Reply to Changes to grading for all MCPS high school students

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Changes to grading for all MCPS high school students"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To be fair, the purpose of grading is to measure how well a student understands the material and how well they can complete the skill under a time constraint. For the teacher, grading should be looked at individually and as a whole. If the entire class is missing one question or section then the teacher needs to course correction as they didn’t word or present the material adequately. For the student, grading is part of the learning cycle where they learn more by seeing what they got wrong, understanding why and should be in a position to course correction and do better the next time.

Of course none of this happens because students drop assignments and tests into a black box where the teacher doesn’t return them until the day before quarter ends or much later or maybe never. Tests may be quickly reviewed in class but they are snatched back so the teacher isn’t bothered to create more than one test. This deprives students of an excellent end of year study guide but god forbid the teacher do anything pedagogical.

[/quote]

This is all true but I wouldn’t frame it as a knock on the teachers.  McPS doesn’t give them the time to give the feedback or get grading done timely.  Also, in college if a prof realizes a test was bad because one or more questions were poorly phrased or too hard, they can adjust the grades or give extra credit or something.  I remember in my HS physics cclass, the teacher gave an army assignment that was impossible and almost everyone failed it, so the teacher assigned an additional assignment as “extra credit” to account for it.  McPS  doesn’t allow extra credit or grading on a carve.  I do think people are gojng to complain more about unfair grading or violations of the grading policy — that currently happens a lot but parents let it go because it so rarely makes a difference under the current grading policy.  [/quote]

Good news! The new policy requires teachers to return graded school work within 10 school days.[/quote]

The current policy also requires stuff to be turned back promptly but there’s zero enforcement of it.  What are the principals going to do — fire teachers?  They can’t even fire the truly terrible teachers because there’s such a shortage.  [/quote]

This! Teachers not returning graded work until the next quarter if at all. Or not returning assessment to go over answers because "not everyone has taken the test yet". Make up another damn quiz or test for that student instead! And have that one or handful of students sit in another room while going over the graded quiz so the other 29 students can see how they performed on the assessment and learn from it.[/quote]

Who supervises that child? [/quote]

The student can go to the school library or student can go to the classroom of a teacher in same subject or nearby classroom who doesn't have a class that period. Why should majority of the class have to wait for that one student or few students who havent taken the assessment?[/quote]

So… your solution is to take time away from teachers. That teacher next door only gets about 45 minutes A DAY to themselves to plan, grade, answer emails, go to the bathroom, update reports, make copies, etc. Now they have  to lose that time so they can proctor a test? Imagine how angry the parents will be when it takes even longer to get a response from a teacher.

And who in the library will proctor the test? The librarian, who is working with a class? [/quote]

No, the teacher or librarian doesn't proctor the test to the student(s) who missed it. The student is excused by their regular teacher to go to library or student sits in a nearby classroom while their class is going over test results. The student who misses a test makes it up before school, during lunch or after school with and in classroom of regular teacher.[/quote]

Either way — you expect somebody to give up the only work time they have all day simply to supervise one student. This isn’t as easy or practical as you would like to believe.

Time is valuable to a teacher. We simply don’t get enough of it. If you asked if I want higher pay or more time, I’m going to say time. I’d give up a $10K raise to have an extra half hour of work time a day. [/quote]

Jesssu, they are not giving up any time! And these are the kind of people "teaching" our young people?? Wow.[/quote]

Please come in and substitute.  You will see.  It’s not feasible to do this. Plus the library is often closed for classes.  No need for snark.  [/quote]

Why is the library closed for classes?  I could see the class being in a part of the library, but what does one clsss shut the library down for everyone’s use?[/quote]

Our library is frequently booked by classes and the librarian is busy working with those students.

She can’t properly monitor others while she is instructing, so the library is shut down.

The main problem is that students cannot be left unsupervised or unattended. All of the posters saying “just send them to X” don’t seem to realize that school staff is ALWAYS busy and can’t simply drop their obligations to supervise a student.[/quote]

It must be ES as in HS they don't go to the library.[/quote]

Is there not a media center aide/assistant?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics