Bad grades? Let's teach them less

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just cancel school. screw the kids who are succeeding.

My kids are doing fine. Screw the ones who aren't.

-DCUM

How are less project checks and less content going to help anyone? Coming from a poor immigrant family, I am tired of all the excuses people are coming up with as to why some kids are not performing. Kids have laptops, internet access, food, recorded sessions, can keep their cameras off, access to teachers after learning time, etc. Short of giving them new parents, what more can MCPS do? I truly feel for these kids but if MCPS can't come up with yet another solution that does not negatively impact those kids who are doing ok, then why do the kids doing well have to be slowed down.
Contact the parents to see what's up and if there truly is an issue as to why the kid can't log in or turn in assignments, then provide extra support, but I bet more often then not, it is a parent who just doesn't care enough. Ask me how I know.
Slowing the pace of the curriculum will not work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there anything we can do?

Pay attention to your own kids actual assignments and not their grade. A missed assignment Z calculates as a zero and drops the grade a lot. By midterms next week everything missed has to be 50%, so not as easy to notice something is missing just from the overall grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS: *makes adjustments, based on data and experience, to help students get through an unprecedented and difficult time*

You: "Bad! Those adjustments are insufficiently punitive!"

Oh look there is someone with a soul here. Thank God.

Look, people. There are two issues. One is the education itself. What kids are learning. Then there are the rewards and punishments. The A's and F's.

No need to change the curriculum, teach to the highest level, give the most rigorous feedback. Fine. Great!

But give grade amnesty for all who ask. None of it goes on a transcript. None of it goes to GPA. If you don't learn, then your punishment is that you haven't learned. If you learn, your rewards is that you have. Find a way to prove it without the transcript.

It is completely messed up and cruel and stupid to punish a generation of students for not "performing" during the pandemic. Why on earth would we benefit, as a community, from making it harder for students who have already missed crucial material to succeed in the future?

Stop congratulating yourselves on your kids' A's. It's an arbitrary, deeply-flawed system. Just because you've taught your kids to jump through hoops doesn't mean the whole thing isn't a circus.

P.S. My kids are doing fine. They'll do fine either way. Because I, like you-reading-this, have the educational, emotional, financial, and other resources to support them adequately. Stop worrying about your cared-for kids and think about how we can serve those who are not adequately cared-for.

Merry Christmas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been going on for decades. As my mom tells it, BCC was a top public which school in the country when she was there 60 years ago.

BCC was never a top school. It had a good reputation but it sucked 30 years ago.

Parents keep having tantrums about what's going on so MCPS keeps modifying it. If you have a tantrum and post everywhere and write the board about how bad things are, they listen and this is what we get. A watered down curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there anything we can do?

Pay attention to your own kids actual assignments and not their grade. A missed assignment Z calculates as a zero and drops the grade a lot. By midterms next week everything missed has to be 50%, so not as easy to notice something is missing just from the overall grade.

This is not what the policy says.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there anything we can do?

Pay attention to your own kids actual assignments and not their grade. A missed assignment Z calculates as a zero and drops the grade a lot. By midterms next week everything missed has to be 50%, so not as easy to notice something is missing just from the overall grade.

This is not what the policy says.

policy says zero = E.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS sucks!
Yes, some students are failing. Find a way to hide the problem by raising their grades. PLEASE DO NOT LOWER STANDARDS for kids who can keep up. Why does MCPS have to screw up every kid???

How are your kids harmed by additional flexibility in due dates and an optional (instead of required) winter MAP?

Some students clearly need firm deadlines. They will wait until the last week to throw together 7 of the 9 assignments allowed.

There will be firm deadlines in school again. Kids will not suffer permanent damage from flexible deadlines during distance learning during a pandemic.

They already are

What permanent damage have kids suffered from flexible vs firm deadlines in Q1 of the 2020-2021 school year during distance learning?

You cannot learn a quarter´s worth of math in one week. The flexible deadline is actually turn it in by the end of the quarter. Students who wait to learn math until the end of the quarter do not actually learn it. They pass because of the overall grade inflation which is rampant throughout MCPS with the possible exception of the W schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My opinion may not be welcome but I’m a person with no skin in the game (no kids, not a teacher) who finds the topic/problem of DL really interesting.

I think flexible deadlines are great for some kids so they don’t get discouraged and not do the work at all (this was me). Some kids need deadlines or their work quality suffers because they rush.

What about flexible deadlines with an incentive to complete the assignment by a firm deadline? Like, if you turn in all assignments of a unit by the firm deadline, you don’t have to take the unit test. Or if you turn it in by the firm deadline you have the opportunity to correct it for more points but if you miss the firm deadline you get what you get (not sure if this would work, are assignments even graded?). Or if you turn in three assignments by the firm deadline in a row you get to skip one assignment with no penalty or drop a low grade. Or if an assignment has three parts (for example, three essay questions, three problem sets, three page research paper) if you turn it in by the firm deadline you only have to do two parts, but all three if you miss the firm deadline.

Just spitballing for fun here.

MCPS says that this is using grades to punish kids who do not get work done by the due date / deadline.

I do think we need to start looking at each student individually. What does this student need? Maybe transferring from AP to honors or onlevel would help. Maybe they could take only 5 classes instead of 7. There are things MCPS can do. But then it would lower the number of students taking AP exams and that will hurt MCPS standings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This change has been in public documents since 11/24 and hinted at in a couple of threads this past week. It’s interesting to me that it took this long to get the attention it deserves, because it tells me that DCUM has really done a good job of driving away all the teachers that used to post here. In the past, teachers would discuss this type of thing here, before it got picked up by news or came out in BOE.

Really? It.shows me that teachers are watching Netflix marathons since last spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there anything we can do?

Yes. Vote the entire school board out next election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just cancel school. screw the kids who are succeeding.

My kids are doing fine. Screw the ones who aren't.

-DCUM

How are less project checks and less content going to help anyone? Coming from a poor immigrant family, I am tired of all the excuses people are coming up with as to why some kids are not performing. Kids have laptops, internet access, food, recorded sessions, can keep their cameras off, access to teachers after learning time, etc. Short of giving them new parents, what more can MCPS do? I truly feel for these kids but if MCPS can't come up with yet another solution that does not negatively impact those kids who are doing ok, then why do the kids doing well have to be slowed down.
Contact the parents to see what's up and if there truly is an issue as to why the kid can't log in or turn in assignments, then provide extra support, but I bet more often then not, it is a parent who just doesn't care enough. Ask me how I know.
Slowing the pace of the curriculum will not work.

You are horrible. Many parents are not in the home! They can't do anymore. They are taking care of dying relatives and trying to not become homeless. Some don't have heat. This is not the fault of the parents. This is the fault of MCPS for not giving their kids the option of real school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This change has been in public documents since 11/24 and hinted at in a couple of threads this past week. It’s interesting to me that it took this long to get the attention it deserves, because it tells me that DCUM has really done a good job of driving away all the teachers that used to post here. In the past, teachers would discuss this type of thing here, before it got picked up by news or came out in BOE.

Really? It.shows me that teachers are watching Netflix marathons since last spring.

If your brat fails to log on and do assignments, that means you are sitting home watching Netflix vs parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This change has been in public documents since 11/24 and hinted at in a couple of threads this past week. It’s interesting to me that it took this long to get the attention it deserves, because it tells me that DCUM has really done a good job of driving away all the teachers that used to post here. In the past, teachers would discuss this type of thing here, before it got picked up by news or came out in BOE.

Really? It.shows me that teachers are watching Netflix marathons since last spring.

We are rarely kept in the loop. Sometimes my principal doesn't even know things they are coming out because communication is not the district's strength. This is not anything new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just cancel school. screw the kids who are succeeding.

My kids are doing fine. Screw the ones who aren't.

-DCUM

How are less project checks and less content going to help anyone? Coming from a poor immigrant family, I am tired of all the excuses people are coming up with as to why some kids are not performing. Kids have laptops, internet access, food, recorded sessions, can keep their cameras off, access to teachers after learning time, etc. Short of giving them new parents, what more can MCPS do? I truly feel for these kids but if MCPS can't come up with yet another solution that does not negatively impact those kids who are doing ok, then why do the kids doing well have to be slowed down.
Contact the parents to see what's up and if there truly is an issue as to why the kid can't log in or turn in assignments, then provide extra support, but I bet more often then not, it is a parent who just doesn't care enough. Ask me how I know.
Slowing the pace of the curriculum will not work.

You are horrible. Many parents are not in the home! They can't do anymore. They are taking care of dying relatives and trying to not become homeless. Some don't have heat. This is not the fault of the parents. This is the fault of MCPS for not giving their kids the option of real school.

They need to get on birth control and grow up. Stop making excuses for not parenting and meeting your kids needs.

[Anonymous]

Curious as to what the additional adjustments to the Wed schedule will be. I guess the hour they currently have is too much, maybe they'll just reduce it to 15 minutes. Don't want to overwhelm the kids with too much content!