I made my kids a cake for the last day of school. Both my A student, and my B student got to eat it.

It’s MCPS. Unless your child has special needs, is ann EML, or overcame some extraordinary challenge such as the death of a parent or homelessness, all As in MS is not unusual. It’s largely just turning all of the work in.

This is a good time to teach intrinsic rewards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All As isn’t anything unusual in public school these days. It means they met the standard.

Do you have a kid who has gone through middle school yet? If they took a bunch of high school classes and got all As throughout the, no, it’s not “standard”.

DP here (I said the grades are the gift, early on in this thread) but yes, my DD took Honors math classes in 7th & 8th, she took Honors French and Honors Chinese. She left Pyle as a straight A student. She is now in 11th grade and ranks #1 in her HS because of this work she did and the accumulative WGPA it has given her. For what it's worth, she was run of the mill at Whitman with friends out-doing her in AP classes. We have since moved and that is why she is now ranked #1 in her HS.

So leaving Pyle with all A's is very much the "norm"

Competition at Whitman is pretty tough. There is always someone smarter, someone working harder, someone with more resources.

I think we can agree that there is some real randomness-- a given course in Honors Geometry may be structured with so many re-takes that a lot of kids get As. And an art teacher might give Bs and Cs generously.

This is another reason that rewarding all As can come back to bite you later-- a kid who works hard could end up with a B or two due to teacher assignment.

Anonymous wrote:I just want to state that I think the “all A’s in MS is not hard” posters are kind of wrong. I e had a bunch of kids go through MS and I will say there is a lot of randomness depending on teacher. I know an orchestra teacher that will fail you on tests if you are out of tune (and being fine deaf is not something a child can correct). A language teacher where the average grade is a C. Math teachers who don’t cover the material (and you’re not allowed to retake unit tests so if you’re caught by surprise you’re out of luck.). PE teachers go grade all the girls down a bit, and gives you a bad grade if you can’t improve your mile time over the semester.

I hate it when posters say that if you’re not getting straight A’s, you aren’t trying. I know lots of well behaved kids who did all the work and are naturally gifted and still didn’t get straight As. Based my observation, there is a ton of randomness.

Agree. Those comments about As being easy are extremely elitist. I think you just have to pass over them.

Anonymous wrote:I just want to state that I think the “all A’s in MS is not hard” posters are kind of wrong. I e had a bunch of kids go through MS and I will say there is a lot of randomness depending on teacher. I know an orchestra teacher that will fail you on tests if you are out of tune (and being fine deaf is not something a child can correct). A language teacher where the average grade is a C. Math teachers who don’t cover the material (and you’re not allowed to retake unit tests so if you’re caught by surprise you’re out of luck.). PE teachers go grade all the girls down a bit, and gives you a bad grade if you can’t improve your mile time over the semester.

I hate it when posters say that if you’re not getting straight A’s, you aren’t trying. I know lots of well behaved kids who did all the work and are naturally gifted and still didn’t get straight As. Based my observation, there is a ton of randomness.

You're not talking about Pyle are you? Because while the quality of teachers is inconsistent, the grading system is not.

I just want to state that I think the “all A’s in MS is not hard” posters are kind of wrong. I e had a bunch of kids go through MS and I will say there is a lot of randomness depending on teacher. I know an orchestra teacher that will fail you on tests if you are out of tune (and being fine deaf is not something a child can correct). A language teacher where the average grade is a C. Math teachers who don’t cover the material (and you’re not allowed to retake unit tests so if you’re caught by surprise you’re out of luck.). PE teachers go grade all the girls down a bit, and gives you a bad grade if you can’t improve your mile time over the semester.

I hate it when posters say that if you’re not getting straight A’s, you aren’t trying. I know lots of well behaved kids who did all the work and are naturally gifted and still didn’t get straight As. Based my observation, there is a ton of randomness.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s great to reward your kids for having a great year but I would reconsider tying it explicitly to A’s. I saw so many of my peers struggle to live up to parental expectations even when they were tying their hardest. A lot of things may hinge on their grades but those things don’t need to include your approval.

I agree with this. We did it. I don't remember how much, but we gave some money reward each year if they got all As. I have three kids and two of them got the reward year after year but for one, as he got older, as the difficulty of classes increased, the kid probably worked much harder than in MS (frankly, all As in middle school isn't all that hard) and I think this focus on grades just added to the anxiety.

It would have been fine if we had one kid, but at some point, it became a contrast-- one kid got all As, the other didn't (third was in college at this point) (But the Bs were classes such as AP calculus an AP Chem). We worked it out, but it would have been easier if we'd tied it to something less rigid-- "I know you worked your butt of this year, so ___(reward)___." Also, if I were to do it again, I'd do something slightly different each year (maybe different timing or different reward or different explanation for reward) so that if you pivot in another direction based on kid's needs, it isn't so obvious.

Whaaaaat. My parents never rewarded me for anything (or had expectations of any kind) and I graduated top of my class. And went on to get a PhD. I did not know this was a thing 😂

We are having a backyard party for DD and friends. They are going in all different directions for HS so we wanted to mark the moment. That’s her gift.

My parents were really strict and had high expectations. They would make the standard joke about “Don’t they give A pluses?”, give me $1 per A, and take me out for ice cream.

I think it would be nice to let them choose a dinner out for the family, or choose an activity (show at the K center, ropes course, camping trip, etc) for the family, depending on their interests and your budget.

I have very smart, high achieving kids and not one of them got all As in MS. One of them got a B in orchestra, another got one B in Spanish and one in math. People say it’s so easy to be get all As for all three years you really need to very consistent about staying up top of your assignments and studying for tests, especially if you are taking a language and advanced math.

Anonymous wrote:My kids got all A's and we didn't give them anything. It's also an option to say good job and move on.

This.

My kid also got straight As all through MS. She got nothing. We talked about how she did a great job and that it would help her be ready for HS.

The other PP is correct. OP, if your kid is in MCPS, it's not really all that difficult to get As. The kids need to show up, not cause trouble and complete assignments. Yes, even in the 'high school' level classes.

The reward for completing hard work is the opportunity to do harder work.

A book. A dinner out or ice cream sundae to celebrate.
High quality pencils and pins.

Focus some attention on a hobby or intellectual interest. If you are too focused on grades because you don't have anything internally motivating, it will cause problems later.

Anonymous wrote:If we feel our kid has worked hard and tried their best in school (they don't need straight A's), we take her to the mall at the end of the semester and let her pick out something. I think it is weird tying it to grades. Some kids find getting all A's pretty easy others really struggle to get a B.

Love this.

If we feel our kid has worked hard and tried their best in school (they don't need straight A's), we take her to the mall at the end of the semester and let her pick out something. I think it is weird tying it to grades. Some kids find getting all A's pretty easy others really struggle to get a B.