High school Grades entered at last minute that impact 25-50% or more of grade for quarter

[Anonymous]

Updating the gradebook regularly should be happening but it’s not unusual for kids to receive a large assignment at the end of the quarter. It’s usually a test, project, writing assignment that is the major summative for that quarters content - what you would have had as a “final” in school. So that part is fine. Not updating the gradebook in weeks/months is not.

-teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers have 150 students to deal with & we really don't care anymore. Flame all you want.

You’d have to be a lousy teacher and a crappy person as well to leave students and families in the dark as much as some incompetent FCPS teachers do now. It was not always like this.

NP and a lot of things have changed. I see it and am frustrated as a parent and a teacher. One of my kid’s grades went from a A to an F yesterday. There are now 3 zeros for assessments marked as missing that he supposedly didn’t take although he hasn’t been absent. The class is on its 4th teacher already after the main one left months ago. My kid claims the subs don’t know what they are doing with the class or the gradebook.

I see this as a teacher in a different school and it’s not uncommon. I’ll have to email the principal soon if my kid can’t sort it out with the latest sub. These things didn’t happen five years ago.

[Anonymous]

My kid has a teacher who gave three assessments in 1st quarter. Only one of them had been graded by quarter end. The teacher is currently working through the other two, so first semester grades will be comprised entirely of Q1 work. The assessments from this quarter almost certainly, at this rate, won’t be entered until Q3.

My older kid had this same teacher 4 years ago and there were far more grading opportunities all of which were entered promptly. I have suspicions as to the reasons for the change, but regardless this is what DC has to deal with.

And don’t get me started on departments that announced one grading policy at the start of the year, then changed it mid-semester. That messes with the grade book, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every course syllabus should be required to not only state grading policy but also include a grade turnaround time. If teacher is overwhelmed with workload and cannot return assignment grade within two weeks, then it should be an automatic A. Then far from complaining, students would be praying their teacher misses the grading deadline, and their parents would be in a blissful state observing a sea of As every time they login into SIS.

there enough A already

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Updating the gradebook regularly should be happening but it’s not unusual for kids to receive a large assignment at the end of the quarter. It’s usually a test, project, writing assignment that is the major summative for that quarters content - what you would have had as a “final” in school. So that part is fine. Not updating the gradebook in weeks/months is not.

-teacher

We got an automated message about our daughter having an F in a HS class and the quarter end approaching. There is 1 graded assignment in SIS for this quarter. That’s it. She joined the class after the first quarter and the quiz covered some things she hadn’t been there for.

I had to email the teacher and ask if there were things that are graded and not in the system and what else is coming up because I need to make sure she has opportunities to pull up that grade. It’s absurd. We shouldn’t have to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Updating the gradebook regularly should be happening but it’s not unusual for kids to receive a large assignment at the end of the quarter. It’s usually a test, project, writing assignment that is the major summative for that quarters content - what you would have had as a “final” in school. So that part is fine. Not updating the gradebook in weeks/months is not.

-teacher

We got an automated message about our daughter having an F in a HS class and the quarter end approaching. There is 1 graded assignment in SIS for this quarter. That’s it. She joined the class after the first quarter and the quiz covered some things she hadn’t been there for.

I had to email the teacher and ask if there were things that are graded and not in the system and what else is coming up because I need to make sure she has opportunities to pull up that grade. It’s absurd. We shouldn’t have to do that.

Fo something like that, I would cc the principal

[Anonymous]

Yes. It effing sucks. The teachers haven't updated the gradebooks since November and then they update it today and the kid finds out that the grade has dropped from an A to a B. Annoying as hell.

[Anonymous]

Teachers are busy. They don't have time to grade assignments.

[Anonymous]

Same over here in DCPS. I’m not worried so much about the grade as that work is not getting returned in a way that allows me and my kid to understand if he’s learning or not. The late entries also make it very hard to tell if he forgot to turn something in. The transition to online work and online grading has somehow made it much harder on kids and parents to monitor how they are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are busy. They don't have time to grade assignments.

If you don't have enough time and have to choose to do do something, so be it. But choose to not do something else. Something that doesn't so adversely affect the very students you are ostensibly there to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are busy. They don't have time to grade assignments.

If you don't have enough time and have to choose to do do something, so be it. But choose to not do something else. Something that doesn't so adversely affect the very students you are ostensibly there to help.

I’m a teacher and a different poster. I don’t agree with a lot of what I read on this thread. If teachers haven’t updated in a month, that’s bad. If teachers are putting tons of grades in last minute, that’s bad. If there’s only 1-2 assignments, that’s bad.

But…

It’s hard to prioritize grading. If I’m not planned, I literally can’t teach. I’d end up sitting in the front of the room unprepared, simply staring at my students. Planning takes precedence over grading 100% of the time. It has to.

I have to respond to parents and students within 48 hours. I get a ton of emails. If I don’t respond, the emails compound and parents get angrier. Email takes precedence over grading.

I wish it wasn’t like this, but it is. We don’t get a lot of unstructured time at work. Most of our work actually gets done at home. I also wish that wasn’t the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Updating the gradebook regularly should be happening but it’s not unusual for kids to receive a large assignment at the end of the quarter. It’s usually a test, project, writing assignment that is the major summative for that quarters content - what you would have had as a “final” in school. So that part is fine. Not updating the gradebook in weeks/months is not.

-teacher

We got an automated message about our daughter having an F in a HS class and the quarter end approaching. There is 1 graded assignment in SIS for this quarter. That’s it. She joined the class after the first quarter and the quiz covered some things she hadn’t been there for.

I had to email the teacher and ask if there were things that are graded and not in the system and what else is coming up because I need to make sure she has opportunities to pull up that grade. It’s absurd. We shouldn’t have to do that.

I agree that’s not ok, I don’t think anything in my comment would suggest I think it is. Grades should be updated much more consistently. I have 10 per quarter. Some weeks it’s one grade, others two, but grades are consistently updated which is only fair to assess progress.

[Anonymous]

The greater the confusion the easier it is to achieve equitable grading. Mission accomplished FCPS. Students and parents need to unite and raise hell until positive change occurs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are busy. They don't have time to grade assignments.

If you don't have enough time and have to choose to do do something, so be it. But choose to not do something else. Something that doesn't so adversely affect the very students you are ostensibly there to help.

I’m a teacher and a different poster. I don’t agree with a lot of what I read on this thread. If teachers haven’t updated in a month, that’s bad. If teachers are putting tons of grades in last minute, that’s bad. If there’s only 1-2 assignments, that’s bad.

But…

It’s hard to prioritize grading. If I’m not planned, I literally can’t teach. I’d end up sitting in the front of the room unprepared, simply staring at my students. Planning takes precedence over grading 100% of the time. It has to.

I have to respond to parents and students within 48 hours. I get a ton of emails. If I don’t respond, the emails compound and parents get angrier. Email takes precedence over grading.

I wish it wasn’t like this, but it is. We don’t get a lot of unstructured time at work. Most of our work actually gets done at home. I also wish that wasn’t the case.

+1, grading will always come last in the list (it’s just the truth of the matter).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The greater the confusion the easier it is to achieve equitable grading. Mission accomplished FCPS. Students and parents need to unite and raise hell until positive change occurs.

Yes let’s drive more teachers away. Yes the situation sucks but certain policies make it impossible (allowing retakes, resubmitting stuff) to have stuff done in a timely manner.