Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that there was no notice, no communication from MCPS, the schools or teachers about this change.

Our teacher talked about it at BTSN, and it was in her slides.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

To me, a 14 point assessment makes sense as part of the AT 90% (and may actually be 10% of the points in a quarter for the class) but pulling that out as a separate 10% assessment seems a little too hard-azz and makes it hard for kids on the border of the different letter grades to have mobility over the course of the semester.

You don't even know what the 14 is out of and it will be different for each teacher. It could be all quizzes are 5 points so could be a lot more than 10% of the grade. My child's teacher never told them these tests count as a grade. She just assumed they don't count because they have never counted. What the heck?

This is the biggest problem I have. No one warned kids or families the the District Exams were going to be counting for as much. Further they are not giving fair warning that the district assessment is coming up. Yes, kids are actually going to class and getting surprised with these test.

This isn’t as big a deal as some seem to think it is. The grading policy already allows assignments to be up to 25% of the quarter grade. Just because a very specific assignment is broken out so they can pull that specific data across the county does not mean there’s really any impact to course grades.

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that there was no notice, no communication from MCPS, the schools or teachers about this change.

Anonymous wrote:Or here?:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1130389.page

Anonymous wrote:Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

To me, a 14 point assessment makes sense as part of the AT 90% (and may actually be 10% of the points in a quarter for the class) but pulling that out as a separate 10% assessment seems a little too hard-azz and makes it hard for kids on the border of the different letter grades to have mobility over the course of the semester.

You don't even know what the 14 is out of and it will be different for each teacher. It could be all quizzes are 5 points so could be a lot more than 10% of the grade. My child's teacher never told them these tests count as a grade. She just assumed they don't count because they have never counted. What the heck?

This is the biggest problem I have. No one warned kids or families the the District Exams were going to be counting for as much. Further they are not giving fair warning that the district assessment is coming up. Yes, kids are actually going to class and getting surprised with these test.

Anonymous wrote:They started these end of course exams that count towards the final grade last year. We just got an email from the PTSA saying there will be many more starting this year for many of the classes DC is taking.

Has anyone heard this? Where can I find official information? DC is in high school and is panicking because they are not a good tester and they had never been told this by teachers and it is the first I'm hearing about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students have been taking these assessments for a while, but because they weren’t “for a grade” kids don’t take them seriously. MCPS has been trying to make sure kids are on track for graduation and to pass state level tests, but the internal assessments (low because kids don’t care) and the course grades (high due to retakes) don’t match and they really can’t tell where kids are in their learning. Including them in the quarter grades should improve accuracy about where kids are at and is similar to how the state is rolling the state test into their grades.

To me, a 14 point assessment makes sense as part of the AT 90% (and may actually be 10% of the points in a quarter for the class) but pulling that out as a separate 10% assessment seems a little too hard-azz and makes it hard for kids on the border of the different letter grades to have mobility over the course of the semester.

You don't even know what the 14 is out of and it will be different for each teacher. It could be all quizzes are 5 points so could be a lot more than 10% of the grade. My child's teacher never told them these tests count as a grade. She just assumed they don't count because they have never counted. What the heck?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.

So these course-specific tests aren't coming from MCPS. They're coming from the state and they're tied to Maryland's Blueprint plan.

Here's more on this from the state on the math side: https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DAAIT/Assessment/MCAP/Math.aspx

Are you sure? This seems like something separate from the MCAP state assessments. If you look at the calendar of assessments, these are identified as internal assessments, while the MCAP is shown as external. It seems to be something different. I think these are what used to be called "progress checks" but now they are being weighed differently in marking period grades.

Anonymous wrote:Here's information that the Blair PTSA sent out in the slides from their meeting this week:

New this year, MCPS will be implementing district wide assessments, which will count 10% towards the marking period grade, in the following classes:

Mathematics: Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, 2 Year Algebra 2 AB/CD, Honors Precalculus, Precalculus, Statistics and Mathematical Modeling (SAMM), Honors Statistics
English (MP 2 & MP 3): Honors English 9, Honors English 10, Honors English 11, Honors English 12
Social Studies: NSL Government
Science: Biology

And I found this article online about it. There's nothing much on the MCPS website, except for dates listed in the calendar of assessments.