Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some students do get Bs, or used to before a year of virtual learning.

We find it's just the opposite. Older kid never got a single B. Younger kid gets maybe 1 B in something random. I think it may have to do with teachers actually objective grading required tests. A lot of that didn't exist in years past.

Kid got a B in reading comprehension the same quarter they somehow managed to score in the 99% on their map-r.

Anonymous wrote:Some students do get Bs, or used to before a year of virtual learning.

We find it's just the opposite. Older kid never got a single B. Younger kid gets maybe 1 B in something random. I think it may have to do with teachers actually objective grading required tests. A lot of that didn't exist in years past.

Coming from another school district I don't understand this question.

I've never looked at my kid's "grades" in elementary that closely unless they were low. They used a 4-point scale and 3 meant on target and 4 meant exceeding target. Usually my kid would get mostly 3s at the beginning of the year and mostly 4s at the end of the year. This was probably fairly accurate (as a PP noted elementary school is not hard for a kid with educated and supportive parents) but it's not what I would focus on. Especially since a lot of the grades were for stuff like art and PE -- no one's kid is failing those subjects in elementary school unless they are super disruptive or not participating at all. The point of those parts of elementary is simply to participate.

Instead I'd focus on objective assessments like DIBELs for reading or iReady for math and look at where my kid was landing within the bands for her grade as well as how she was progressing across trimesters and grades. This gave me a much better sense of how she was doing on core subjects and whether we needed to offer more support or supplement.

So "grade inflation" in elementary sounds like a dumb concept to me. Teachers will absolutely flag a kid who is behind via grades but the focus should be a lot more precise than that. Are they getting a 2 in ELA because they are struggling with reading or writing. Is the issue decoding or comprehension. Is there a developmental issue like fine motor skills impacting their writing. Do they have signs of a learning disorder. And so one. Elementary school is fundamentally different from middle or high school and grades operate in a different way. Talking about "grade inflation" when you are getting a report card that provides scores on assessment tests and learning disorder screenings is weird. Grow up.

Mine is in top 10% in top school and they have plenty of B's.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If Meeting minimum standards for grade level proficiency is an A and a child who is regularly receiving enrichment two grade levels above current grade is also A, the A range is huge and it’s not particularly informative.

Meeting a standard shouldn’t be an A. An A used to be outstanding mastery of a subject. Now it’s meeting a standard. No wonder everyone has As in public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

If Meeting minimum standards for grade level proficiency is an A and a child who is regularly receiving enrichment two grade levels above current grade is also A, the A range is huge and it’s not particularly informative.

Some students do get Bs, or used to before a year of virtual learning.

Anonymous wrote:We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

Do you want a curve? Why?

I get that the assumption is grade inflation. But ES is not hard, and this is an educated area: at least in theory, everybody could have mastered the grade standards. Should they not then have As for hitting that mark?

Anonymous wrote:ES uses standards based Grading. A means you meet the standard. So if you are performing at grade level you get an A. Yes. Lots of kids meet the standard and get straight As.

That is not standards based grading.

B= meets standards

Oh my. My district used a scale of 4. At grade level/meeting standards was 3. Y'all have grade inflation.

ES uses standards based Grading. A means you meet the standard. So if you are performing at grade level you get an A. Yes. Lots of kids meet the standard and get straight As.

thanks OP here--I'm not humble bragging, was just a little shocked. My kid had been below grade level in our prior district as I mentioned, and to open an interim report card of straight As was a bit of a shock, as I had an email cued up to ask for additional in-classroom supports based on the interim report card.

My son with an IEP definitely didn’t get all As but I do think there is still grade inflation as a result of Covid. Not everyone was impacted the same but I don’t think people realize teachers were teaching through trauma, parents were parenting through trauma and kids felt those impacts. I’m glad your child is doing well and I think people are getting back on track but it’s going to take some time so we might see grade inflation for a few more years.

We are new to MCPS and assuming everyone has all As in all subjects. Sucks the joy out of it.

I've been following the discussion about grade inflation in MCPS high schools, but is the same true for elementary school too? We moved to MCPS recently, and my ES kid got an interim report card with straight As, even though in their prior school district they were below grade level in one of the core subjects....