I Hate Synergy!

[Anonymous]

So frustrating that teachers have not updated Synergy for over a month. The grade book is basically useless to let the student or parent know what to expect for the quarter. I wish MCPS would quit screwing around with grade books and go back to Edline.

[Anonymous]

I agree! I try to use the gradebook to monitor how my kid is doing and whether he has any missing assignments. But it rarely gets updated, so one day I think my kid is getting an A and has all his assignments turned in, and the next day it is a completely different story. The other thing I find confusing is that often the grade he is assigned is nowhere near the average of the scores listed. The guidance counselor said that is because different assignments are weighted differently - but then why make them both out of 20? Why not make the one worth more out of 30 or 40?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree! I try to use the gradebook to monitor how my kid is doing and whether he has any missing assignments. But it rarely gets updated, so one day I think my kid is getting an A and has all his assignments turned in, and the next day it is a completely different story. The other thing I find confusing is that often the grade he is assigned is nowhere near the average of the scores listed. The guidance counselor said that is because different assignments are weighted differently - but then why make them both out of 20? Why not make the one worth more out of 30 or 40?

Well the teacher could make the 10% category one 20 points and the 90% category one 30 points and you would still have to do math to figure out the grade.

[Anonymous]

Yep. Hate it with a white-hot passion.

[Anonymous]

Grading this year has been ridiculous. Less than 100 points in the quarters so each point off is more than 1%; late grading of big assignments and poor transfer timing to Synergy, so grades drop at the last possible minute when students have no recourse. I hate what MCPS has done with the year, including with Synergy.

[Anonymous]

Are there any changes being planed for next year? Any way to make Synergy better? Would it provide what students and parents need if missing grades become 0s again and if teachers synced Synergy more often so grades are updated in a timely fashion?

Or should MCPS replace Synergy?

IDK what the solution is but I have no idea what my child is earning and the marking period ends tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

This is probably too late to by helpful but if you use both synergy and canvas together you can usually figure out what’s missing and what’s been turned in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any changes being planed for next year? Any way to make Synergy better? Would it provide what students and parents need if missing grades become 0s again and if teachers synced Synergy more often so grades are updated in a timely fashion?

Or should MCPS replace Synergy?

IDK what the solution is but I have no idea what my child is earning and the marking period ends tomorrow.

I think MCPS plans to improve synergy, not replace it. The IT department was more than a bit distracted this year.

[Anonymous]

Totally agree. Terrible.

[Anonymous]

Tell Central Office. They didn’t listen when teachers said Synergy was crap. They will listen to parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell Central Office. They didn’t listen when teachers said Synergy was crap. They will listen to parents.

Who should a parent contact in Central Office?

If grades were synced more regularly and something (a 0 or a Z) was posted instead of 50% then students and parents would know before the end of the marking period what a student needs to makeup or relearn.

Canvas (at least how my child’s teachers have their classes set up) does not tell you the summary grade for the class or the weight of assignments. Therefore, even with Synergy and Canvas, it’s impossible to know what grade a student currently has in a class. It’s the last day of the quarter and we have no idea what is going to happen when Synergy is synced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell Central Office. They didn’t listen when teachers said Synergy was crap. They will listen to parents.

Who should a parent contact in Central Office?

If grades were synced more regularly and something (a 0 or a Z) was posted instead of 50% then students and parents would know before the end of the marking period what a student needs to makeup or relearn.

Canvas (at least how my child’s teachers have their classes set up) does not tell you the summary grade for the class or the weight of assignments. Therefore, even with Synergy and Canvas, it’s impossible to know what grade a student currently has in a class. It’s the last day of the quarter and we have no idea what is going to happen when Synergy is synced.

Teachers at many schools were told not to enter zeros, but instead put 50%.

Contact whoever DCUM was complaining to in October/November when the grading policy was first watered down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell Central Office. They didn’t listen when teachers said Synergy was crap. They will listen to parents.

Who should a parent contact in Central Office?

If grades were synced more regularly and something (a 0 or a Z) was posted instead of 50% then students and parents would know before the end of the marking period what a student needs to makeup or relearn.

Canvas (at least how my child’s teachers have their classes set up) does not tell you the summary grade for the class or the weight of assignments. Therefore, even with Synergy and Canvas, it’s impossible to know what grade a student currently has in a class. It’s the last day of the quarter and we have no idea what is going to happen when Synergy is synced.

This!!! I have no idea why teachers are waiting so long to enter and sync grades. How the heck are students and parents supposed to know to work on things if their getting grades a month later. Sometimes an assignment listed as “Missing” is really ungraded. Some assignments in Canvas aren’t actually going to be considered part of the grade, but unless marked students and parents have no idea which. My kid even has a teacher deciding only some parts of assignment is worth points, but the class doesn’t know it until after it’s graded. And don’t get me started on the lack of points in a given quarter, particular when you’re giving out assignments and quizzes where students essentially get an A of F.

[Anonymous]

I have one kid in a different school system that uses Canvas and another system for final grades like Synergy. This school set it up so much better.

1. CANVAS is considered the active system of record. There is a feature where a teacher can assign % weight to different categories. Homework, class work, projects, assessments and exam. This way the student/parent can see the actual course grade. There is a feature where you can see the grade based on what has been graded or based on what has not.

2. In canvas there is also another field where an attribute can show late, missing. This way for a teacher who gives 50 or 40% for missing assignments, the student and parent can still see that it is missing.

3. Comments and median shows in canvas. This is very helpful. Teachers put comments here. All assignments are collected and recorded in canvas. There are integration with gizmo, nearpod, Google etc.

4. The school only synchs to the final grade system at interim and semester ends. This system has the gpa, class rank, standardized test scores, emergency contact and is where the students do registration. The final grades in this system are released a week after the last final. Grades should not differ from what is seen in Canvas.

5. Teachers are required to post upcoming assignments for the following week no later than Sunday at 5 pm. Teachers are encouraged to grade assignments within 48 hours and are required to be finished grading with grades entered by each 6 week mark. Most hit the 48 hour mark and English was the only course that took 4 weeks to grade.

This is so much saner and there is zero reason why MCPS decided not to use CANVAS in a logical way. It really was a huge fail for MCPS to do this setting up teachers and students not to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Today is the last day of the quarter. My child has a teacher that hasn’t posted grades for assignments due in May. Synergy has not been synced the whole month of June. We are trying to use Canvas but because some assignments are weighted toward a 90% category and some are 10%, we have no idea where my son stand right now in a class. He could have an A, B, or C depending on what is calculated towards the 90% category. It’s also very difficult to know what is missing because the teacher doesn’t use 0s or any method to flag an assignment as missing.

Families should have better information to track a student’s progress in a class.