Reply to Madison H.S. Parents - Principal Survey and Skills-Based Grading

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My issue is with the idea that some kids are eligible for retakes while others are not. I bet if kids with lower D/F grades were stuck with what they received, this system would be scrapped.

[b]As it is, kids who do poorly get a retake and kids that do well enough don’t. [/b]This is where the gap closure happens and where fewer As happen. As with any equitable system, it’s not about providing the same tools for all, it’s about giving some kids more… mostly to supplement what someone earlier mentioned, a “parenting problem.”[/quote]
If this is actually true, they would be in HUGE trouble. I doubt it is true, otherwise they'll have a bunch of state lawsuits to deal with in the current political environment.

If they allow retakes on certain assignments, they have to allow it for everyone. They can't selectively discriminate in terms of who they allow to retest.[/quote]
Hard to say.

Madison states the following:
Teachers will identify in advance which summative assessments are eligible for a retake.  For these assessments, at least one new opportunity to demonstrate mastery shall be provided to any student who scores below 3.4 on a 4.0 scale or 90% on the 100 point scale (less than an A-) and completes corrective action determined by the subject team.  Assessments not eligible for a retake will be articulated in a teacher’s course syllabi.

Some posts ITT imply that it’s like that as well, but maybe not as decisive as the statement I included.[/quote]
A-/90% is fine, that seems reasonable to me. But honestly it's easy to just allow everyone to retake the ones that the teacher selects to protect against possible lawsuits. It would not change outcomes at the top as many of the A- students would not think it's worth their time to retake to change from A- to A. Logistically it's also easy, there's no reason to exclude a few A- and above, as even if they retake and get an A, it's only good for the school as their overall grade is a bit higher.[/quote]

I don’t have a kid at Madison, but have two at other FCPS schools. Few teachers allow re-takes, but if they do, it’s only for those scoring below 80 and the max new score is 80. This really needs to be standardized across FCPS schools. People claim that UVA only compares a student to those within their school, but then they also say that if a student doesn’t have a 4.4 UVA is not happening. It’s a heck of a lot easier to have a 4.4 if your school allows new re-take grades up to 90% than if your school allows re-take grades 10 percentage points higher.[/quote]

Our FCPS high school imposed retakes up to 100% this year. 
I have C students who memorize the patterns in the test and retake and end up with an A. And they are still C students despite that A in the class, because I have to  again and again reexplain concepts to them that we learned earlier in the year and they never fully understood or retained.  But they think they're in great shape for the hardest level up from my class because of that A.
 I have lots of students who blow off the test, literally saying "I'm not really prepared but I'll just do the retake." And then I have the kids who got an A- but want an A who retake for an extra 3%. [/quote]

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