More skills based grading at madison hs

[Anonymous]

I’m disgusted but after surveying the parents at Madison, I realized most parents don’t care enough. I don’t know why. Maybe academics are not a priority to them. The school actively discourages kids from taking honor and AP classes, even for those kids that have always excelled academically. Most people that I’ve spoken to that are unhappy are worried about repercussions if they complain. I worry about that too.

Our kids are being robbed of an opportunity to learn material, work hard, be tested on that material and do well then get the satisfaction of knowing that they worked hard to learn something and it paid off. Plus, they will go to college and be expected to know material that other students will have already learned in high school, so at a disadvantage from day 1.

I studied with my kid for a unit (that I have taught) only for DC to tell me none of what we studied was on the test!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m disgusted but after surveying the parents at Madison, I realized most parents don’t care enough. I don’t know why. Maybe academics are not a priority to them. The school actively discourages kids from taking honor and AP classes, even for those kids that have always excelled academically. Most people that I’ve spoken to that are unhappy are worried about repercussions if they complain. I worry about that too.

Our kids are being robbed of an opportunity to learn material, work hard, be tested on that material and do well then get the satisfaction of knowing that they worked hard to learn something and it paid off. Plus, they will go to college and be expected to know material that other students will have already learned in high school, so at a disadvantage from day 1.

I studied with my kid for a unit (that I have taught) only for DC to tell me none of what we studied was on the test!

We have been at Madison for four years and your bolding is completely untrue. The counselors actively encourage English honors for all, for one example. As for the rest...nope. The whole poinf of SBG is that they have to learn the material to do well and move on. I know at least 8m JMHS grads in college right now, from UMich to JMU to USC and they are all doing just fine.

It's not that other Madison parents don't care...it is just tey don't agree with yoy,

[Anonymous]

^And 1.2.3 before someone accuses me of being Liz Calvert or another member of the administration. @@

[Anonymous]

Ok - it’s not that they don’t care - it’s that they don’t know. The average kids in general classes don’t understand the grading system at all. The top students and the bottom students do. That is why there is an attendance problem at Madison. This system leads to kids at the bottom further disengaging from school.

The parents of average students are used to seeing Bs and Cs so nothing has changed for them that they can see.

And no I don’t think you are Calvert but I do think you want to help her for some reason. There are a fee parents I’ve encountered like this. I’ve had a conversation with one of these people (really weird) and a strange experience with another. I’ve never spoken to a parent that thought this was a great idea other than the parent that prefaced the convo with her love of Calvert and declaration that she doesn’t care about her kids’ grades - weird. Most parents say why would someone implement a system like this.

[Anonymous]

Simply shocked that they are having an absenteeism problem. Who would have guessed that only grading assessments would result in kids not showing up the other days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I know. My kid just got a B on a test - the content wasn’t even being tested. The B grade was because of one question marked wrong even though DC’s answer is right. The teacher has told the students if they question the grade, she will regrade the whole thing and they may end up with lower grade.

We have 2 teachers strictly following SBG and those are the 2 classes where the students are expected to know less (than before SBG - I base this on other DC going through same classes before SBG) and grading is usually 1 thing marked wrong, vague rubric, grade = B. Kids know it’s a joke.

The other teacher we have that loves SBG says a “B or a C is where you should be.”

I’d take that B over how DCs math teacher grades. Even if your answer is correct, if you do anything she seems “incorrect” (not writing down a step, a small error in the accompanying graph, etc.) you get a zero for the entire question. The same grade as a kid who left it blank because they didn’t know the math. Grading is basically 100% mastery or nothing.

English is bad, too. No Bs or Ds as options on most rubrics. You get an A, C or F. Anything less than mastery level puts you at a C. In this case, my older kid had the same teacher pre-SBG so I can absolutely see the grade depression and lack of learning system this is causing.

Would you be willing to post the initials of the teacher you are referring to? This sounds a lot like my kid's reports about how you either get an A or an F on a 3-question math test.... even if you are off by two hundreths, because you followed the process used in the practice questions which required you to round at an interim step -- but the assessment doesn't follow those rules --- so ZERO for you on that questions and now you're getting an F on the assessment. Fun times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Simply shocked that they are having an absenteeism problem. Who would have guessed that only grading assessments would result in kids not showing up the other days?

Absenteeism is a problem nationally. Unless you can show that schools using SBG have more students absent than schools using regular grading -- then your conclusion cannot be supported.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simply shocked that they are having an absenteeism problem. Who would have guessed that only grading assessments would result in kids not showing up the other days?

Absenteeism is a problem nationally. Unless you can show that schools using SBG have more students absent than schools using regular grading -- then your conclusion cannot be supported.

It's the first time an email ever went out on the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m disgusted but after surveying the parents at Madison, I realized most parents don’t care enough. I don’t know why. Maybe academics are not a priority to them. The school actively discourages kids from taking honor and AP classes, even for those kids that have always excelled academically. Most people that I’ve spoken to that are unhappy are worried about repercussions if they complain. I worry about that too.

Our kids are being robbed of an opportunity to learn material, work hard, be tested on that material and do well then get the satisfaction of knowing that they worked hard to learn something and it paid off. Plus, they will go to college and be expected to know material that other students will have already learned in high school, so at a disadvantage from day 1.

I studied with my kid for a unit (that I have taught) only for DC to tell me none of what we studied was on the test!

We have been at Madison for four years and your bolding is completely untrue. The counselors actively encourage English honors for all, for one example. As for the rest...nope. The whole poinf of SBG is that they have to learn the material to do well and move on. I know at least 8m JMHS grads in college right now, from UMich to JMU to USC and they are all doing just fine.

It's not that other Madison parents don't care...it is just tey don't agree with yoy,

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simply shocked that they are having an absenteeism problem. Who would have guessed that only grading assessments would result in kids not showing up the other days?

Absenteeism is a problem nationally. Unless you can show that schools using SBG have more students absent than schools using regular grading -- then your conclusion cannot be supported.

It's the first time an email ever went out on the issue.

FCPS and Madison have been telling us for several months that they were going to be sending out emails showing what your kid's attendance is. We've kind of known about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^And 1.2.3 before someone accuses me of being Liz Calvert or another member of the administration. @@

Right. She still thinks the only reason people could disagree with her raging against SBG is that they must be connected to the principal. Hey lady who is against SBG --- guess what -- I've never directly met the principal and don't owe her anything! Imagine that! I make decisions on my own! Some people might even agree with you IN PART -- but don't think it is anywhere near as monumental as you do.

It's such a lazy @ss argument to just dismiss everyone who doesn't agree with you as being part of a conspiracy. Kind of reminds me of someone else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^And 1.2.3 before someone accuses me of being Liz Calvert or another member of the administration. @@

Right. She still thinks the only reason people could disagree with her raging against SBG is that they must be connected to the principal. Hey lady who is against SBG --- guess what -- I've never directly met the principal and don't owe her anything! Imagine that! I make decisions on my own! Some people might even agree with you IN PART -- but don't think it is anywhere near as monumental as you do.

It's such a lazy @ss argument to just dismiss everyone who doesn't agree with you as being part of a conspiracy. Kind of reminds me of someone else

And yet you still don't have any positives for the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^And 1.2.3 before someone accuses me of being Liz Calvert or another member of the administration. @@

Right. She still thinks the only reason people could disagree with her raging against SBG is that they must be connected to the principal. Hey lady who is against SBG --- guess what -- I've never directly met the principal and don't owe her anything! Imagine that! I make decisions on my own! Some people might even agree with you IN PART -- but don't think it is anywhere near as monumental as you do.

It's such a lazy @ss argument to just dismiss everyone who doesn't agree with you as being part of a conspiracy. Kind of reminds me of someone else

And yet you still don't have any positives for the program.

The positives for the program are resume building for the Madison admin “leading on equity” and perhaps fewer students that fail out. The negatives seem to outweigh the benefits, the kids in the middle and bottom learn less without any focus on homework and a concerted effort to make getting Bs and Cs easier. The high performing kids are stressed out by the emphasis on perfection to get an A and are hurt when applying to the most selective colleges. Really frustrating that mental health is not being taken more seriously by the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^And 1.2.3 before someone accuses me of being Liz Calvert or another member of the administration. @@

Right. She still thinks the only reason people could disagree with her raging against SBG is that they must be connected to the principal. Hey lady who is against SBG --- guess what -- I've never directly met the principal and don't owe her anything! Imagine that! I make decisions on my own! Some people might even agree with you IN PART -- but don't think it is anywhere near as monumental as you do.

It's such a lazy @ss argument to just dismiss everyone who doesn't agree with you as being part of a conspiracy. Kind of reminds me of someone else

And yet you still don't have any positives for the program.

The positives for the program are resume building for the Madison admin “leading on equity” and perhaps fewer students that fail out. The negatives seem to outweigh the benefits, the kids in the middle and bottom learn less without any focus on homework and a concerted effort to make getting Bs and Cs easier. The high performing kids are stressed out by the emphasis on perfection to get an A and are hurt when applying to the most selective colleges. Really frustrating that mental health is not being taken more seriously by the school.

I think those of us who know its issues know its detriments. I was commenting that no one who actually supports this program actually has any benefits to show for the change.

[Anonymous]

Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.