HS Teachers, I'm curious-- do this semester's grade distributions look different from prior years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a copy of the letter that MCPS will send with transcripts? This is news to me as a parent of a junior.

I just looked at the high school profile that is sent to colleges with transcripts for my current senior. It has a small note at the bottom that says: “ Beginning in 2025-2026, MCPS final course grades will be calculated using the average marking period percentages, which may affect GPAs. Grades on transcripts from 2025-2026 forward may not be directly comparable to those from prior years. For details, visit www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/grading-and-reporting.”

It’s possible other schools will make this more prominent, but it’s easy to miss on my school’s profile.

I believe that’s the language decided on by the district. It’s not clear the result will be on average lower grades. No AO is looking up that link for more info, especially if it’s not hyperlinked in their system. The language does a real disservice to college applicants who will be compared to previous MCPS applicants, whose gpas the AO may see in Slate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

12 PP is way too much, given that each one counts for less than 1% of their grade and they could, in theory, skip all of them and still get a 90%, if they were perfect in All Tasks. I recommend going for the minimum allowed: 10 AT and 5 PP. If every teacher did this, they still then have 30 assignments per semester or more like 150 to 200 per semester, which, frankly, is still absurd if you think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

12 PP is way too much, given that each one counts for less than 1% of their grade and they could, in theory, skip all of them and still get a 90%, if they were perfect in All Tasks. I recommend going for the minimum allowed: 10 AT and 5 PP. If every teacher did this, they still then have 30 assignments per semester or more like 150 to 200 per semester, which, frankly, is still absurd if you think about it.

So does that mean you just don’t grade a bunch of assignments? What are the kids doing every day? I’m not sure what you teach but for challenging STEM classes, doing a good job on multiple practice/prep assignments means you will probably do well on the corresponding All Task assignment. And we work on the practice assignments in class so if students are effectively using class time and not goofing off, then it shouldn’t matter how many Practice assignments there are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Teacher here. A C in a MCPS course is pretty bad. It means your kid doesn’t know the content. It is not hard to earn a C. Either your kid is not understanding the content even at a basic level or your kid has bad executive functioning and is not turning in assignments. Does your kid ever go to office hours for extra support?

He just wasn't putting in the work. It was a hard class that was not in his comfort zone and he shut down. We actually know plenty of kids with Cs in MCPS courses (it was just the first time for my kid). Some kids struggle with ADHD, LDs, etc. I don't know what course you teach, but not everyone in MCPS has a 4.9 WGPA, even though you'd think that's the case from reading DCUM!

My apologies for boasting, but my kid with ADHD and learning disabilities had a 4.67 weighted high school GPA when he applied for college. Please don't use these diagnoses as an excuse for poor performance. They can explain some academic struggles, I agree. But then what do you do? Shrug and say "oh he's hit his ceiling"? Or actually do something about it?

I'm a DP, but you're super rude.

[Anonymous]

Not going to try to figure out the mess of the quote thread from my original post about all my kids having zeros.

We do graded work in class every single day. Most PP assignments are assignments that are designed to be done in a single class period. the AT assignments are assignments that will be worked on over 2-3 days. Everything we do in my class can and should be completed in class with no expectation of actual homework. However, if they don't use their time in class wisely, they then have to do it at home. The issue is that a lot of these 9th graders seem to think that they don't have to finish or do anything at home.

I even tell my kids at least 3-4 times a semester that turning in an incomplete assignment can still potentially earn them a 50% which is better than a 0. They still won't do it. They complete 70% of the assignment in class and then throw it away when they leave the room. It's weird but hopefully they get the wake up call they need

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

I hope you reached out to your team lead or department head to assist you in managing this. You have terrible or even catastrophic stats and really need to figure out how to work through this if you expect to keep your job. I’m not a teacher but it seems like there have to be strategies beyond extending due dates to get kids to a passing level.

Teacher here at a different school. This is not that unusual actually. Assuming that the previous teacher is at a low income/high immigrant school, you will be shocked at how appalling attendance can be. Two years ago, I had a kid who attended 5 days of school out of a full year and administrators pressured me to pass her so she could graduate. That stuff is harder to pull off now - as it should be.

You're right that I am shocked. It doesn't surprise me that some kids have bad attendance and, probably in most cases, consequently bad grades. But the numbers are what shock me. Especially given that it's an honors course. I don't understand why kids who have poor attendance would even be signing up for honors classes. Regardless, at this point, though, I would think that at least some of that would be weeded out by the attendance policy that calls for disenrollment after a certain number of absences - which actually happened to one of my kids who had to be out for medical reasons.

You mention that part of what shocks you is that this is an Honors Course. I am also a 9th grade English teacher in MCPS. Keep in mind that, at the majority of schools, Honors English is the only course offered. I've been teaching in MCPS for 28 years. I started in middle school, and for the first decade of my teaching career, the material I was teaching to 7th and 8th grade honors students was significantly more challenging than the current "honors" 9th grade curriculum. High achieving students are at such a disadvantage under the current system because there is such a wide disparity in the abilities of students that we are practically teaching the "honors" course at a remedial level.

The powers that be would tell you that "differentiation is key", but in a class of 30 students, you cannot possibly teach anyone at a level that is truly honors. In a given section, I might have half a dozen students who are diligent, high achieving students. In addition, I might have 6-8 IEP students, 3-4 ESL (English as a second language - remember these kids are being put directly into our English classes for the most part), and a handful of 504 students. Over half the class has some set of accommodations that I am legally bound to meet, along with others who probably need accommodations but have yet to be identified as such. Trust me when I say that it is the bright, capable students who want to be challenged that are falling through the cracks. If you are the parent of such a student, I highly recommend having them take as many AP courses as possible because they are the only "real" honors classes being offered in many cases.

And have you seen the literature on the new English curriculum? The novel choices in Quarter 1 include All American Boys, A Separate Peace, and a graphic novel. While the subjects may be appropriate for 9th graders, the reading level of these books is about 6th grade or so. Compare this to the literary quality of books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, and Of Mice and Men.

I am always impressed that teachers are capable of this. Two of my three had IEPs in HS (one had a 504 in MS and the other was an English as a second language kid) so I have a sense of what is involved for even just one student.

[Anonymous]

"So does that mean you just don’t grade a bunch of assignments? What are the kids doing every day? I’m not sure what you teach but for challenging STEM classes, doing a good job on multiple practice/prep assignments means you will probably do well on the corresponding All Task assignment. And we work on the practice assignments in class so if students are effectively using class time and not goofing off, then it shouldn’t matter how many Practice assignments there are."

I think this is a fair way to approach it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Teacher here. A C in a MCPS course is pretty bad. It means your kid doesn’t know the content. It is not hard to earn a C. Either your kid is not understanding the content even at a basic level or your kid has bad executive functioning and is not turning in assignments. Does your kid ever go to office hours for extra support?

He just wasn't putting in the work. It was a hard class that was not in his comfort zone and he shut down. We actually know plenty of kids with Cs in MCPS courses (it was just the first time for my kid). Some kids struggle with ADHD, LDs, etc. I don't know what course you teach, but not everyone in MCPS has a 4.9 WGPA, even though you'd think that's the case from reading DCUM!

My apologies for boasting, but my kid with ADHD and learning disabilities had a 4.67 weighted high school GPA when he applied for college. Please don't use these diagnoses as an excuse for poor performance. They can explain some academic struggles, I agree. But then what do you do? Shrug and say "oh he's hit his ceiling"? Or actually do something about it?

Are you this awful in real life or just on anonymous message boards? I'm not shrugging and saying "oh, he's hit his ceiling." We're supporting him in many ways that I don't need to explain to you. I'm happy for your ADHD/LD kid who had a 4.67 weighted GPA. I'm sure as the parent of a neurodivergent kid you understand that different kids struggle with different things. And that sometimes even kids who get support, coaching, are on meds, etc. don't always do as well as your kid. Either way, I'm super proud of my kid for being a really kind and thoughtful human being who, despite his challenges, doesn't lack empathy the way you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The downside is when a kid has a tough first quarter in a class, gets a B (84.5)for whatever reason then tries really hard and has a 93 for the second quarter, but still ends up with a B for the semester as if they hadn’t tried hard the last half. Sort of demoralizing for that kid. Seems like they could find a way to do this where an A above a certain level means the semester remains a A? That is upward trajectory of effort and skills, is it not? Makes some kids feel like “ why did I put in so much more effort if I still end up with the B?” (Or C in some other cases for others other there I am sure)

Or they could have "tried really hard" the entire semester...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Teacher here. A C in a MCPS course is pretty bad. It means your kid doesn’t know the content. It is not hard to earn a C. Either your kid is not understanding the content even at a basic level or your kid has bad executive functioning and is not turning in assignments. Does your kid ever go to office hours for extra support?

He just wasn't putting in the work. It was a hard class that was not in his comfort zone and he shut down. We actually know plenty of kids with Cs in MCPS courses (it was just the first time for my kid). Some kids struggle with ADHD, LDs, etc. I don't know what course you teach, but not everyone in MCPS has a 4.9 WGPA, even though you'd think that's the case from reading DCUM!

Yes, but then you argued that this was "unfair" to happen during his Junior year. Under the old system, kids who did put in the work and pushed through to master content would have been competing for college admissions with those who "shut down." but had similar GPAs Now that didn't seem fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. It has to change. DD's AP Calc BC teacher warned us at BTSN that our kids, maybe for the first time in their lives, would have Bs. And it's true - DD has an A for the semester, but a B for the last quarter. Her first B in math.

I love this new grading policy, BTW. It's so much more fair than the previous one.

Explain that to me like I'm five. Are you one of these people who think grading needs to be on a bell curve to be "fair?"

PP you replied to. I hated the old system of using quarter letter grades to determine semester letter grades. That's not granular enough. It's much more accurate to calculate the average of the number grade for each quarter to get the semester grade, and then convert that to a letter.

Ideally, we wouldn't even have letter grades. We would just stick to numbers. This is how most of the world does it.

I don't know what you're referring regarding bell curves.

Some people complain about grading and their definition of "fair" is for As to be rationed. So, a bell curve looks like a few kids failing or getting Ds, a peak of kids getting Bs and Cs and then sloping down so only a few get As.

It's arbitrary as hell, because it suggests that not all students can master the material or should be given the opportunity to (even though that's what secondary school is for).

Usually, these are parents of either high-performing or highly-pushed kids who resent that other kids who struggle more are given the opportunity to earn the same marks with things like retakes, etc. It's a really backwards and twisted way to think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Teacher here. A C in a MCPS course is pretty bad. It means your kid doesn’t know the content. It is not hard to earn a C. Either your kid is not understanding the content even at a basic level or your kid has bad executive functioning and is not turning in assignments. Does your kid ever go to office hours for extra support?

He just wasn't putting in the work. It was a hard class that was not in his comfort zone and he shut down. We actually know plenty of kids with Cs in MCPS courses (it was just the first time for my kid). Some kids struggle with ADHD, LDs, etc. I don't know what course you teach, but not everyone in MCPS has a 4.9 WGPA, even though you'd think that's the case from reading DCUM!

Yes, but then you argued that this was "unfair" to happen during his Junior year. Under the old system, kids who did put in the work and pushed through to master content would have been competing for college admissions with those who "shut down." but had similar GPAs Now that didn't seem fair.

Give it up already! Even under the old system I can promise you my kid was not competing with your kid for a spot at a highly selective college. My academically good-to-average kid isn't the reason it's gotten harder for kids like yours to get into those types of schools. I'm sorry my kid getting a C in one class has been so triggering for you. And if you're not the same person who made the super rude comment before, I'm sorry there are two of you who have been so triggered by my initial, very inoffensive post).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The downside is when a kid has a tough first quarter in a class, gets a B (84.5)for whatever reason then tries really hard and has a 93 for the second quarter, but still ends up with a B for the semester as if they hadn’t tried hard the last half. Sort of demoralizing for that kid. Seems like they could find a way to do this where an A above a certain level means the semester remains a A? That is upward trajectory of effort and skills, is it not? Makes some kids feel like “ why did I put in so much more effort if I still end up with the B?” (Or C in some other cases for others other there I am sure)

Or they could have "tried really hard" the entire semester...

yes, of course but when a kid gets the flu and pneumonia or whatever and it comprises the ability to do well on a huge test that can impact things unexpectedly. My point was simply that in theory it seems a kid who gets a solid A in the second quarter, let’s 94 or higher, should get an A for the semester even if they had a B the first quarter. Some kids are not trying to game the system but life happens . And my point was that upward trajectory of grades should matter. it is the opposite of someone getting a 89.9 the fist quarter and then calling it a day and getting an 80 second quarter but still ending up with an A for the semester, which would have happened in the old system .
Under the current average with no quarter grades shown on transcript a student could have a 85 in a class the first quarter and then have no reason to try to work hard at all unless they think that have a shot of getting above a 96 for the second quarter. It can feel like there is no point in trying to improve if the second quarter A they earned of 93.5 just dissolved into an overall B.

I think they should show the quarter grades instead of semester grades so that there is transparency and a reason for students to try to improve if they got a B the fist quarter. A B and a B for two quarters should look different on a transcript than two quarters of a B and an A. Or they could just use the percentages so that if a kid has a lot of 89.4 situations that reads differently on the transcript than their peers with many 80s. Etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Teacher here. A C in a MCPS course is pretty bad. It means your kid doesn’t know the content. It is not hard to earn a C. Either your kid is not understanding the content even at a basic level or your kid has bad executive functioning and is not turning in assignments. Does your kid ever go to office hours for extra support?

My kid got a C and got a 5 on the AP, so he clearly knew the content. He had one exam he missed because he was out sick. The teacher offered one opportunity for makeup which was a couple days after he returned, during lunch. He got mixed up on his days and went to buy himself lunch (hungry) so forgot to go in for the makeup and got a zero on the exam—no second chance. I never know who these teachers are that just float kids along — my kids get all the strict ones!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

12 PP is way too much, given that each one counts for less than 1% of their grade and they could, in theory, skip all of them and still get a 90%, if they were perfect in All Tasks. I recommend going for the minimum allowed: 10 AT and 5 PP. If every teacher did this, they still then have 30 assignments per semester or more like 150 to 200 per semester, which, frankly, is still absurd if you think about it.

There a 10 minimum AT? I don’t think many of my kids teachers do this. They often have like 5 AT which means if you miss one, that’s a major hit on your grade.