Explain how grades are inflated.

[Anonymous]

How about - a kid can literally miss every day of quarter 3 and turn in not one single assignment , only to pull off a 59.6 for quarter 4 and thereby earn credit and pass the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about - a kid can literally miss every day of quarter 3 and turn in not one single assignment , only to pull off a 59.6 for quarter 4 and thereby earn credit and pass the class.

That's school specific as in our school they fail you with a 0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about - a kid can literally miss every day of quarter 3 and turn in not one single assignment , only to pull off a 59.6 for quarter 4 and thereby earn credit and pass the class.

That's school specific as in our school they fail you with a 0.

Wait. You work at an MCPS HS that has an attendance policy!?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about - a kid can literally miss every day of quarter 3 and turn in not one single assignment , only to pull off a 59.6 for quarter 4 and thereby earn credit and pass the class.

That was during the pandemic, PP. They did away with this policy a couple of years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly the HS semester grades people are referring to. If a student gets a low B quarter one (79.5% which rounds to 80%) and a low A quarter two (89.5% which rounds to 90%), they get an A for the semester. The same as a student who gets 100% for both quarters.

Yes, I think this makes the biggest difference. My student thinks they can coast this quarter in the classes they received an A in first quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about - a kid can literally miss every day of quarter 3 and turn in not one single assignment , only to pull off a 59.6 for quarter 4 and thereby earn credit and pass the class.

That was during the pandemic, PP. They did away with this policy a couple of years ago.

Not true. This is happening in 2025 on a pretty regular basis. I teach at an MCPS HS.
E/D passes the semester. There is no minimum attendance requirement. An E/D (quarter #1/quarter #2) absolutely earns you credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they give you a "study guide" which tells you what to study and the tests are so easy that almost everyone gets an A.

I went to a Big 3 private school in the ’90s, and we still got study guides.

I went to a Catholic HS in the 90s (and then a Catholic university) and there were no study guides. I had never heard of them until I went to grad school and started student teaching. I was told I had to create them for each test and I didn't know what one even was.

My kid went to a Catholic HS and graduated two years ago. He was told that anything covered in class, in the readings, and in any slides was fair game for the test. No study guides. Ditto in the same Catholic university I went to. His roommates complain that their professors don't give student guides and he doesn't really know what one is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about - a kid can literally miss every day of quarter 3 and turn in not one single assignment , only to pull off a 59.6 for quarter 4 and thereby earn credit and pass the class.

That's school specific as in our school they fail you with a 0.

Wait. You work at an MCPS HS that has an attendance policy!?!?

I don't work in one but they absolutely fail kids and give them zero at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No final exams is ridiculous

This. My DS has been taking midterms and finals in some classes since 3rd grade in Catholic school. He had them in all six classes starting in 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I constantly see people talk about how MCPS inflates grades and makes things too easy, but many private schools—both local and national—have similar, if not identical, grading scales. Retakes aren’t that common either. Maybe it’s just my kid’s school, but it seems normal to me. Maybe there’s something I’m missing. Thanks!

My daughter had a 4.4 and wasn’t in the top quarter of her class. Honors classes getting the same GPA bump as AP classes, retakes, having a 79.5 and an 89.5 equal an A for the semester. All examples of things which inflate grades.

That's not our MCPS. If you get a 79.5 its a C. And, that's not really grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

My neighbor always has a few kids who have NEVER attended class. She is told she has to grade whatever is handed in online and therefore she has students pass her class who have NEVER attended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I constantly see people talk about how MCPS inflates grades and makes things too easy, but many private schools—both local and national—have similar, if not identical, grading scales. Retakes aren’t that common either. Maybe it’s just my kid’s school, but it seems normal to me. Maybe there’s something I’m missing. Thanks!

My daughter had a 4.4 and wasn’t in the top quarter of her class. Honors classes getting the same GPA bump as AP classes, retakes, having a 79.5 and an 89.5 equal an A for the semester. All examples of things which inflate grades.

That's not our MCPS. If you get a 79.5 its a C. And, that's not really grade inflation.

False. It gets rounded up to 80/B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in another state, but my sister lives in MCPS. Based on our conversations ...

1.) Her kids can always retake tests/quizzes. Mine have almost never had that option.
2.) Written work. In my kids' district, a pretty good term paper with a couple of lapses in logic, sourcing, etc., might get an 86. They'd get some detailed feedback and edits. In my niece's and nephew's, the same paper would get an A, with very little feedback.
3.) Extra credit. I remember her telling me once that her kid had a 110 in Spanish, LOL.

Some misinformation here. MCPS grading policy explicitly does not allow extra credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my kids math class, there are no retakes but if you show mastery in a test of material that you have a lower quiz grade, the teacher can raise it.

Tbh, there are so many high schools and they all have different vibes. I think some high schools allow a lot more retakes than others.

Where I think the inflation comes from, is county policies such as 50% minimum, kids earning an A then a B still getting an A, no final exams, no required attendance in class, etc…

That all said, my older two are now in college and they and all their friends adjusted just fine so I’m not sure how much of a problem it really is.

There is no way for the teacher to do that within the confines of the MCPS grading policy. The only way to raise the grade is to offer a retake and to replace the lower grade. But there is not much enforcement of the existing policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they give you a "study guide" which tells you what to study and the tests are so easy that almost everyone gets an A.

Mmm.. no. Perhaps your child is in remedial?

My kid is taking algebra in 7th and gets a study guide before each quiz or test. But it's just a set of problems to do that aren't in the Illustrative Mathematics materials, so more practice for the kids.