Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, more dumbing down and regression to the mean. These kids are bing set-up for failure. My DC had a staggering number of kids drop out of their AP classes the past few weeks, either because the kids couldn’t handle them or were too afraid of messing up their perfect GPAs.
MCPS isn’t helping kids by lowering the standards. So glad this is our last year in the system.

Our HS has had a ridiculous number of schedule changes for kids dropping from AP to Honors and Honors to on-level classes. I think this year's 11th graders have been particularly hard-hit with an overestimation of their readiness for challenging classes. They spent 9th grade on-line with no real accountability for what they actually learned. Last year in 10th grade they had overly generous grading policies that inflated their grades. 11th grade is when many students try to take AP courses for the first time in several classes, and they have been encouraged by counselors to "challenge themselves".

I teach an 11th grade Honors course. In the past 4 weeks I've had almost 30% of my students dropped from my rosters and 40% students added due to schedule changes (not specifically because they were changing levels in my subject). Big time bailout of AP classes - Language, World History, Statistics/Calculus, Science, Language. Also a lot of dropping levels in math, social studies, and science. The actual balance between number of AP/Honors/on-level sections needed is now closer to the pre-covid normal. But we started the year with more sections of higher level courses than usual. We are going to have to shift teachers and # of sections of different courses for semester B because class sizes are so unbalanced now.

Changing the grading policy may make parents and students feel better, but it won't change the underlying problem of student readiness for independent studying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, more dumbing down and regression to the mean. These kids are bing set-up for failure. My DC had a staggering number of kids drop out of their AP classes the past few weeks, either because the kids couldn’t handle them or were too afraid of messing up their perfect GPAs.
MCPS isn’t helping kids by lowering the standards. So glad this is our last year in the system.

Our HS has had a ridiculous number of schedule changes for kids dropping from AP to Honors and Honors to on-level classes. I think this year's 11th graders have been particularly hard-hit with an overestimation of their readiness for challenging classes. They spent 9th grade on-line with no real accountability for what they actually learned. Last year in 10th grade they had overly generous grading policies that inflated their grades. 11th grade is when many students try to take AP courses for the first time in several classes, and they have been encouraged by counselors to "challenge themselves".

I teach an 11th grade Honors course. In the past 4 weeks I've had almost 30% of my students dropped from my rosters and 40% students added due to schedule changes (not specifically because they were changing levels in my subject). Big time bailout of AP classes - Language, World History, Statistics/Calculus, Science, Language. Also a lot of dropping levels in math, social studies, and science. The actual balance between number of AP/Honors/on-level sections needed is now closer to the pre-covid normal. But we started the year with more sections of higher level courses than usual. We are going to have to shift teachers and # of sections of different courses for semester B because class sizes are so unbalanced now.

Changing the grading policy may make parents and students feel better, but it won't change the underlying problem of student readiness for independent studying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

The overall weight of those graded assignments on the final grade.

For example, in my child's math class, all the homework grades count towards 10% of the overall grade. Quizzes and test count toward 90% of the overall grade.

So if a child scored 100% average on all homework assignments, and 80% average on all quizzes/tests, then they end up with an 82 in the class because the homework grades can't really pull up bad quiz/test score.

Another things is that all 10% category grades are for completion (or attempt really). A student can earn a 100%, a 90% for turning it in late, or 0% for not turning it in. It’s not a true assessment of understanding. Just grade inflation. And it confusing parents who see a string of As. This is one reason MCPS finally decided to limit the number of grades in the 10% category.

But isn't the goal to provide small incentive to do the homework? By minimizing the reward for doing homework, kids will likely do less, undermining their test performance. People are focusing on whether homework is an appropriate measure of understanding and whether it inflates grades; this seems to ignore the benefit of encouraging kids to expend more effort which is what will ultimately boost understanding.

Actually, "grading" homework for so many years has created an extrinsic reward system where students have completely lost the idea that the purpose of practice is for them to learn and check their understanding of a topic. All they want is the "points" for completing a worksheet and don't understand why it's not helpful to them to just copy from a friend rather than try for themselves. Students are reporting that they are "stressed" because there is sooo much work, when in reality what they are stressed about is that they don't know how to pay attention and learn anymore. They have no skills to figure out how to complete a worksheet when they don't already know the answer, except googling and copying down something they hope is the answer.

I'm a high school teacher. I'm just as happy to NOT be collecting and grading all of the daily classwork. All class slides and handouts are available to students through Canvas. I post answer keys to worksheets. I don't care whether or not students are completing everything - it is up to them to monitor their own learning and understanding. What I do provide and grade for completion are practice quizzes in Canvas that cover concepts pulled directly from the worksheets and lessons in class. I build item banks that the quiz pulls from randomly. They can take the practice quiz as many times as they want and see the correct answers immediately after. It is essentially a tool for them to study exactly what they will see on the actual quiz (90% category, graded for correctness). My quizzes are 70% from the practice item banks, and then some additional short answer/application items. I have a built in retake ready to go (because the item bank questions are random.) My students that attend class regularly, make good effort to learn and complete activities, and then study with the practice quizzes all have As and Bs. The students that don't attend regularly, don't complete practice activities, and don't study then don't do well on the quizzes. I'm just fine with fewer things in the gradebook. It actually puts more responsibility on the students to learn the material.

Your attitude toward how and why students learn and demonstrate mastery wouldn't fly in the MCPS school in which I teach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, more dumbing down and regression to the mean. These kids are bing set-up for failure. My DC had a staggering number of kids drop out of their AP classes the past few weeks, either because the kids couldn’t handle them or were too afraid of messing up their perfect GPAs.
MCPS isn’t helping kids by lowering the standards. So glad this is our last year in the system.

Our HS has had a ridiculous number of schedule changes for kids dropping from AP to Honors and Honors to on-level classes. I think this year's 11th graders have been particularly hard-hit with an overestimation of their readiness for challenging classes. They spent 9th grade on-line with no real accountability for what they actually learned. Last year in 10th grade they had overly generous grading policies that inflated their grades. 11th grade is when many students try to take AP courses for the first time in several classes, and they have been encouraged by counselors to "challenge themselves".

I teach an 11th grade Honors course. In the past 4 weeks I've had almost 30% of my students dropped from my rosters and 40% students added due to schedule changes (not specifically because they were changing levels in my subject). Big time bailout of AP classes - Language, World History, Statistics/Calculus, Science, Language. Also a lot of dropping levels in math, social studies, and science. The actual balance between number of AP/Honors/on-level sections needed is now closer to the pre-covid normal. But we started the year with more sections of higher level courses than usual. We are going to have to shift teachers and # of sections of different courses for semester B because class sizes are so unbalanced now.

Changing the grading policy may make parents and students feel better, but it won't change the underlying problem of student readiness for independent studying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

The overall weight of those graded assignments on the final grade.

For example, in my child's math class, all the homework grades count towards 10% of the overall grade. Quizzes and test count toward 90% of the overall grade.

So if a child scored 100% average on all homework assignments, and 80% average on all quizzes/tests, then they end up with an 82 in the class because the homework grades can't really pull up bad quiz/test score.

Another things is that all 10% category grades are for completion (or attempt really). A student can earn a 100%, a 90% for turning it in late, or 0% for not turning it in. It’s not a true assessment of understanding. Just grade inflation. And it confusing parents who see a string of As. This is one reason MCPS finally decided to limit the number of grades in the 10% category.

Anonymous wrote:Great, more dumbing down and regression to the mean. These kids are bing set-up for failure. My DC had a staggering number of kids drop out of their AP classes the past few weeks, either because the kids couldn’t handle them or were too afraid of messing up their perfect GPAs.
MCPS isn’t helping kids by lowering the standards. So glad this is our last year in the system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

The overall weight of those graded assignments on the final grade.

For example, in my child's math class, all the homework grades count towards 10% of the overall grade. Quizzes and test count toward 90% of the overall grade.

So if a child scored 100% average on all homework assignments, and 80% average on all quizzes/tests, then they end up with an 82 in the class because the homework grades can't really pull up bad quiz/test score.

Another things is that all 10% category grades are for completion (or attempt really). A student can earn a 100%, a 90% for turning it in late, or 0% for not turning it in. It’s not a true assessment of understanding. Just grade inflation. And it confusing parents who see a string of As. This is one reason MCPS finally decided to limit the number of grades in the 10% category.

But isn't the goal to provide small incentive to do the homework? By minimizing the reward for doing homework, kids will likely do less, undermining their test performance. People are focusing on whether homework is an appropriate measure of understanding and whether it inflates grades; this seems to ignore the benefit of encouraging kids to expend more effort which is what will ultimately boost understanding.

Actually, "grading" homework for so many years has created an extrinsic reward system where students have completely lost the idea that the purpose of practice is for them to learn and check their understanding of a topic. All they want is the "points" for completing a worksheet and don't understand why it's not helpful to them to just copy from a friend rather than try for themselves. Students are reporting that they are "stressed" because there is sooo much work, when in reality what they are stressed about is that they don't know how to pay attention and learn anymore. They have no skills to figure out how to complete a worksheet when they don't already know the answer, except googling and copying down something they hope is the answer.

I'm a high school teacher. I'm just as happy to NOT be collecting and grading all of the daily classwork. All class slides and handouts are available to students through Canvas. I post answer keys to worksheets. I don't care whether or not students are completing everything - it is up to them to monitor their own learning and understanding. What I do provide and grade for completion are practice quizzes in Canvas that cover concepts pulled directly from the worksheets and lessons in class. I build item banks that the quiz pulls from randomly. They can take the practice quiz as many times as they want and see the correct answers immediately after. It is essentially a tool for them to study exactly what they will see on the actual quiz (90% category, graded for correctness). My quizzes are 70% from the practice item banks, and then some additional short answer/application items. I have a built in retake ready to go (because the item bank questions are random.) My students that attend class regularly, make good effort to learn and complete activities, and then study with the practice quizzes all have As and Bs. The students that don't attend regularly, don't complete practice activities, and don't study then don't do well on the quizzes. I'm just fine with fewer things in the gradebook. It actually puts more responsibility on the students to learn the material.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

The overall weight of those graded assignments on the final grade.

For example, in my child's math class, all the homework grades count towards 10% of the overall grade. Quizzes and test count toward 90% of the overall grade.

So if a child scored 100% average on all homework assignments, and 80% average on all quizzes/tests, then they end up with an 82 in the class because the homework grades can't really pull up bad quiz/test score.

Another things is that all 10% category grades are for completion (or attempt really). A student can earn a 100%, a 90% for turning it in late, or 0% for not turning it in. It’s not a true assessment of understanding. Just grade inflation. And it confusing parents who see a string of As. This is one reason MCPS finally decided to limit the number of grades in the 10% category.

But isn't the goal to provide small incentive to do the homework? By minimizing the reward for doing homework, kids will likely do less, undermining their test performance. People are focusing on whether homework is an appropriate measure of understanding and whether it inflates grades; this seems to ignore the benefit of encouraging kids to expend more effort which is what will ultimately boost understanding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

The overall weight of those graded assignments on the final grade.

For example, in my child's math class, all the homework grades count towards 10% of the overall grade. Quizzes and test count toward 90% of the overall grade.

So if a child scored 100% average on all homework assignments, and 80% average on all quizzes/tests, then they end up with an 82 in the class because the homework grades can't really pull up bad quiz/test score.

Another things is that all 10% category grades are for completion (or attempt really). A student can earn a 100%, a 90% for turning it in late, or 0% for not turning it in. It’s not a true assessment of understanding. Just grade inflation. And it confusing parents who see a string of As. This is one reason MCPS finally decided to limit the number of grades in the 10% category.

Anonymous wrote:

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

The overall weight of those graded assignments on the final grade.

For example, in my child's math class, all the homework grades count towards 10% of the overall grade. Quizzes and test count toward 90% of the overall grade.

So if a child scored 100% average on all homework assignments, and 80% average on all quizzes/tests, then they end up with an 82 in the class because the homework grades can't really pull up bad quiz/test score.

What are 90% grades and 10% grades?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, more dumbing down and regression to the mean. These kids are bing set-up for failure. My DC had a staggering number of kids drop out of their AP classes the past few weeks, either because the kids couldn’t handle them or were too afraid of messing up their perfect GPAs.
MCPS isn’t helping kids by lowering the standards. So glad this is our last year in the system.

Fewer kids in your AP class is a good thing as a student since your teacher will have more time for you. There are 38 students in DD’s most challenging AP class. The teacher is drowning in grading.

Anonymous wrote:Great, more dumbing down and regression to the mean. These kids are bing set-up for failure. My DC had a staggering number of kids drop out of their AP classes the past few weeks, either because the kids couldn’t handle them or were too afraid of messing up their perfect GPAs.
MCPS isn’t helping kids by lowering the standards. So glad this is our last year in the system.