Reply to Help me understand the logic behind Weighting All Tasks/Assessments so heavily

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So at the high school level, MCPS weights All Tasks/Assessments at 90% and Practice/Prep at 10%. Not sure if this applies at MS as well.

I understand the motive behind this is to reduce the impact and influence that homework has on a student's grade, as I understand some in MCPS have come to believe that requiring homework for all students is unfair and unequitable, since not all students have the stability and support at home to do homework daily.

But 90% vs 10% seems unreasonably weighted, because if you don't practice, how can you expect to do well on assessments?

And unfortunately, the message kids receive (sometimes from teachers themselves!!!) is that they don't really need to worry about missing or skipping practice/prep assignments "since it's only 10%" of their grade. And with the automatic 50% rule, not doing those homework assignments doesn't tank their grade like if they were getting 0s for missing those assignments.

Even if I were to buy into the premise that classwork and assessments matter more than homework, the current weights seem off and self-defeating, since consistent prep and practice is key to developing and demonstrating mastery on assessments. So why not do 80% All Tasks/Assessments and 20% Prep/Practice. Or why not 70/30 split?

Just looking for context and history here behind this decision and what evidence was used to decide on the 90/10 split.[/quote]

Seems like a fine policy to me. My kids have plenty of homework. They didn't always do it in ES since it was often unnecessary and amounted to busy work, but by MS they seem to benefit from it and are doing great.[/quote]

Huh? You didn't even address the issues raised by the policy but just came to say it was great and that they benefitted from homework, which pretty much contradicts the 10% weight they're putting on it. If it's so beneficial, it would factor into their grade more.[/quote]

Not the PP but tt does factor into the grade more. By doing the homework you improve your understanding of the material and do better on the test.  [/quote]

OP here. You're right, in theory, and with mature, thoughtful people, that logic holds up.

But kids aren't making that calculation. And sadly, the source of this is coming from teachers. When they miss or neglect to turn in assignments in the prep/practice category, teachers tell them NOT to worry about making it up and turning it in, "because it's only 10% of their grade." I've literally had arguments with my kids over this who parrot this exact logic. If the weight was more than 10%, kids would know to take it more seriously, and honestly, they're not wrong.

If it's that important, it really should be weighted as more than 10% of your grade. Frankly, I don't understand why participation isn't factored into grades as it is in college either.[/quote]

It is unfortunate that teachers are putting that message out there. I WILL say, that with the MCPS grading policy now, things are just so different. At the high school where I work, we can only make deadlines at the interim and the end of quarter. We are to make the Wednesday before each of these deadlines an “academic support day” where students can do late work. Some students have 8 missing assignments. I do tell them to prioritize the all task assignments FIRST. The point of the academic support day, let’s be real, is just to improve grades, NOT improve learning. Sure, a student can complete the practice/prep assignments that would have helped them to prepare for the test two weeks ago that they bombed, and now they can earn a 90% on them, but if they’re just trying to bring their grade up, which is the message MCPS is sending with all their grading policies, then the all task are the priority. And not surprisingly, the students struggle to complete the missing all task assignments because they didn’t pay attention at the time they were assigned, or do the practice/prep to prepare. Of course, we as teachers are supposed to spend our time sitting with them one on one reteaching everything so that they can pass/improve their grade. [/quote]

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