Why are kids mad about the new grading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a current MCPS student and heard that students are going to board meetings to talk about the new grading. Why is it such a problem? I’m a rising junior, by the way, and it would just seem that you should keep with your current output of work and your grades will be fine. It seems to only be a problem if you’re slacking off, so I would understand a few stragglers, but even in my own inner circle, people are really mad. Is there something I don’t know? Thanks in advance.

HS Teacher here. A fear that many students have is that this change will impact college admissions because their GPAs will be lower. The problem is that students think they are competing against every other kid who applies to a particular college, but in reality they are competing against the other kids in their high school who will be affected the same way.

What students don’t see is that the current grading policy has actually been hurting college admissions because they have internal data that shows supposedly straight A kids from MCPS weren’t actually ready for their university courses. Students also don’t understand that padding their transcript with As and Bs in AP courses they barely understand doesn’t really help them when they get to college and are completely unprepared for next level courses or how to study and retain information for an entire semester.

I have a similar but ever so slightly different take: The old grading policy benefited students who were A-/B+ kids (MCPS doesn't use + or -). They could get straight As even with Bs in some quarters. This meant that to colleges, there was a larger cohort of kids coming from MCPS that were indistinguishable from one another. This hurt the really stellar students, who struggled to differentiate themselves from the tier 2.

So now I feel it's more equitable. The top students will still be at the top, and will be recognized as such. The second tier will be where they actually belong, in the second tier. And so on. It's fair. I don't think anyone can argue with that!

It is absolutely fair, but the fact that A-/B+ students will be differentiated from straight A students is exactly what kids fear. Even if you’re a rising senior who has never gotten a B, it could happen, and now you will pay a real price for it. The OP didn’t ask if the new policy was fair; they asked why kids are mad about it. What you’re posting about is why kids don’t want this change in policy. New fear unlocked.

PP you replied to. I hear you. My DD is in high school, and was wondering about the consequences of the new grading, and I explained what I said above. They should collectively be happier that a wrong is being righted, even if there's a small fear about their own personal situation. This is what practicing equity is all about, and I think it's a valuable experience for teens to live through. All of a sudden, concepts of fairness that sounded obvious in theory now seem a little more fraught when it comes to potential consequences for themselves. Great lesson!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're mad because they were told the policy would take effect for certain graduation years, and then MCPS decided to change that and apply it to all high school and middle school students effective this school year.

Yes, under the initial proposal to change the policy, the new policy was only going to apply to the Class of 2029 and subsequent classes.

Taylor said at a board meeting that their grading systems can't be configured for two different grading policies concurrently for students taking the same class. For example, many HS math classes have students of different grades. So, you couldn't have 10th graders in the class having one grading policy and 11th graders in the same class having the other.

I don’t have a problem with the new grading policy, if that excuse is BS. Of course they can. They don’t want to, but they can. You can certainly apply 2 simple algorithms to a class - just need to be clear which algorithm is used with which students.

Don’t you think it would be confusing for teachers to have kids in their classes being graded differently? Even if the teacher doesn’t have to do anything differently, it still seems weird to have different grade patterns in the classroom.

Why would it be confusing? Nothing about the grades teachers enter into the grade book would be different. The only difference would be how we arrive at a semester grade, using the two quarterly grades. If an algorithm calculated the semester grades, teachers wouldn’t even be entering them.

I completely understand if MCPS is choosing not to spend money upgrading their software to accommodate two different grading algorithms. That’s not a wise use of money. However, let’s not act like it’s impossible or confusing or weird.

[Anonymous]

Because kids like to coast, and in mcps it’s very easy to do that. And also, I don’t get why everyone is acting so weird about the OP. Kids have varied interests, and in a nerdy area like the D.C. area, is it really implausible a 16-year-old would post this? Stranger things have happened.

[Anonymous]

What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

[Anonymous]

The new system is objectively better in most ways. But here's the counter argument. I have a very serious and anxious kid. And when stress is high, I appreciated being able to remind her of two things.

1. If it's toward the end of a quarter and she has like a 96%, she can stop stressing about that class. Chill out. Focus on another class. Because if it's quarter 3, then it doesn't do any good being way above 90% and if it's quarter 4 and she got an A the prior quarter, there's no way her grade will drop all the way to 79% to create a real drop in grade. The new system changes that equation somewhat (and I fear that her reaction will be to try to get as close to 100% in quarters 1 and 3 as possible, just in case).
and
2. If she got 6 As and a B in quarter 3, then I can tell her to put most of her energy into that one class. That she has wiggle room on the others so can devote her energy to the B.

The other nice implication of the old system was that if a kid is doing a team sport or other activity that takes a ton of time, they have more wiggle room in the busy quarter and can make up the difference in the off quarter.

All the time that her older sibs were in HS, I derided the silly MCPS grading system. But with this kid, it's actually provided some mental health benefits that I've appreciated (particularly since her work ethic is such that she's far, far from abusing the system).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

??? What sort of comment is that? Incredibly judgemental and offensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're mad because they were told the policy would take effect for certain graduation years, and then MCPS decided to change that and apply it to all high school and middle school students effective this school year.

Yes, under the initial proposal to change the policy, the new policy was only going to apply to the Class of 2029 and subsequent classes.

Taylor said at a board meeting that their grading systems can't be configured for two different grading policies concurrently for students taking the same class. For example, many HS math classes have students of different grades. So, you couldn't have 10th graders in the class having one grading policy and 11th graders in the same class having the other.

I don’t have a problem with the new grading policy, if that excuse is BS. Of course they can. They don’t want to, but they can. You can certainly apply 2 simple algorithms to a class - just need to be clear which algorithm is used with which students.

Don’t you think it would be confusing for teachers to have kids in their classes being graded differently? Even if the teacher doesn’t have to do anything differently, it still seems weird to have different grade patterns in the classroom.

Why would it be confusing? Nothing about the grades teachers enter into the grade book would be different. The only difference would be how we arrive at a semester grade, using the two quarterly grades. If an algorithm calculated the semester grades, teachers wouldn’t even be entering them.

I completely understand if MCPS is choosing not to spend money upgrading their software to accommodate two different grading algorithms. That’s not a wise use of money. However, let’s not act like it’s impossible or confusing or weird.

The new regulation also includes changes about the 50% rule as well as the timing for deadlines, which would indeed make it confusing if different students in the same class were covered by different versions of the regulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you’re a student. Regardless, because A’s will be harder to come by, obviously.

Why don’t you think I am?

Because nobody thinks a 16 year old is contemplating grade policies and posting on a parenting forum on a Saturday night in August.

Why pretend to be a student?

Because the last time someone posted on the grading changes, the thread went crazy.

If this “student” was actually a kid who cared what other kids thought, he would ask his friends. If he really cared, he’d message the SMOB. Not post on a website for adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

??? What sort of comment is that? Incredibly judgemental and offensive.

DP. Why? I have a 17 year old who is always being told to write in her own voice and not sound like a 50 year old. Guess what the OP sounds like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

??? What sort of comment is that? Incredibly judgemental and offensive.

DP. Why? I have a 17 year old who is always being told to write in her own voice and not sound like a 50 year old. Guess what the OP sounds like?

Why does it matter how they write though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

??? What sort of comment is that? Incredibly judgemental and offensive.

DP. Why? I have a 17 year old who is always being told to write in her own voice and not sound like a 50 year old. Guess what the OP sounds like?

And some kids can’t help sounding mature and poised. Stop judging.
You come off as such a horrible hater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a current MCPS student and heard that students are going to board meetings to talk about the new grading. Why is it such a problem? I’m a rising junior, by the way, and it would just seem that you should keep with your current output of work and your grades will be fine. It seems to only be a problem if you’re slacking off, so I would understand a few stragglers, but even in my own inner circle, people are really mad. Is there something I don’t know? Thanks in advance.

HS Teacher here. A fear that many students have is that this change will impact college admissions because their GPAs will be lower. The problem is that students think they are competing against every other kid who applies to a particular college, but in reality they are competing against the other kids in their high school who will be affected the same way.

What students don’t see is that the current grading policy has actually been hurting college admissions because they have internal data that shows supposedly straight A kids from MCPS weren’t actually ready for their university courses. Students also don’t understand that padding their transcript with As and Bs in AP courses they barely understand doesn’t really help them when they get to college and are completely unprepared for next level courses or how to study and retain information for an entire semester.

I have a similar but ever so slightly different take: The old grading policy benefited students who were A-/B+ kids (MCPS doesn't use + or -). They could get straight As even with Bs in some quarters. This meant that to colleges, there was a larger cohort of kids coming from MCPS that were indistinguishable from one another. This hurt the really stellar students, who struggled to differentiate themselves from the tier 2.

So now I feel it's more equitable. The top students will still be at the top, and will be recognized as such. The second tier will be where they actually belong, in the second tier. And so on. It's fair. I don't think anyone can argue with that!

It is absolutely fair, but the fact that A-/B+ students will be differentiated from straight A students is exactly what kids fear. Even if you’re a rising senior who has never gotten a B, it could happen, and now you will pay a real price for it. The OP didn’t ask if the new policy was fair; they asked why kids are mad about it. What you’re posting about is why kids don’t want this change in policy. New fear unlocked.

PP you replied to. I hear you. My DD is in high school, and was wondering about the consequences of the new grading, and I explained what I said above. They should collectively be happier that a wrong is being righted, even if there's a small fear about their own personal situation. This is what practicing equity is all about, and I think it's a valuable experience for teens to live through. All of a sudden, concepts of fairness that sounded obvious in theory now seem a little more fraught when it comes to potential consequences for themselves. Great lesson!

Agreed- my son was the king of A-s. Would have served him well to exert himself further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

??? What sort of comment is that? Incredibly judgemental and offensive.

DP. Why? I have a 17 year old who is always being told to write in her own voice and not sound like a 50 year old. Guess what the OP sounds like?

And some kids can’t help sounding mature and poised. Stop judging.
You come off as such a horrible hater.

No, I am on a website overrun by fake posts. I wish the old days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What 16 year old writes like this?! If you are 16 then wow! You are really smart. If not you’re weird.

??? What sort of comment is that? Incredibly judgemental and offensive.

DP. Why? I have a 17 year old who is always being told to write in her own voice and not sound like a 50 year old. Guess what the OP sounds like?

And some kids can’t help sounding mature and poised. Stop judging.
You come off as such a horrible hater.

No, I am on a website overrun by fake posts. I wish the old days.

Not the pp but a parent of a gifted child. In some cases this can be a real kid.

[Anonymous]

Mods shut this post down