MCPS Gradebook not Adding Up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

No, they don't review "PP" and "AT" at Back to School night. And the previous poster hasn't attended every back to school night to know what teachers talk about. One teacher this year, spent 8 of the 10 minutes talking about Taylor Swift and her links to the curriculum. Which was fine, but let's not presume that every teacher does this. Or that every parent attends Back to School night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

No, they don't review "PP" and "AT" at Back to School night. And the previous poster hasn't attended every back to school night to know what teachers talk about. One teacher this year, spent 8 of the 10 minutes talking about Taylor Swift and her links to the curriculum. Which was fine, but let's not presume that every teacher does this. Or that every parent attends Back to School night.

There can of course be variability from teacher to teacher and school to school, but I have seen something like this in almost every back to school night slideshow at least the last five years:

Category
Percentage
Types of Assignments

All Tasks/Assessments
80% or 90%
Graded for accuracy; formative and summative assessments

Practice/Preparation
10%
Graded for completion; preparation for future learning, or practice of what was taught in class

Progress Checks
10%
Graded to show mastery on district assessment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

No, they don't review "PP" and "AT" at Back to School night. And the previous poster hasn't attended every back to school night to know what teachers talk about. One teacher this year, spent 8 of the 10 minutes talking about Taylor Swift and her links to the curriculum. Which was fine, but let's not presume that every teacher does this. Or that every parent attends Back to School night.

There can of course be variability from teacher to teacher and school to school, but I have seen something like this in almost every back to school night slideshow at least the last five years:

Category
Percentage
Types of Assignments

All Tasks/Assessments
80% or 90%
Graded for accuracy; formative and summative assessments

Practice/Preparation
10%
Graded for completion; preparation for future learning, or practice of what was taught in class

Progress Checks
10%
Graded to show mastery on district assessment

Yes, some teachers do include this in their slides (some teachers don't even get through their slides for various reasons), but no teacher calls it PP or AT when talking to parents at Back to School Night. You don't need to mock parents for not knowing MCPS jargon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

No, they don't review "PP" and "AT" at Back to School night. And the previous poster hasn't attended every back to school night to know what teachers talk about. One teacher this year, spent 8 of the 10 minutes talking about Taylor Swift and her links to the curriculum. Which was fine, but let's not presume that every teacher does this. Or that every parent attends Back to School night.

There can of course be variability from teacher to teacher and school to school, but I have seen something like this in almost every back to school night slideshow at least the last five years:

Category
Percentage
Types of Assignments

All Tasks/Assessments
80% or 90%
Graded for accuracy; formative and summative assessments

Practice/Preparation
10%
Graded for completion; preparation for future learning, or practice of what was taught in class

Progress Checks
10%
Graded to show mastery on district assessment

Yes, some teachers do include this in their slides (some teachers don't even get through their slides for various reasons), but no teacher calls it PP or AT when talking to parents at Back to School Night. You don't need to mock parents for not knowing MCPS jargon.

Who is mocking parents? I'm providing information that could be helpful.

Also, more information: when I look in ParentVue at the grade book, the terms are spelled out as "Practice/Preparation," "All Tasks/Assessments," or "District Assessment." If you click on Assignment View, you can ever filter by the Assignment Type column to see these categories individually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my kid's grades dropped, and I checked the grades for the individual assignments in gradebook, and they average to a higher grade than shown at the bottom of the Gradebook for this class.

What could explain this? I used the same weights for each assignment that were in Gradebook, but it's not adding up...if the individual assignment grades are correct, my kid's grade should be higher...

You can’t just use the number of points (denominator) each assignment is worth and add them up to one total. You need to add up all the practice/prep assignments separately, all the all task assignments separately, and the district assessment. You then need to weight the AT as 80 percent of the grade and each of the others as 10 percent of the grade. You also need to check and see if the teacher entered in an upcoming assignment/grade that hasn’t happened yet. Sometimes teachers put them in as 0 or 50 percent, and then change them after they administer the assignment or test. It can artificially deflate the grade.

If you’ve done all that, then ask the teacher. There are lots of errors and glitches. I know teachers get annoyed when you proactively reach out before the quarter ends, but trust me when I say it is a much more tedious process to fix the error after the fact than before grades lock.

OP here. Thanks. Well, that would definitely explain it. I just added up all the points listed to make the denominator, because there's no indication in Gradebook that all the points aren't worth the same amount. What does "AT?" means...is AT the same as TA, which I do see as an acronym in my kid's Gradebook?

I’m the poster who wrote the explanation. AT was for all task. It’s not typically abbreviated but I was in a rush and just shortened it for the purpose of the post because I was on my phone and in a rush this morning. PP is also not a typical abbreviation for practice prep. I’m sure they were never abbreviated in any official documents or in any presentations. In parentvue, every assignment should clearly indicate which category the assignment is.

[Anonymous]

At my child’s school every teacher seems to go over this at BTSN and it is written in syllabi that parents have to sign and it is mentioned in principal newsletters. However, it would not be surprising in a large system like MCPS for schools to do things differently. I do think if you are at a school and the grading system has not been explained, it might be a great idea to reach out to the principal and tell them that this is something that would be helpful for Parents at your school.

At my child’s school (Churchill), it often feels like overkill. After hearing it 10x a year x2 kids for 4 years, it is very ingrained in my head. In addition, in grade book each assignment is stated as AT or PP and that has been standardized across all of the different classes this year, so I don’t even need to look closely to see what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why when I taught in MCPS I only entered grades on Friday. Otherwise I spent all my work week answering emails.

That's what teachers are not doing. Pick a damn day or two and get those in AND synched.

LOL @ the fact that you think teachers have time to collaborate. It's everyman for themselves and keep your head down to survive in schools.

I don’t think your average DCUM poster cares about what the teachers are experiencing.

I update grades regularly (which means I work all weekend to get it all done. And I do mean ALL weekend). About 5 minutes after I input new grades, I can expect several parents to email me demanding explanations. They don’t even wait for the returned work to make it home. They don’t even ask their children. They simply add more work to my already overloaded plate by requiring all these email responses that duplicate my effort.

I’m fairly certain that shadowing a teacher for one day would be enough to silence the complainers. But since they don’t see what teachers do and what we experience, it’s easy to assume we are lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's ridonc people who say don't look. Parents should be looking and no a kid is not soley responsible for what's there in grades. The TEACHER if they would enter regularly would have time to check before submitting grades by end of quarter.

LOL - back in our day, the teacher had a big book on her desk and you never knew what was in there until you got your report card.

[Anonymous]

At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent and teacher here. OP- is this an error/miscalculation you found or your child? If it was you, my advice is to teach your kid how to check their grades on their own. Mine did it every Friday and went from there. If you’re doing more work than your child, that’s on you.

To paraphrase:
1) You shouldn't be looking at your kid's grades.
2) If you do and you don't understand what you're looking at, it's your fault for having looked at them.

Nope. Check your kid’s grades. If your kid isn’t, they should. Sit down with them the first few times and go over them together. Tell them to put a reminder on their phone. If you are spending your time calculating their grade and they don’t even look, that is a problem.

Learned helplessness. Not doing anyone any favors here. This is the time to let them learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

It’s also in the grading policy available online and also on every school website. No excuse if you don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

As a long term MCPS parent with three kids each four years apart so having heard this literally over a hundred times, I know this is true. But I think we get to give OP a pass as a new MCPS parent. It is transparent but sometimes you can miss the details. And better that she asked here than accuse teachers of being underhanded. That’s the benefit of having this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

I’m correcting PP a bit — Practice Prep is not necessarily just graded for completions. It depends on the teacher and the class. It seems pretty rare with my kids classes actually.
And then you also have the 10% district assessment for some classes — I’m not sure it that brings AT down to 80% or if it brings PP down to 9% and AT down to 81% or what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you separate out the categories? AT is really the only one that moves the grade.

This.

Think of practice/prep as a 10% tip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

No, they don't review "PP" and "AT" at Back to School night. And the previous poster hasn't attended every back to school night to know what teachers talk about. One teacher this year, spent 8 of the 10 minutes talking about Taylor Swift and her links to the curriculum. Which was fine, but let's not presume that every teacher does this. Or that every parent attends Back to School night.

My school requires it because otherwise you get emails like “Brightleigh has three As and 1 D on that test you make her take the morning after her dance recital. How that that make her overall grade a D?”

It’s also a countywide grading policy available online.