential, it doesn't really help kids not to convey that through making it part of the grade. Then only the students with parents who are on top of things know that homework is worth more than its percentage.

BINGO!

[Anonymous]

this is how a lot of college courses are graded, especially STEM related classes. may as well get them ready early

10% HW
90% tests/quizes/final

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is how a lot of college courses are graded, especially STEM related classes. may as well get them ready early

10% HW
90% tests/quizes/final

I don't know what colleges y'all went to, but that was not my experience. All of my classes were a mixture of homework/practice, class participation, tests/quizzes and group or individual projects. It was never 90/10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is how a lot of college courses are graded, especially STEM related classes. may as well get them ready early

10% HW
90% tests/quizes/final

+1. I also disagree with the comment that MCPS is preparing the kids well. What matters most in universities / colleges are finals. Homework was never made important in a serious college. Too much cheating / plagiarism. Frats and Sororities all had stacks of prior Homework that the kids were copying. Typically Community Colleges or low-end schools weigh the homework higher than finals.

But, if the parents are all for it, so be it. Their kids will just get hammered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is how a lot of college courses are graded, especially STEM related classes. may as well get them ready early

10% HW
90% tests/quizes/final

I don't know what colleges y'all went to, but that was not my experience. All of my classes were a mixture of homework/practice, class participation, tests/quizzes and group or individual projects. It was never 90/10.

University of Maryland
2-4 tests per semester in math classes
1-2 tests and 1-2 papers in business courses
4-6 projects (in class usually) for coding courses

Work was assigned (readings, coding project practice) but never graded. I’m questioning where you went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is how a lot of college courses are graded, especially STEM related classes. may as well get them ready early

10% HW
90% tests/quizes/final

I don't know what colleges y'all went to, but that was not my experience. All of my classes were a mixture of homework/practice, class participation, tests/quizzes and group or individual projects. It was never 90/10.

University of Maryland
2-4 tests per semester in math classes
1-2 tests and 1-2 papers in business courses
4-6 projects (in class usually) for coding courses

Work was assigned (readings, coding project practice) but never graded. I’m questioning where you went.

Went to UMD as well. My courses were a mixture of what I already said.

You took more math and coding courses, which I didn’t take. But still, it was always a mixture of what I said:

-Participation
- Notes/Discussion/Homework
- Personal or Group projects
- Tests and Quizzes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

This isn't true. University-level courses actually split between prep/practice/hw, projects, assessments and class participation, which MCPS seems to completely ignore. There's way more categories of evaluation than just the two that MCPS uses.

Here's a real grading framework from an actual university course

Class Participation 10%
Individual Final Exam 25%
Study Group Case Brief Notes (4) 25%
Personal Project 40%

This grading framework is from a recent business school course syllabus.

So again, I don’t know what business classes are doing 90/10, but definitely not any I’ve been to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is how it works in most university level classes. Homework is essential to do, but worth a small percentage of grades. It makes sense to me, as tests actually measure a students ability. On homework, you expect the student gets some help.

This isn't true. University-level courses actually split between prep/practice/hw, projects, assessments and class participation, which MCPS seems to completely ignore. There's way more categories of evaluation than just the two that MCPS uses.

Here's a real grading framework from an actual university course

Class Participation 10%
Individual Final Exam 25%
Study Group Case Brief Notes (4) 25%
Personal Project 40%

This grading framework is from a recent business school course syllabus.

So again, I don’t know what business classes are doing 90/10, but definitely not any I’ve been to.

Yeah, I was not a business manager. I can’t recall single class that gave you points for participating.