Email school or let it go? (grading issue)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have YOUR SON email the admin(you can of course help him) He deserves the A-that is definite and the teacher should have caught the fact he was absent and sick. He turned it in the next possible time he was in school. All legit for no points take off for being late.

However in HS, teacher really want to see kids advocate for themselves. Heck even in MS it is great practice. It was a crazy end of year andhe was sick, just explain to him that the email should come from him, help him out and he can also cc you on the email to the admin.

Agree with this. I’m surprised at an 8th grade parent emailing a teacher. At my kid’s school, they want students emailing teachers. Not parents. Have your son email her and do not copy the principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was it an excused absence? Why didn’t he hand it in the next day or send it electronically?

My 7th grader had a teacher who flat out told the kids she doesn’t check her emails and to not bother contacting her that way. So if the kids missed assignments for any reason, they had to track her down and physically turn it in. She also graded on a 90 point scale for any late work regardless of reason for lateness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is important to your son, there is no. harm emailing the principal. I am just shocked that a 'missing' still gets 50%!

Because you can't do math. For the thousandth time, for whatever stupid reason this 100 point grading system was originally invented for, it really ended up only being used for the last 40 points of the scale for a grade above failing. The divisions of grades are incorrect for an even system. An A should be 100, B should be 75, C should be 50, D should be 25, and F should be zero if you want a full scale of 0-100, but that wasn't done. For some reason D was moved up to 60. Regardless of why, people realized that it was a flawed system that wasn't broken up correctly but instead of changing all the passing grades, they just made the floor 50 so A-D didn't have to change, which is perfectly acceptable when each other division is also 10 points.

Can we ever be done with this argument?

Ok, but my child is in a school in a different area that also uses a 100 point grading system, that also only really uses the top 40 points of the scale as you have described above. However if my child gets a 'missing' she gets a big fat zero for this assignment on her grade book which can have a really negative effect on her gpa. However if she got 50% rather than 0% for the assignment her grade would not be impacted as severely. What is wrong with the math here?

[Anonymous]

FCPS allows one day for it to be turned in according to their make up work for absences rule.

It also allows up to a 10% deduction for it being late the extra one day according to their grading policy.

He deserves whatever the assignment grade will be minus 10%.

[Anonymous]

Good lesson for if he should want to go to college. Due dates are due dates.

Congrats on the A-…still a great grade.

[Anonymous]

Don’t let it go. Stand up for your kid. It’s your parenting duty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even in highschool, do exact percentages or +/- modifiers show up on transcripts and the like?

Yes because that’s what determines GPA. In middle school it does not matter. This is the kind of kid who grade grubs when I get him in high school, not because he cares, but because he has the kind of mom who is perseverating over the difference between a middle school A and an A- during summer break and he just wants her off his butt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have YOUR SON email the admin(you can of course help him) He deserves the A-that is definite and the teacher should have caught the fact he was absent and sick. He turned it in the next possible time he was in school. All legit for no points take off for being late.

However in HS, teacher really want to see kids advocate for themselves. Heck even in MS it is great practice. It was a crazy end of year andhe was sick, just explain to him that the email should come from him, help him out and he can also cc you on the email to the admin.

Agree with this. I’m surprised at an 8th grade parent emailing a teacher. At my kid’s school, they want students emailing teachers. Not parents. Have your son email her and do not copy the principal.

Absolutely wrong. The teacher is no longer working and isn’t checking email. In addition, she won’t be able to fix the grade now anyway. Someone with access to SIS has to go in and do it and it requires principal approval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even in highschool, do exact percentages or +/- modifiers show up on transcripts and the like?

Yes because that’s what determines GPA. In middle school it does not matter. This is the kind of kid who grade grubs when I get him in high school, not because he cares, but because he has the kind of mom who is perseverating over the difference between a middle school A and an A- during summer break and he just wants her off his butt.

Most kids grade grub in high school because an A vs A- affects the GPA differently. The kid earned an A. Doesn’t matter if it was middle school or high school. Fix it.

[Anonymous]

OP, what have you decided to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you have the son email instead of doing it yourself (serious question)? he can cc" you if you want the admins to know youa re involved.

actually, if a kid emails from his @fcpsschools.net account he cannot cc parents unless they happen to be fcps employees.
In an effort to make the email accounts "safer" for kids fcps made it so that they can only email other @fcpsschools.net or @fcps.edu accounts.
This also means that teachers can't email kids and also cc parents (something I often do at my nonFCPS school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is important to your son, there is no. harm emailing the principal. I am just shocked that a 'missing' still gets 50%!

Because you can't do math. For the thousandth time, for whatever stupid reason this 100 point grading system was originally invented for, it really ended up only being used for the last 40 points of the scale for a grade above failing. The divisions of grades are incorrect for an even system. An A should be 100, B should be 75, C should be 50, D should be 25, and F should be zero if you want a full scale of 0-100, but that wasn't done. For some reason D was moved up to 60. Regardless of why, people realized that it was a flawed system that wasn't broken up correctly but instead of changing all the passing grades, they just made the floor 50 so A-D didn't have to change, which is perfectly acceptable when each other division is also 10 points.

Can we ever be done with this argument?

Ok, but my child is in a school in a different area that also uses a 100 point grading system, that also only really uses the top 40 points of the scale as you have described above. However if my child gets a 'missing' she gets a big fat zero for this assignment on her grade book which can have a really negative effect on her gpa. However if she got 50% rather than 0% for the assignment her grade would not be impacted as severely. What is wrong with the math here?

What you are describing here is the EXACT reason that many schools have now made a 50 the bottom of the 100 point scale. A zero can cause a disaster - a 50 not so much if it's only one. Think of it this way - if you are using a 4 point scale an A is a 4, B is a 3, C is a 2, D is a 1, and F is a zero. An F is not a negative 6 on a 4 point scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even in highschool, do exact percentages or +/- modifiers show up on transcripts and the like?

Yes because that’s what determines GPA. In middle school it does not matter. This is the kind of kid who grade grubs when I get him in high school, not because he cares, but because he has the kind of mom who is perseverating over the difference between a middle school A and an A- during summer break and he just wants her off his butt.

Most kids grade grub in high school because an A vs A- affects the GPA differently. The kid earned an A. Doesn’t matter if it was middle school or high school. Fix it.

LMAO you say “fix it” at me like I can just go in there and do it. In any case, no it really does not matter in middle school. These grades are not reported to colleges and don’t factor into your high school GPA. Kid probably forgot all about it the second summer started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have YOUR SON email the admin(you can of course help him) He deserves the A-that is definite and the teacher should have caught the fact he was absent and sick. He turned it in the next possible time he was in school. All legit for no points take off for being late.

However in HS, teacher really want to see kids advocate for themselves. Heck even in MS it is great practice. It was a crazy end of year andhe was sick, just explain to him that the email should come from him, help him out and he can also cc you on the email to the admin.

He didn't, though. He turned it in two days after he came back. "Block scheduling" is not an excuse for this. He should have turned it in the day he returned. For middle school, I am sure he could have found time to drop it off in her classroom, and even if he couldn't do this during lunch or between classes, he could have asked another teacher for permission to take it during the last 5 minutes of a class. There is no way this boy was completely unable to drop off the paper the day he returned. No middle school teacher would have refused him permission to deliver his paper at the end of their own class period, or he could even have asked another teacher to give the paper to the English teacher, OR he could have emailed the paper to his English teacher, either as a Word doc or a scan. A kid who takes two days and blames his schedule just doesn't care enough to get the work turned in on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it were high school I'd say to push back. But for middle school, I'd let it go

Really? Over an A-?