Rolling Gradebook- Where is the research ?

[Anonymous]

Sadly, there is no good research in the field of education. It is the least rigorous and least intellectual field in higher education. It attracts the students with the lowest test scores and GPAs. These are the folks who get the easy graduate level degrees and later insist on being called Dr. The field is so bad that sound research methods required in other fields are eschewed, statistics and quantitative data is often graphed or calculated incorrectly and faulty logic/reasoning is the norm. It is truly embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

[Anonymous]

Hearing now that due to rolling gradebook FCPS may be limiting the number of grades permitted each Q. Is anyone else hearing this or does your high school already have this policy in place? I’m not convinced that capping number of assignments is a positive as individual grades may become higher stakes. Any thoughts or does anyone have insight? I hear this cap is directly related to the implementation of the rolling gradebook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

It works for almost everyone. And it allows flexibility in deadlines for entering grades which is what teachers need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worse than the rolling gradebook is the required 7 assignments. Teachers spend a lot of time just trying to collect work from students to meet that goal. There's no research for that either. School board members get some emails and phone calls from a couple of squeaky wheels and start making radical changes without any kind of research. That's the problem with a school board run by politicians who are just looking for a stepping stone to another office.

Seven a quarter is nothing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

It works for almost everyone. And it allows flexibility in deadlines for entering grades which is what teachers need.

Who is the everyone? Is there data that supports this ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

It works for almost everyone. And it allows flexibility in deadlines for entering grades which is what teachers need.

How does it provide additional flexibility that is unavailable in the traditional gradebook? The same number of assignments are required during the Q meaning either way teachers need to enter those grades during the same time frame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worse than the rolling gradebook is the required 7 assignments. Teachers spend a lot of time just trying to collect work from students to meet that goal. There's no research for that either. School board members get some emails and phone calls from a couple of squeaky wheels and start making radical changes without any kind of research. That's the problem with a school board run by politicians who are just looking for a stepping stone to another office.

Seven a quarter is nothing

The rolling gradebook seems to discourage more than the minimum number of grades, meaning every grade is now much higher stakes. If there are only 8 summative assignments given in a year is that really giving an accurate picture of performance for all students? Those 8 assignments make up 70 percent of the grade with current grading policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

It works for almost everyone. And it allows flexibility in deadlines for entering grades which is what teachers need.

How does it provide additional flexibility that is unavailable in the traditional gradebook? The same number of assignments are required during the Q meaning either way teachers need to enter those grades during the same time frame.

In a traditional gradebook, the gradebook closes at a certain time at the end of the quarter. Students who are absent the last week due to illness are screwed. They won’t have time to make up the work to apply it to their grade. It won’t count on that quarter. Teachers are also not allowed to test if it’s too close to the quarter ending because then they can’t offer makeups within 2 weeks like the policy states. This limits what a teacher can do curriculum wise at the end of the quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

It works for almost everyone. And it allows flexibility in deadlines for entering grades which is what teachers need.

How does it provide additional flexibility that is unavailable in the traditional gradebook? The same number of assignments are required during the Q meaning either way teachers need to enter those grades during the same time frame.

In a traditional gradebook, the gradebook closes at a certain time at the end of the quarter. Students who are absent the last week due to illness are screwed. They won’t have time to make up the work to apply it to their grade. It won’t count on that quarter. Teachers are also not allowed to test if it’s too close to the quarter ending because then they can’t offer makeups within 2 weeks like the policy states. This limits what a teacher can do curriculum wise at the end of the quarter.

I'm a teacher and if we are not allowed to test at the end of the quarter, then that's the first I've heard of it. Also, grades are due one day, but changes to them are allowed for several days after that, so there is almost always room for a makeup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quarters may end up being weighted unequally as their overall weight is dependent on the number of assignments and total points assigned each quarter. Is that something parents are prepared to accept, without research?

If quarter 1 has 12 assignments but the remainder of the year has only the minimum mandatory 7 assignments each Quarter, assuming all assignments are equally weighted is everyone ok with the Q1 work being worth 36.36% while Q2,3,4 are only worth 21.21% for a total of 63.63% ?

How will anyone have any way of knowing how the work from each Q is factored in when assignment numbers vary from teacher to teacher and course to course?

Within each quarter, it’s 70% summative and 30% formative so I really don’t care. Both my kids usually ace their tests all year long so we’re good.

Ok, so the rolling gradebook also works for you!

It works for almost everyone. And it allows flexibility in deadlines for entering grades which is what teachers need.

How does it provide additional flexibility that is unavailable in the traditional gradebook? The same number of assignments are required during the Q meaning either way teachers need to enter those grades during the same time frame.

In a traditional gradebook, the gradebook closes at a certain time at the end of the quarter. Students who are absent the last week due to illness are screwed. They won’t have time to make up the work to apply it to their grade. It won’t count on that quarter. Teachers are also not allowed to test if it’s too close to the quarter ending because then they can’t offer makeups within 2 weeks like the policy states. This limits what a teacher can do curriculum wise at the end of the quarter.

I'm a teacher and if we are not allowed to test at the end of the quarter, then that's the first I've heard of it. Also, grades are due one day, but changes to them are allowed for several days after that, so there is almost always room for a makeup.

If you’re in FCPS, you know students have two weeks to make up any summative to bring their grade for that summative up. Explain how to do that if you give a test the day before the quarter ends with a traditional gradebook. How would you enter that makeup grade in a traditional gradebook?