MCPS ditching High School Final Exam

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But how many colleges will be excited to here about a school system that measures the cumulative knowledge of calculus or physics or chemistry through a "project"?

MCPS is not getting rid of final exams. MCPS is getting rid of the two-hour exam periods at the end of the semester. There will still be tests, in addition to projects etc. (or "projects", as you call them).

I don't know how many school systems in the country don't have two-hour final exam periods, but I'm guessing that there are far more school systems that don't have two-hour final exam periods than that do.

[Anonymous]

Loudon got rid of 2 hour finals this year as well.

[Anonymous]

And so it continues. The schools with great teachers will develop great assessments that truly measure learning that is well aligned. The less supported teachers, ones with less experience, and the ones in schools where they are just hanging on for dear life are not going to have exams, or the ones they have will not be very good.

And to answer 6:54- if MCPS does away with exam grading and exam timing, in essence they are getting rid of exams. Stating that they will instead be doing regular projects, portfolios or other measures is a slap in the face to teachers who teach higher level kids who need background knowledge mastery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And so it continues. The schools with great teachers will develop great assessments that truly measure learning that is well aligned. The less supported teachers, ones with less experience, and the ones in schools where they are just hanging on for dear life are not going to have exams, or the ones they have will not be very good.

And to answer 6:54- if MCPS does away with exam grading and exam timing, in essence they are getting rid of exams. Stating that they will instead be doing regular projects, portfolios or other measures is a slap in the face to teachers who teach higher level kids who need background knowledge mastery.

I don't understand why projects, portfolios, and other measures (including tests) are a slap in the face who teach higher-level kids who need background knowledge mastery. Are two-hour district-wide final exams the only way to ensure background knowledge mastery?

[Anonymous]

Well when 3/4 of the students are failing the exam, why bother fixing the problem when you can just get ride of them and still gloat you have this "great" school district. Problem solved!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But how many colleges will be excited to here about a school system that measures the cumulative knowledge of calculus or physics or chemistry through a "project"?

MCPS is not getting rid of final exams. MCPS is getting rid of the two-hour exam periods at the end of the semester. There will still be tests, in addition to projects etc. (or "projects", as you call them).

I don't know how many school systems in the country don't have two-hour final exam periods, but I'm guessing that there are far more school systems that don't have two-hour final exam periods than that do.

And the teachers can decide on their own who passes and fails those things. It doesn't show how the teachers are actually teaching these kids with the curriculum

[Anonymous]

1) teachers don't have time to develop and mentor kids in projects

2) poorly designed projects are at best a waste of time, and at worst ingrain misconceptions

3) Who is going to grade these things? I teach chemistry. In order to teach them the material that colleges expect them to know and the skills they expect them to be able to perform I use every minute of the year plus a whole lot more. Any one project done correctly would require several hours of additional work on my behalf PER STUDENT to get the same content mastery. I've got more than 150 students, so my choices are no projects or horrible projects that waste time and energy, dumb down the instruction and dilute the learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well when 3/4 of the students are failing the exam, why bother fixing the problem when you can just get ride of them and still gloat you have this "great" school district. Problem solved!!

If you actually read the article you will see that the pass rates in real math classes are reasonably high (75% range for honors alg 2 for example). The kids taking algebra 1 in high school are remedial math students, in some cases severely so. It's commendable that 25% actually pass the exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But how many colleges will be excited to here about a school system that measures the cumulative knowledge of calculus or physics or chemistry through a "project"?

MCPS is not getting rid of final exams. MCPS is getting rid of the two-hour exam periods at the end of the semester. There will still be tests, in addition to projects etc. (or "projects", as you call them).

I don't know how many school systems in the country don't have two-hour final exam periods, but I'm guessing that there are far more school systems that don't have two-hour final exam periods than that do.

And the teachers can decide on their own who passes and fails those things. It doesn't show how the teachers are actually teaching these kids with the curriculum

I guess you don't trust the teachers, but you do trust the people who write the centralized district-wide tests. Why the one but not the other?

[Anonymous]

Why do kids in MoCo get into better schools in disproportionate numbers compared to the majority of other schools systems? It's not the grades. It's the reputation of high quality teaching and high, consistent standards. Parents of younger children should be watching this situation very intently because the existing reputation will only carry for so long. Lack of academic discipline and consistency will translate very directly to the AP courses. The kids who are very bright will continue to to well and the next tier down will not be able to keep up like they do now. Scores will plummet. Interestingly, it will happen in conjunction with the score corrections that are happening so it will be a double whammy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do kids in MoCo get into better schools in disproportionate numbers compared to the majority of other schools systems? It's not the grades. It's the reputation of high quality teaching and high, consistent standards. Parents of younger children should be watching this situation very intently because the existing reputation will only carry for so long. Lack of academic discipline and consistency will translate very directly to the AP courses. The kids who are very bright will continue to to well and the next tier down will not be able to keep up like they do now. Scores will plummet. Interestingly, it will happen in conjunction with the score corrections that are happening so it will be a double whammy.

I doubt the sky is falling. Bethesda is "the most highly educated" community in America. The apples don't fall far from trees, and the motivated, high-achieving students will continue to do well in college admissions without regard to whether 25% of their semester grade reflects a 2 hour exam, or a different assessment method.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well when 3/4 of the students are failing the exam, why bother fixing the problem when you can just get ride of them and still gloat you have this "great" school district. Problem solved!!

If you actually read the article you will see that the pass rates in real math classes are reasonably high (75% range for honors alg 2 for example). The kids taking algebra 1 in high school are remedial math students, in some cases severely so. It's commendable that 25% actually pass the exams.

I read the article. If you think 75% pass rate (not an A but just a passing grade) is good for honors algebra 2 - good for you. I do not.

And please stop with the rationalization that those kids taking Algebra 1 in high school are remedial. The normal track is to take Algebra 1 in 9th grade. Advanced is 7/8th. And we all know the "advanced" kids have parents at home helping, tutors, math camps etc... to let MCPS teachers off the hook on their crappy teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the central office curriculum crew were crazy when they switched from a-e grading to the es,p,i,n for elementary school, now getting rid of high school finals I know they are crazy. Also, an granular level some of the material distributed under C 2.0 is poor too. It's not the teachers its the curriculum office on a county wide basis that needs improvement.

Exactly! The central office folks pretend to listen to teachers, but they really don't. Teachers were very much against this because teachers know the students need to learn how to take a cumulative test on material they have learned in class. They will have to do this in college, if they go. If they choose to go into the military or pursue a trade or some other career, the discipline of studying for a final exams will serve them well.

This decision is all about trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The 2.0 Curriculum SUCKS! The elementary grading system is a joke because the range of what is considered "proficient " is so broad as to be meaningless. The people making the decisions are CLUELESS about what classrooms need and they disregard what teachers say they want.

I'm SO tired of MCPS administrators. Year after year they make it more difficult to teach kids. Please HELP us teachers by CONTACTING THE BOARD to object to this ridiculous decision.

Yes!!! Elementary teacher here and parents need to know that we are just fed up with this! We have little to no say in what or even how we teach your kids. It's become so disheartening. It will. It change until PARENTS demand it though. Give teachers back the right to teach as they see fit for their students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes!!! Elementary teacher here and parents need to know that we are just fed up with this! We have little to no say in what or even how we teach your kids. It's become so disheartening. It will. It change until PARENTS demand it though. Give teachers back the right to teach as they see fit for their students.

MCPS got rid of mandatory district-wide two-hour final exam periods with mandatory district-wide finals from the central office, and you are protesting this on grounds that teachers should have the right to teach as they see fit for their students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do kids in MoCo get into better schools in disproportionate numbers compared to the majority of other schools systems? It's not the grades. It's the reputation of high quality teaching and high, consistent standards. Parents of younger children should be watching this situation very intently because the existing reputation will only carry for so long. Lack of academic discipline and consistency will translate very directly to the AP courses. The kids who are very bright will continue to to well and the next tier down will not be able to keep up like they do now. Scores will plummet. Interestingly, it will happen in conjunction with the score corrections that are happening so it will be a double whammy.

Who says that they do?