Message from Jack Smith about Grade Inflation

[Anonymous]

This is much ado about nothing. There is nothing preventing teachers from giving finals today. People here complain about grade inflation but they're also likely the same people who harass a teacher when their snowflake gets a B+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is much ado about nothing. There is nothing preventing teachers from giving finals today. People here complain about grade inflation but they're also likely the same people who harass a teacher when their snowflake gets a B+.

It's a very DCUM phenomenon where people complain about one thing and when the county listens to them and gives them what they want they complain about another.

I have no doubt the very reason grade inflation exists is because the very same people complaining about it here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is much ado about nothing. There is nothing preventing teachers from giving finals today. People here complain about grade inflation but they're also likely the same people who harass a teacher when their snowflake gets a B+.

And the teachers are not giving finals because thats less work for them, right? Teachers don’t have to create an exam, grade it and tally the finals grades and that’s many fewer hours of work, right? If that isn’t the hallmark of a great school system I don’t know what is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an MCPS parent, I would be willing to pay for my HS student to take a final exam on a weekend. Can this option be available to parents who care for and want this final exam?

To make it equitable - do not include this result in GPA and parents can fundraise for any non-paying FARMS students who want to take the test.

+1. The question of grades really is distinct from whether we should have final exams. Students need to learn how to take final exams and to maintain a grasp of what is learned over the course of a year. We are doing them a disservice by not making sure they have these experiences.

I'm certain they have plenty of exams with or without finals.

But finals play an important role in (a) assessing how the student has retained material through the year and built on what was learned throughout the class and (b) help the students to retain such information. Studying for finals is also a different skill from taking exams that cover a shorter length of time.

Whether we like it or not, in college (and even more so some graduate schools) a very significant portion of a student's grade is dependent on the final. I don't think it is a good idea for college to be one of the first times a student experiences a final exam.

But MCPS is more concerned about the achievement gap (or the appearance of an achievement gap) than preparing students to succeed at competitive colleges.

Everyone gets a trophy! So embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Counselors in the county have know for a whole that the system is messed up. Kids are put in too advanced classes to make numbers look good, then when they don’t do well, they miraculously can do “credit recovery” assignments after the semester ends. Meanwhile, As are losing their meaning, too.

Those same students who are put into advanced classes before they are ready go to college and fail math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:However, some kids are not good test takers and are hurt when their grades mean less because the system isn’t accurately reflecting their hard work and knowledge.

Your child is not a ‘bad test taker’ - your child is reaching his/her cognitive limits. Please be honest and recognize that.
Please.

[Anonymous]

We are a private school family. Our high school junior had to be approved to take most of his AP courses. They are not open to anyone who wants to take them. This ensures smaller class sizes and prevents the dumbing down of the course. All are required to take the AP exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a private school family. Our high school junior had to be approved to take most of his AP courses. They are not open to anyone who wants to take them. This ensures smaller class sizes and prevents the dumbing down of the course. All are required to take the AP exam.

I didn't know that was a thing. I mean, I know about families who send children to private school, just as I know about families who send children to public school. But "private school family"? Is there also such a thing as, I don't know, a "vacations-at-Disneyworld family" or a "inclined-to-get-strep throat family"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In college, most have exams. They are failing these kids by not preparing them well via the curriculum (which will take years to get all the schools changed over), how the actual schools operate (ours denies basic supports to kids via IEP even though their own teachers identify the needs, etc. MCPS was lousy when some of us went years ago and still today they ride on reputation vs. substance.

Really? Most of my classes in college did not have cumulative final exams, and that was in the 1980s, at the fancy-pants college attended by a just-confirmed Supreme Court justice.

[Anonymous]

I had exactly three cumulative, “cram everything you learned over the course of the semester” style college exams in my entire career. That’s it. I graduated from a highly selective private university.

You really cannot make blanket statements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a private school family. Our high school junior had to be approved to take most of his AP courses. They are not open to anyone who wants to take them. This ensures smaller class sizes and prevents the dumbing down of the course. All are required to take the AP exam.

The other side of this... My DH and I were both late bloomers, academically and otherwise. I had to beg my AP teachers to let me take the class. They relented it. They didn't have to dumb down anything, and I got straight As and passed the AP exams. I eventually graduated HS with honors, taking mostly honors and AP classes in 11th and 12th grade. Looking at my 9th grade classes and grades, you wouldn't have thought I'd be able to pull that off.

[Anonymous]

I had lots of cumulative finals at a small elite liberal arts college - but that was in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

I remember having cumulative finals in nearly every single college course. I didn't has as many in grad school because we had portfolios and presentations. We also had midterms in nearly every course.

[Anonymous]

There is nothing wrong with the grading system.

There are other things that could be improved, but the grading system is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing wrong with the grading system.

There are other things that could be improved, but the grading system is fine.

I am simply amazed at how some parents think things should remain the same because they want their kids to have good grades (without working for it). They are willing to sacrifice a solid education for an exaggerated representation of their performance in school, which colleges know is just that - exaggerated. These parents are in for a rude awakening when college search comes along.