Anonymous wrote:It has to be magnet pre-cal at Blair. There were several long threads about it a few months ago complaining about the poor teaching methods of one teacher in particular.

It was a legit complaint from what I understand it as many parents were voicing similar issues on the magnet listserv and they used their real names. The magnet coordinator was contacted. I don't know what became of this though.

Although *some* complained, that wasn't a consensus. I remember the thread and others actually were happy with the teacher and their style.

Anonymous wrote:It has to be magnet pre-cal at Blair. There were several long threads about it a few months ago complaining about the poor teaching methods of one teacher in particular.

It was a legit complaint from what I understand it as many parents were voicing similar issues on the magnet listserv and they used their real names. The magnet coordinator was contacted. I don't know what became of this though.

That was first semester, and the teacher was female. The second semester teacher is different (and male). And all of the first semester complaints were along the lines of “can’t wait to get to the second semester teacher!”

It has to be magnet pre-cal at Blair. There were several long threads about it a few months ago complaining about the poor teaching methods of one teacher in particular.

It was a legit complaint from what I understand it as many parents were voicing similar issues on the magnet listserv and they used their real names. The magnet coordinator was contacted. I don't know what became of this though.

Is this magnet math at Blair or a different course?

Prior PP again. FWIW- I think the teacher’s behavior is outrageous.

OP- I think that’s horrible. The stress of not knowing how your kid is doing in math is terrible. There is no excuse for not providing feedback quickly. My guess is that these big tests the teacher uses as a modified bell curve (probably A-C) and modifies the points so he can get the grade distribution that he wants. I have an older child that goes to UMD and had a 1 star review professor. Her grading policy seems very similar to what you are experiencing but that’s college not HS.

I’m glad you posted. HS should be about teaching and learning material and concepts not trying to fail your kid. My kid is in a magnet program too and it’s hard.

Slightly agree about parents being overly involved. However, poor instructional practices by a teacher include not giving feedback. That is a problem. I’m not talking about grades. I’m talking about a student deserving feedback for the work they do as feedback.

Too often poor teachers are pushed along in HS bc people say kids need to deal with things. Unfortunately, it usually takes a parent speaking up after a child has tried and failed to see results.

It is lame to keep saying kids deal with it. Not all teachers respond to students as they would adults.

There is no policy against pop-up quizzes.

It is perfectly reasonable to have ungraded assignments- that’s how you learn. You shouldn’t be given a grade just for trying (that’s what the 10% HW category is for).

The 90% category should be where students demonstrate their mastery of the content. In math, this is definitely through quizzes and tests.

The number of total points on a “big test” doesn’t matter. It’s a test taken in a set amount of time covering specific content. The points can be scaled up and down without affecting the measure of success. I presume some of those questions are longer problems that the teacher is grading the steps of the process. Maybe they expected a problem to be 5 points, but as they graded they realized they wanted to account for the steps differently and graded it out of 6 or 7 points.

This is an awful big vent for the middle of summer. If you are a student, let it go and be more on top of your work next year. If you are a parent, you should not be this involved in your student’s work. You need to step back.

-HS STEM teacher at another school

Different teacher here. I give many assignments that I end up not grading. Kids need to do all the work period. That is how you learn.

Anonymous wrote:this sounds like private school math grading; you are experiencing what kids at Sidwell, STA (St, Albans) experience in all their math classes.
my son just finished a class at one of these schools: no credit for homework, no quizzes, 2 exams per marking period. no retakes. you do bad on the exams, you do bad in the class. Period. kids learn to be very prepared for the exams and they do all the homework even though it officially counts for nothing.

Honestly, this is what (math) learning is supposed to be. HW and quiz are just temporary crutches that help students learn.

this sounds like private school math grading; you are experiencing what kids at Sidwell, STA (St, Albans) experience in all their math classes.
my son just finished a class at one of these schools: no credit for homework, no quizzes, 2 exams per marking period. no retakes. you do bad on the exams, you do bad in the class. Period. kids learn to be very prepared for the exams and they do all the homework even though it officially counts for nothing.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe OP is a student?

I mean, maybe? Still not sure what question OP is asking.

Maybe OP is a student?

I don’t want to be mean, but it sounds like you’re very involved in the details of your high school student’s class. I have no idea how many assignments, points, tests, quizzes, etc. my magnet student has. Managing that is their job.

That said, what exactly do you think should happen based on your post to an anonymous board? Sounds like you’ve already talked to the teacher and magnet coordinator, which is probably the most you can do beyond working with your kid on study skills and time management, and encouraging them to go to iffice hours if they’re having trouble with content.

The teacher does not return the first BIG tests of the marking period until one or two weeks before the end of marking period. He is a stickler and not pellucid to his students. He deliberately kept the first big exam grades to himself for all 4 marking periods. He gives 3 to 4 Big exams during the marking period and each of these exams are 130 points or more that accounts for 90 percent of his grades. The only way you can get an "A" in this class is to do magnificent in the BIG tests that range from 130-145 points.

· One example, he gave the BIG exam on April 28 for 130 points (informed the class the exam is for 120 points) but did not give grades until the week of June 6 (week before the end of marking period). He should be transparent to his class and help students surpass their expectations.

· He provided 88 assignments in the second semester that account for "0" points. This also means students do not have to submit these assignments. They must spend the time and do these assignments if they want to understand limits, differentiation and integration concepts. But no grade was assigned by the teacher.

· The 10% is for additional 22 assignments or homework students are required to submit.

· He gives 2-3 take home quiz (30 points each) that accounts for 90% during the semester, comparing 130-140 Big test points to 30 points take home quiz.

· He changes the maximum grades before/during/after the Big exam or quiz. The big quiz at the end of the marking period 4 was originally assigned for 45 points, he changed to 55 points, and finally it was graded for 60 points. He does this for all big quiz and exams throughout the year.

He works hard and posts a lot of Youtube videos, but he must think from student perspective that they have 7 additional subjects including 2-4 AP courses. I am sure he wants students to work hard, and a few students do well in his class. He needs to think for the entire Pre-calc and Analysis class (more than 75 students, in 3 classes). He should have reduced the points for big exam to a reasonable number of points that can be graded within a week or two and consulted with other STEM teachers on how they design their grades for each assignment. I understand the magnet course is rigorous and challenging. There should be no assignments that have "0" points. He could have assigned 5 points (90% section) for those 88 assignments that had "0" points, which will help students to keep this rigorous course interesting and challenging. There were no additional opportunities available for students throughout the school year.

He tells his students that he did not have time to grade the big exam, he could have downsized the Big exam compared to other Math magnet teacher. This should give students the opportunity to improve their grades. He graded the second big exam before the first one.

For all 4 marking periods the very first Big Exam grades (students took within 3 weeks from the beginning of the marking period) were not provided until the last two weeks of the marking period. MCPS requires students to turn in the assignments on time, is there any MCPS policy that a teacher grades these exams within a reasonable timeframe? It is weird that MCPS has expectations from students but not from their teachers.

He also gave 5 pop-quiz in the second semester; my understanding is that MCPS system does not allow pop-quizzes. Program administrator is aware of this, but nothing was done by the administrator and the school principal.