New DCPS grading policy?

[Anonymous]

I think many of you are misreading the policy, and it sounds like many teachers are as well, in a variety of ways. This won’t be as big deal in high schools, where kids are more independent and the kids who care about grades understand how they work, but at middle schools full of helicopter parents who think their kids need a 4.0 to get into Walls, and think (mistakenly) that they need an A on every homework assignment to get a 4.0, this is going to unleash a nightmare of parental interference.

[Anonymous]

I have DCPS kids who transitioned to privates (Sidwell, St. Albans..) for high school and the private schools give ZERO credit for late work (even a day late) and they have no retakes. You do it on time or it's a zero. You take quizzes and tests once.

It's a major shift in thinking from DCPS but the kids who come to these privates from public internalize the policies VERY quickly. DCPS kids who want to do well (with this new DCPS policy) will learn quickly as well.

It's actually cut down on the academic stress significantly in household. My kids do the assignments when they are due 100% of the time. They study for tests 100% of the time.
Things were FAR more stressful for us at Deal when I was nagging them at the end of the quarter: "did you make up this WS assignment? Did you retake that exam?"

I have two kids with ADHD and all sorts of executive function issues and they have fallen into line too. I are actually extremely happy that the "no late work" policy exists for them. Having hard deadlines is hard for them but allowing them to turn anything in at any time was actually REALLY BAD for their executive functioning. They needed to learn how to deal with deadlines.

Give your kids some credit. They will adapt. And doing things on time is invaluable for life. Allowing procrastination for years on end is really bad for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have DCPS kids who transitioned to privates (Sidwell, St. Albans..) for high school and the private schools give ZERO credit for late work (even a day late) and they have no retakes. You do it on time or it's a zero. You take quizzes and tests once.

It's a major shift in thinking from DCPS but the kids who come to these privates from public internalize the policies VERY quickly. DCPS kids who want to do well (with this new DCPS policy) will learn quickly as well.

It's actually cut down on the academic stress significantly in household. My kids do the assignments when they are due 100% of the time. They study for tests 100% of the time.
Things were FAR more stressful for us at Deal when I was nagging them at the end of the quarter: "did you make up this WS assignment? Did you retake that exam?"

I have two kids with ADHD and all sorts of executive function issues and they have fallen into line too. I are actually extremely happy that the "no late work" policy exists for them. Having hard deadlines is hard for them but allowing them to turn anything in at any time was actually REALLY BAD for their executive functioning. They needed to learn how to deal with deadlines.

Give your kids some credit. They will adapt. And doing things on time is invaluable for life. Allowing procrastination for years on end is really bad for kids.

Completely agree with this. Hard deadlines are actually less stressful than a fake deadline and a "real" deadline at a different time. For most kids, their brain will only register the "real" deadline, and will delay work until then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have DCPS kids who transitioned to privates (Sidwell, St. Albans..) for high school and the private schools give ZERO credit for late work (even a day late) and they have no retakes. You do it on time or it's a zero. You take quizzes and tests once.

It's a major shift in thinking from DCPS but the kids who come to these privates from public internalize the policies VERY quickly. DCPS kids who want to do well (with this new DCPS policy) will learn quickly as well.

It's actually cut down on the academic stress significantly in household. My kids do the assignments when they are due 100% of the time. They study for tests 100% of the time.
Things were FAR more stressful for us at Deal when I was nagging them at the end of the quarter: "did you make up this WS assignment? Did you retake that exam?"

I have two kids with ADHD and all sorts of executive function issues and they have fallen into line too. I are actually extremely happy that the "no late work" policy exists for them. Having hard deadlines is hard for them but allowing them to turn anything in at any time was actually REALLY BAD for their executive functioning. They needed to learn how to deal with deadlines.

Give your kids some credit. They will adapt. And doing things on time is invaluable for life. Allowing procrastination for years on end is really bad for kids.

Completely agree with this. Hard deadlines are actually less stressful than a fake deadline and a "real" deadline at a different time. For most kids, their brain will only register the "real" deadline, and will delay work until then.

YES!!
Deal was a bloody nightmare for my ADHD youngest kid. Every quarter Apsen was a sea of WS grades. We would work to get them all done during the last week of the quarter and then next quarter it would happen again. Now this kid is at a private with ZERO tolerance for late work. It was hard for the first month. I asked her about homework every.single.night. We sat at the table and went subject-by-subject. She learned new habits. She is thriving.

Her older brother used to phone in exams at Deal "I'll just take it again." But then he wouldn't talk to the teacher about scheduling a retake. I remember sitting in the Deal driveway after school (not my finest moment) to catch him when he tried to leave school and re-direct him back in: "you are going back in there and you are talking to your teacher about re-taking the test or you are not coming home." This kid is now also in private and THRIVING in a culture of NO retakes. You study the first time.

This is not a private vs. public debate (I still have kids in both) but rather to say: "Don't underestimate your kids. They will rise to high expectations. AND sometimes high expectations are even more important for the kids who struggle the most with completing work, making deadlines, etc."

[Anonymous]

This is a better policy for my ADHD . Executive Functioning difficulties kid too.

He has had the math that was assigned on the first day finished but was waiting to hand it in on Friday when it was due.

Now he says he is going to start handing things in early just so he doesn't miss the deadlines.

That sea of WS the last week of school was a nightmare!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think many of you are misreading the policy, and it sounds like many teachers are as well, in a variety of ways. This won’t be as big deal in high schools, where kids are more independent and the kids who care about grades understand how they work, but at middle schools full of helicopter parents who think their kids need a 4.0 to get into Walls, and think (mistakenly) that they need an A on every homework assignment to get a 4.0, this is going to unleash a nightmare of parental interference.

If I knew the MS teachers and admins prioritized ensuring kids understand what is due when, and expressly supported organizational/EF skills, then I wouldn’t interfere. As it stands, the system is very confusing AND they don’t help enough with the EF skills. And so I will be interfering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have DCPS kids who transitioned to privates (Sidwell, St. Albans..) for high school and the private schools give ZERO credit for late work (even a day late) and they have no retakes. You do it on time or it's a zero. You take quizzes and tests once.

It's a major shift in thinking from DCPS but the kids who come to these privates from public internalize the policies VERY quickly. DCPS kids who want to do well (with this new DCPS policy) will learn quickly as well.

It's actually cut down on the academic stress significantly in household. My kids do the assignments when they are due 100% of the time. They study for tests 100% of the time.
Things were FAR more stressful for us at Deal when I was nagging them at the end of the quarter: "did you make up this WS assignment? Did you retake that exam?"

I have two kids with ADHD and all sorts of executive function issues and they have fallen into line too. I are actually extremely happy that the "no late work" policy exists for them. Having hard deadlines is hard for them but allowing them to turn anything in at any time was actually REALLY BAD for their executive functioning. They needed to learn how to deal with deadlines.

Give your kids some credit. They will adapt. And doing things on time is invaluable for life. Allowing procrastination for years on end is really bad for kids.

this makes absolute sense - but only if the assignments are clear, deadlines are clear, tests are scheduled clearly, and students know what will be on the test. That doesn’t seem to happen.

[Anonymous]

Right, don’t think that clarity is there. And the teachers don’t understand the new policy. We got a letter from Deal ELA that said all late work can get a 70 at most, which doesn’t seem right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fully agree with this policy, the one thing I will say is that it's a weird, abrupt change to make mid-stream on the same kids. It will make it look like some kids suddenly became much worse students in a way that isn't actually accurate.

We barely figured it out for last year (6th) and now it all changed for 7th, which is an important year for HS admissions. I don’t think the policy is crazy but they already made very, very little effort to help kids with organization and the system is a morass of confusing platforms (I think I counted 16). A massive change like this w/out support is really unfair. This also connects to the insufficient home-school communication caused by the lack of a clear homework-classwork-test feedback cycle. I see NOTHING in terms of completed work …

7th is not an important year for college admissions. I hope that was some kind of typo and not evidence that you’re insane.

HS admissions.

+1. This was clear as day in PP's post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right, don’t think that clarity is there. And the teachers don’t understand the new policy. We got a letter from Deal ELA that said all late work can get a 70 at most, which doesn’t seem right.

It is a mistake. Reach out to VP Rottman to get it fixed.

[Anonymous]

Something needs to be done. Colleges are aware that DCPS grades are completely inflated.

If your work is more than a week late you should get a 0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something needs to be done. Colleges are aware that DCPS grades are completely inflated.

If your work is more than a week late you should get a 0.

Yes. College admissions were pretty crappy this year, even from Walls. Colleges can't trust DCPS transcripts because they don't know if they're getting a top student with a 4.0 or a completely average one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something needs to be done. Colleges are aware that DCPS grades are completely inflated.

If your work is more than a week late you should get a 0.

Yes. College admissions were pretty crappy this year, even from Walls. Colleges can't trust DCPS transcripts because they don't know if they're getting a top student with a 4.0 or a completely average one.

if only there were a way for colleges to get additional data about scholastic aptitude beyond grades …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something needs to be done. Colleges are aware that DCPS grades are completely inflated.

If your work is more than a week late you should get a 0.

Yes. College admissions were pretty crappy this year, even from Walls. Colleges can't trust DCPS transcripts because they don't know if they're getting a top student with a 4.0 or a completely average one.

So will we issue a press release for the applicants this year, that 3.7 will actually be good and not bottom of the barrel??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something needs to be done. Colleges are aware that DCPS grades are completely inflated.

If your work is more than a week late you should get a 0.

Yes. College admissions were pretty crappy this year, even from Walls. Colleges can't trust DCPS transcripts because they don't know if they're getting a top student with a 4.0 or a completely average one.

I don't understand this comment whatsoever...college admissions were generally what they always are, even from Walls.

It's also a silly comment because Walls had a fair amount of Presidential Scholars (12+), which means that group scored a 1580+ on the SAT in just one sitting. I am sure plenty more superscored to 1500+.