Explain how grades are inflated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really is school and teacher specific. Some schools are very liberal about it and others are not.

+1. The retake thing is ridiculous with some teachers. I will note my child has a quiz tomorrow and he will say-meh I don’t need to study, I can retake it because Ms X allows it.

With other teachers, I have seen that they only allow a retake if the whole class seems to have failed something (which makes sense because at that point most of the class has failed to absorb the material.)

And despite my kid being in accelerated classes in middle school, the toughest one they have is a plain old English class with non differentiation. Retakes are rare. Homework is heavy and it’s the only class where my kid is constantly at risk of falling to a B. It really is the teacher sometimes. The one we have is tough.

Are you saying that your kid finds the English class in MS hard and challenging? What is the teacher doing to make it so? My kid does not find any challenge in 7th grade "advanced" English.

[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.

The above post is completely false. One retake for a quiz per quarter. Tests cannot be retaken. No extra credit assignments. This is flat out prohibited by MCPS regulations.

The main reason grades are inflated is from the following: an 89.5 (q1) and 79.6 (q2) = an A.

[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.

You live in another state but you were the first to respond on something you have no first hand knowledge.
Goodness, the MCPS forum is full with trolls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really is school and teacher specific. Some schools are very liberal about it and others are not.

+1. The retake thing is ridiculous with some teachers. I will note my child has a quiz tomorrow and he will say-meh I don’t need to study, I can retake it because Ms X allows it.

With other teachers, I have seen that they only allow a retake if the whole class seems to have failed something (which makes sense because at that point most of the class has failed to absorb the material.)

And despite my kid being in accelerated classes in middle school, the toughest one they have is a plain old English class with non differentiation. Retakes are rare. Homework is heavy and it’s the only class where my kid is constantly at risk of falling to a B. It really is the teacher sometimes. The one we have is tough.

Are you saying that your kid finds the English class in MS hard and challenging? What is the teacher doing to make it so? My kid does not find any challenge in 7th grade "advanced" English.

Yup. And my kid is in accelerated global humanities and doesn’t find that hard at all. I’ve looked at the quizzes my kid gets and they’re pretty tough. Lots of comments on their written assignments which are frequent. Teacher wants them to learn which is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The above post is completely false. One retake for a quiz per quarter. Tests cannot be retaken. No extra credit assignments. This is flat out prohibited by MCPS regulations.

The main reason grades are inflated is from the following: an 89.5 (q1) and 79.6 (q2) = an A.

But that rarely or never happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The above post is completely false. One retake for a quiz per quarter. Tests cannot be retaken. No extra credit assignments. This is flat out prohibited by MCPS regulations.

The main reason grades are inflated is from the following: an 89.5 (q1) and 79.6 (q2) = an A.

But that rarely or never happens.

Maybe, but there is definitely an incentive for kids who get an A in the first semester to slack off in the second semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The above post is completely false. One retake for a quiz per quarter. Tests cannot be retaken. No extra credit assignments. This is flat out prohibited by MCPS regulations.

The main reason grades are inflated is from the following: an 89.5 (q1) and 79.6 (q2) = an A.

But that rarely or never happens.

Maybe, but there is definitely an incentive for kids who get an A in the first semester to slack off in the second semester.

You mean quarter. And the PP above has no basis to claim “it rarely happens.” This policy negatively affects students who strive to do their best for the entire semester. It’s hard to differentiate oneself with this policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Retake policies depend on individual teachers or teacher groups in each school. Some teachers are very lax indeed, some are strict.
Academic standards are generally not high, for everything except AP and some advanced high school classes. This means that in a regular class, a kid is expected to know only small amount of information, regurgitate it in a mediocre way, and they get an A. *This hurts advanced students the most*, because there is no way to distinguish between a stellar student and a run-of-the-mill student who paid a modicum of attention in class and submitted their assignment on time. They both get As. Hence the arms race to more APs, and extra-curriculars outside of school.

Keep in mind that MCPS is regarded as one of the top public school systems in the nation. A random private school won't be any better, but a top private will be, in writing and literature, but not necessarily in math, as MCPS offers a wide range of math tracks, including very advanced ones.

My kids are in high school and college and have spent the bulk of their education in MCPS. I pushed them to read classics outside of school, tutored them in math, exposed them to history and current events discussions outside of school. I'm a scientist and DH is a doctor, so science was picked up along the way at home. They were able to do a dozen APs each: one kid with learning disabilities struggled in high school, but is now doing well in college. My other kid is gifted and sails through regardless of difficulty.

No. This is cannot be true.

[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 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.

Unless mcps has a different attendance policy for each high school, this is false.

[Anonymous]

Look up “revised grading table” on the MCPS home page. It’s what we’ve been using since final exams went away. The only combination that fails a course is DE or EE. All other combinations pass.

This policy has been in place for years and hasn’t been updated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I went to a top private in the 90’s. Some class we got study guides some classes we didn’t. Same with college. Some don’t do ”study guides” but give work notes/outlines for each class. If you combine them all you’d have a study guide. Not really a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The above post is completely false. One retake for a quiz per quarter. Tests cannot be retaken. No extra credit assignments. This is flat out prohibited by MCPS regulations.

The main reason grades are inflated is from the following: an 89.5 (q1) and 79.6 (q2) = an A.

But that rarely or never happens.

Maybe, but there is definitely an incentive for kids who get an A in the first semester to slack off in the second semester.

You mean quarter. And the PP above has no basis to claim “it rarely happens.” This policy negatively affects students who strive to do their best for the entire semester. It’s hard to differentiate oneself with this policy.

Differentiate oneself for who and what purpose? Isn’t learning the goal?

[Anonymous]

As folks have indicated this is a teacher and school and administrator dependent problem. MCPS policy is clear. Now if only it could be clearly communicated and implemented from Central Office down through each teacher. But then we’d get into discussions about teacher autonomy, class size, school size, etc. etc.

Raise the expectations for teachers and students AND remove the extra standardized testing AND add additional support staff that are skilled and can assist teachers with things like grading, tutoring, and analyzing data and then things will be better for all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really is school and teacher specific. Some schools are very liberal about it and others are not.

+1. The retake thing is ridiculous with some teachers. I will note my child has a quiz tomorrow and he will say-meh I don’t need to study, I can retake it because Ms X allows it.

With other teachers, I have seen that they only allow a retake if the whole class seems to have failed something (which makes sense because at that point most of the class has failed to absorb the material.)

And despite my kid being in accelerated classes in middle school, the toughest one they have is a plain old English class with non differentiation. Retakes are rare. Homework is heavy and it’s the only class where my kid is constantly at risk of falling to a B. It really is the teacher sometimes. The one we have is tough.

Are you saying that your kid finds the English class in MS hard and challenging? What is the teacher doing to make it so? My kid does not find any challenge in 7th grade "advanced" English.

Yup. And my kid is in accelerated global humanities and doesn’t find that hard at all. I’ve looked at the quizzes my kid gets and they’re pretty tough. Lots of comments on their written assignments which are frequent. Teacher wants them to learn which is a good thing.

That is great. I wish that were the case for my middle schooler, who also says that the cohorted HIGH class is very easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The above post is completely false. One retake for a quiz per quarter. Tests cannot be retaken. No extra credit assignments. This is flat out prohibited by MCPS regulations.

The main reason grades are inflated is from the following: an 89.5 (q1) and 79.6 (q2) = an A.

But that rarely or never happens.

Maybe, but there is definitely an incentive for kids who get an A in the first semester to slack off in the second semester.

You mean quarter. And the PP above has no basis to claim “it rarely happens.” This policy negatively affects students who strive to do their best for the entire semester. It’s hard to differentiate oneself with this policy.

Yes, meant quarter.