Reply to "I thought 50% for no work was okay and I was wrong"

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Reply to ""I thought 50% for no work was okay and I was wrong""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Those rules are offensive to students who actually prioritize their schoolwork. [/quote]

Only if you think the entire point of school is to rank students.

If you think it’s to get the most kids possible a basic level of knowledge so they can be productive members of society, it’s not.[/quote]

Another part of school is learning to be a productive citizen who not only has a basic level of knowledge but also has a work ethic,  knows how to meet expectations, handle deadlines, etc.  A basic level of functioning.

Ranking students is a way to bring in people's natural competitiveness in order to help them learn these skills, it's not the end goal.  [/quote]

This. Plus, like it or not, ranking matters for colleges. So yeah, if some slacker or disinterested kid has a shot at the same schools as a kid who actually did the work and didt have to do constant retakes- not ok. [/quote]

The idea that giving a high F on an assignment instead of a low F is going to make Lazy Larlo into your kid's competition is nonsense.[/quote]

It’s not about high F v low F. It’s about kids who would normally earn a D or a C earning B’s even though they have a significant number of missing assignments due to those missing assignments being marked as 50% instead of zero. It inflates the grades A LOT.[/quote]

It shouldn't inflate the grade because along with the 50% policy is the policy that assessments should make up the majority of the overall grade.  I am a math teacher... my classwork/homework assignments are worth 10% of the grade, and my tests/quizzes are worth 90% of the grade.  We are moving away from fluffing up the grade with "participation" and "homework" and moving toward mastery of the material as the determinant of the grade.  [/quote]

Further, a bunch of 50s is NOT going to push a C into a B or an A. And stop worrying about making kids compete against each other. It is gross and not at all the point of education. Worry about your own kid.[/quote]

I don't give a flying F what you think is gross. The competition is there. It's not going away. I did not create it but we are forced to live with it. And it affects my kid so i will worry about it, whether I have your permission or not. I see how this plays out in real time between my kids' friends and my friends' kids. [/quote]

My kid with an E is not actually competing with yours.  I wish he were, but he's not.[/quote]

The issue is high school and the issue is NOT that your kid competes with my kid. Instead, equity grading as a whole helps the weakest students. Here’s how:

Kid 1
Math hw not turned in = 50 but it doesn’t count because it homework
Math quiz taken, little effort = 28, turns into a 50 but doesn’t count because it’s formative
Math quiz taken, little effort = 40, turns into a 50 but doesn’t count because it’s formative
Math classwork, turns nothing in = 50, but doesn’t count because it’s formative
Math test 70
Grade in math for this week is a 70.  This equity helps this child.

Kid 2
Math hw = 100 but it doesn’t count because it homework
Math quiz taken = 98 but doesn’t count because it’s formative
Math quiz taken= 96 but doesn’t count because it’s formative
Math classwork = 100, but doesn’t count because it’s formative
Math test 90
Grade in math for this week is a 90  This equity hurt this child.

Now, take this equity grading and apply it unequally throughout the school and then throughout the county. Teacher Larla counts formative grades and teacher larlo doesnt. Teacher Marlo gives 5 tests a quester, each one with 40 questions, but nothing else counts. Teacher Marla gives 4, four question tests throughout the quarter. Some allow retakes, some don’t.

Then mix those kids together and start comparing their grades against each other for admission to selective schools.

[/quote]

My high achieving FCPS kid graduated last year and is now at an ivy. I assure you my kid was not at all worried about the impact of whether a classmate got a c/d on their outcomes. The 50% policy did not harm my high achiever.

Also, if the kid was able to master the material at a level to get a C on the test, I don’t really understand why they shouldn’t get a C. Grading participation, HW, etc is generally done with the expectation it will benefit kids grades. It seems a little backwards to have it harm grades to the point that kids who can demonstrate mastery of the material on test still fail the class. I don’t see how that benefits anyone.[/quote]

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