MCPS Gradebook not Adding Up

[Anonymous]

At my child’s school every teacher seems to go over this at BTSN and it is written in syllabi that parents have to sign and it is mentioned in principal newsletters. However, it would not be surprising in a large system like MCPS for schools to do things differently. I do think if you are at a school and the grading system has not been explained, it might be a great idea to reach out to the principal and tell them that this is something that would be helpful for Parents at your school.

At my child’s school (Churchill), it often feels like overkill. After hearing it 10x a year x2 kids for 4 years, it is very ingrained in my head. In addition, in grade book each assignment is stated as AT or PP and that has been standardized across all of the different classes this year, so I don’t even need to look closely to see what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why when I taught in MCPS I only entered grades on Friday. Otherwise I spent all my work week answering emails.

That's what teachers are not doing. Pick a damn day or two and get those in AND synched.

LOL @ the fact that you think teachers have time to collaborate. It's everyman for themselves and keep your head down to survive in schools.

I don’t think your average DCUM poster cares about what the teachers are experiencing.

I update grades regularly (which means I work all weekend to get it all done. And I do mean ALL weekend). About 5 minutes after I input new grades, I can expect several parents to email me demanding explanations. They don’t even wait for the returned work to make it home. They don’t even ask their children. They simply add more work to my already overloaded plate by requiring all these email responses that duplicate my effort.

I’m fairly certain that shadowing a teacher for one day would be enough to silence the complainers. But since they don’t see what teachers do and what we experience, it’s easy to assume we are lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's ridonc people who say don't look. Parents should be looking and no a kid is not soley responsible for what's there in grades. The TEACHER if they would enter regularly would have time to check before submitting grades by end of quarter.

LOL - back in our day, the teacher had a big book on her desk and you never knew what was in there until you got your report card.

[Anonymous]

At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent and teacher here. OP- is this an error/miscalculation you found or your child? If it was you, my advice is to teach your kid how to check their grades on their own. Mine did it every Friday and went from there. If you’re doing more work than your child, that’s on you.

To paraphrase:
1) You shouldn't be looking at your kid's grades.
2) If you do and you don't understand what you're looking at, it's your fault for having looked at them.

Nope. Check your kid’s grades. If your kid isn’t, they should. Sit down with them the first few times and go over them together. Tell them to put a reminder on their phone. If you are spending your time calculating their grade and they don’t even look, that is a problem.

Learned helplessness. Not doing anyone any favors here. This is the time to let them learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

It’s also in the grading policy available online and also on every school website. No excuse if you don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

As a long term MCPS parent with three kids each four years apart so having heard this literally over a hundred times, I know this is true. But I think we get to give OP a pass as a new MCPS parent. It is transparent but sometimes you can miss the details. And better that she asked here than accuse teachers of being underhanded. That’s the benefit of having this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

I’m correcting PP a bit — Practice Prep is not necessarily just graded for completions. It depends on the teacher and the class. It seems pretty rare with my kids classes actually.
And then you also have the 10% district assessment for some classes — I’m not sure it that brings AT down to 80% or if it brings PP down to 9% and AT down to 81% or what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you separate out the categories? AT is really the only one that moves the grade.

This.

Think of practice/prep as a 10% tip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parent has already admitted that they don’t know how PP and AT grades work. An above poster explained it (though asking your child first would have been better). Sounds like we can end this thread without bashing any teachers as there is no indication that late entering has anything to do with this situation.

I'm not the OP and also have no idea what a PP or AT grade is or how they work. Why don't you enlighten us.

Practice Preparation grades are worth 10% , All Task grades are worth 90%

PP are for completion
AT are for accuracy

That means ALL PP points added together make 10 % and ALL AT points added together are worth 90%.

Thank you teachers for all the hard work you do. I know that the Gradebook does the math automatically and that it's not your fault.

Is there somewhere where MCPS documents this where parents can read it? I'm NOT new to MCPS and have never seen this before.

They review this every single year at back to school night.

No, they don't review "PP" and "AT" at Back to School night. And the previous poster hasn't attended every back to school night to know what teachers talk about. One teacher this year, spent 8 of the 10 minutes talking about Taylor Swift and her links to the curriculum. Which was fine, but let's not presume that every teacher does this. Or that every parent attends Back to School night.

My school requires it because otherwise you get emails like “Brightleigh has three As and 1 D on that test you make her take the morning after her dance recital. How that that make her overall grade a D?”

It’s also a countywide grading policy available online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

As a long term MCPS parent with three kids each four years apart so having heard this literally over a hundred times, I know this is true. But I think we get to give OP a pass as a new MCPS parent. It is transparent but sometimes you can miss the details. And better that she asked here than accuse teachers of being underhanded. That’s the benefit of having this forum.

There are teachers who don't grade or enter grades or don't synch them for weeks (think 6 weeks) so the people who need to see those grades don't see them. When practically all students in a class are asking and emailing the teacher for when they can either make up something (if allowed) or asking the teacher to synch grades, the teacher is telling the class to have patience. Patience my ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the beginning of every year, teachers go over the grading policy with students (7 times). We send this home in the syllabus at the beginning of the year. I used to ask students to get their parents signature stating that they read it. We go over this at Back-to-School night. Your child should know this. Let's keep blaming teachers for everything.

As a long term MCPS parent with three kids each four years apart so having heard this literally over a hundred times, I know this is true. But I think we get to give OP a pass as a new MCPS parent. It is transparent but sometimes you can miss the details. And better that she asked here than accuse teachers of being underhanded. That’s the benefit of having this forum.

There are teachers who don't grade or enter grades or don't synch them for weeks (think 6 weeks) so the people who need to see those grades don't see them. When practically all students in a class are asking and emailing the teacher for when they can either make up something (if allowed) or asking the teacher to synch grades, the teacher is telling the class to have patience. Patience my ass.

Lol just wait until the teacher residency programs expand and you get more uncredentialed warm bodies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's ridonc people who say don't look. Parents should be looking and no a kid is not soley responsible for what's there in grades. The TEACHER if they would enter regularly would have time to check before submitting grades by end of quarter.

LOL - back in our day, the teacher had a big book on her desk and you never knew what was in there until you got your report card.

But we got tests and assignments handed back to us in paper form so if we cared at all, e all knew exactly what we were getting. Our parents didn’t.

[Anonymous]

I’m wondering if OP asked her kid. If the kid is older than 6th grade and doesn’t know this, it indicates something is really off with the kid’s processing of information. I’m not saying this to be mean but as a mom of kids with SN, I’m saying that if her kid doesn’t understand the PP/AT distinction, she may want to look into what else the kid is missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my child’s school every teacher seems to go over this at BTSN and it is written in syllabi that parents have to sign and it is mentioned in principal newsletters. However, it would not be surprising in a large system like MCPS for schools to do things differently. I do think if you are at a school and the grading system has not been explained, it might be a great idea to reach out to the principal and tell them that this is something that would be helpful for Parents at your school.

At my child’s school (Churchill), it often feels like overkill. After hearing it 10x a year x2 kids for 4 years, it is very ingrained in my head. In addition, in grade book each assignment is stated as AT or PP and that has been standardized across all of the different classes this year, so I don’t even need to look closely to see what it is.

Parents have to sign a syllabus? Really? I have never heard of this. What happens if parents don't sign it?