MCPS Gradebook not Adding Up

[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?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I am guessing you're not a MCPS parent. So what interest is it to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Teachers would write their own tests back then so they could send them home. We had to have every test signed and returned for a grade. I remember the teacher's stamp "Please sign and return." Now, they don't trust teachers to make up tests and they won't send home district created tests. It isn't a choice that teachers make. In fact, almost nothing that happens in school is up to teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Teachers would write their own tests back then so they could send them home. We had to have every test signed and returned for a grade. I remember the teacher's stamp "Please sign and return." Now, they don't trust teachers to make up tests and they won't send home district created tests. It isn't a choice that teachers make. In fact, almost nothing that happens in school is up to teachers.

What's stopping a teacher from giving students assessments at least one week or 1.5 weeks before a quarter ends? That would give teachers ample time to grade and enter grades and gives students who missed quiz or test to make it up. Instead teachers are giving assessments two days before the quarter.

[Anonymous]

Teacher may have an assignment “hidden” which always makes us think it’s not being counted towards a grade. Stupidly it still is

Synergy sucks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I am guessing you're not a MCPS parent. So what interest is it to you?

You are guessing wrong. I am an MCPS parent, and I have never had to sign a syllabus. I have never heard of this before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I am guessing you're not a MCPS parent. So what interest is it to you?

You are guessing wrong. I am an MCPS parent, and I have never had to sign a syllabus. I have never heard of this before.

You’ve never had a paper pushed under your nose that you have to sign for the first week? My children have gotten at least a couple a year. They get homework points when they’re returned. They go over class policies and grading and how to communicate with the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Teachers would write their own tests back then so they could send them home. We had to have every test signed and returned for a grade. I remember the teacher's stamp "Please sign and return." Now, they don't trust teachers to make up tests and they won't send home district created tests. It isn't a choice that teachers make. In fact, almost nothing that happens in school is up to teachers.

What's stopping a teacher from giving students assessments at least one week or 1.5 weeks before a quarter ends? That would give teachers ample time to grade and enter grades and gives students who missed quiz or test to make it up. Instead teachers are giving assessments two days before the quarter.

I’m, they actually need to teach the material first. There is so much material to cover that they can’t give a test before they teach all of it. There is a lot more material to fit into a school year than there are days to teach it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my kid's grades dropped, and I checked the grades for the individual assignments in gradebook, and they average to a higher grade than shown at the bottom of the Gradebook for this class.

What could explain this? I used the same weights for each assignment that were in Gradebook, but it's not adding up...if the individual assignment grades are correct, my kid's grade should be higher...

Check your math. Most likely it's your math, second possibility is there is an assignment that accidentally got marked private, one accidental click has done it for me.

Why is there an option to make a grade private?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I am guessing you're not a MCPS parent. So what interest is it to you?

I'm guessing you're barely literate so why aren't you in school?

" However, it would not be surprising in a large system like MCPS for schools to do things differently."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But it can be negative, unlike a tip.