Colleges Flagging MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

See, you're a troll. You showed that you don't know how grades are attributed in MCPS.
Move along.

You seem like the troll here. The PP was correct. 79.5 + 89.5 in the grade book would average out to 85, which would be a B on their report card.

No, because the grade book is closed at the end of each marking period, and that ending percentage becomes a letter grade. See the above explanation with quality points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD came home today and told me that her teacher told her that grade inflation is really rampant in MCPS and that he is told to grade really leniently and that it is really hard for someone to fail. He says that it is so bad that colleges will flag an application once they see it is from MCPS and make sure to look deeper into what classes they took to see how rigorous it is to make sure they really deserved that 4.0 gpa. Not sure how true this is, has anyone else heard about this?

Competitive colleges have always done this, and do it for all schools and all school districts.

It's true that MCPS makes it difficult for top students to differentiate themselves (if everyone has a 4.0, it's hard to set yourself apart from the crowd). But colleges always take a close look at course rigor--in fact, at info sessions, they'll tell you that course rigor (APs over honors over regular courses) is more important to them than GPA. That is probably even more true in MCPS, where so many kids have 4.0s or close-to-4.0s.

This also means that 'weighted GPA' is irrelevant in MCPS. AP courses are much harder than Honors, and get the same GPA bump.

Most colleges reweight grades to give APs a larger grade bump than honors

Correct. The MCPS weighting system is basically irrelevant since colleges don't follow it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

They have to round to a whole grade. The choices are A or B. MCPS doesn't have pluses or minuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

Who cares what FCPS does? What law says they cannot round up?
MCPS does round up and that's it.
End of story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

In math, not in grade point averages. And the "just a B" and "just an A" to be averaged, is exactly what I was saying... no precision. There becomes a point when grades convey no information, and your method is one of them. - HS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

In math, not in grade point averages. And the "just a B" and "just an A" to be averaged, is exactly what I was saying... no precision. There becomes a point when grades convey no information, and your method is one of them. - HS teacher

It's not my method, it's MCPS's.

[Anonymous]

Just another reason that SATs and AP scores are helpful

(and no, my kid did not have paid tutoring or otherwise to boost scores; took exams one time).

[Anonymous]

The main point is schools do all kinds of different things with GPAs. They are never comparable between schools or even different classes at the same school. Colleges know this. It is not an MPCS specific issue. MCPS gives most classes an extra point so think of it out of 5 (or 4.8). My 4.0 kid I considered a mostly B student. My 4.8 kid only got 1 B in HS. Colleges can see the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

They have to round to a whole grade. The choices are A or B. MCPS doesn't have pluses or minuses.

MCPS should have pluses and minuses. DCPS has them. Many school districts have them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

They have to round to a whole grade. The choices are A or B. MCPS doesn't have pluses or minuses.

MCPS should have pluses and minuses. DCPS has them. Many school districts have them

Back in 1992, there was a board motion to add pluses and minuses to grades, but it did not pass. I don't know if it has been considered again since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

They have to round to a whole grade. The choices are A or B. MCPS doesn't have pluses or minuses.

And yet the rest of the country doesn’t have this oddity of a “problem.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal of school to have students learn and demonstrate learning? If so, does it matter if there's a retake?

It matters because it makes my child look less competitive.

DP. The bigger problem is that kids can score low and still get an A. In what works is a 79.5 plus 89.5 an A?

In the world where people learn about rounding up.
Try it

Even if you round up, that is an 85, which is a B.

Any .5 is rounded up.
A 79.5 for MP1 rounds to an 80, which is a B, or 3 quality points.
An 89.5 for MP2 rounds to a 90, which is an A, or 4 quality points.
For a total of 7 quality points for the semester, divided by 2 is 3.5, which rounds up to 4, which is an A.

That seems fair. Maybe these kids need to sign up for harder classes.

No, this is ridiculous on a 4 point scale. No precision, which is exactly what people are complaining about. A low B and a low A average to a B.

There's just a B and an A to be averaged. You have to round up or down. It's pretty standard practice to round up at .5

What law says they have to round to a whole number? FCPS doesn't.

I'm personally in favor of 4.0 for all, not because I think it's right, but because I'm an accelerationist and GPA is a fundamentally unworkable concept of a false metric that need to be eliminated.

They have to round to a whole grade. The choices are A or B. MCPS doesn't have pluses or minuses.

MCPS should have pluses and minuses. DCPS has them. Many school districts have them

The problem isn’t even plus and minus; it’s disregarding the actual numbers and focusing on quality points instead. They shouldn’t be adding 3+4 and dividing by two. They should be adding the numbers. They They shouldn’t be adding 3+4 and dividing by two. They should be adding the numbers that got them the three and the four in the first place.