Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 19:21     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why on earth don't they just switch to a standard -/+ system?


That's not standard, not even inside the US. In most other countries in the world, numerical grading is the norm.

I am very happy that MCPS moved towards a more transparent and accurate system. The previous one lumped kids together arbitrarily, and it was unfair to high achievers as well as those who had just missed the cutoff for the grade above.


But the transcripts will still use the big 10 digit bands for letter grades. It’s just for the rarer occasions where a kid is applying ED or something and the 1st Mp grades are required or a kid is applying to a private school and asks for the latest grades available that these numbers will be seen…and presumably for magnet admissions too.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 19:15     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:Why on earth don't they just switch to a standard -/+ system?


That's not standard, not even inside the US. In most other countries in the world, numerical grading is the norm.

I am very happy that MCPS moved towards a more transparent and accurate system. The previous one lumped kids together arbitrarily, and it was unfair to high achievers as well as those who had just missed the cutoff for the grade above.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 18:37     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will be on the transcripts. Juniors and Seniors families would revolt. Maybe a couple of years from now they could consider that. But for right now it would be a bad decision.


But Op is right that some schools require it for seniors for first quarter. I had a friend whose school sent that out to the ED school without even telling the kid before hand. I’m sure some kids are gojng to be surprised by this. They should have been more clear about this. Well know for next year I guess.


I wonder how this will impact magnet admissions, since they look at Grade 8 MP1. For those who say "everyone gets As," it's now going to be much easier to see if an A is a 90 or a 99.


My completely unofficial (not an MCPS EE) understanding is that, previously, the various admissions committees got to see some other columns on the report card. (Maybe the little-used class participation column? Maybe the Honors/GT/HS-credit designation columns? One has to assume they didn't show the teacher name column, since that would tend to identify the MS from which the applying student would be coming, which is supposed to be forbidden.) If so, the number score now reported for this past quarter also might appear (or not, depending).

This was only for the "relevant" subjects to that magnet (e.g., Math & Science for the criteria-based Engineering or SMCS, to go along with MAP-M; English & Social Studies for the criteria-based IBs, Poolesville Humanities or Blair CAP, to go along with MAP-R; etc.). They stopped providing the full student academic profile to the magnet committees a couple of years back.

Maybe there's an admissions committee member at one of the magnets on DCUM who could enlighten us as to that prior practice (i.e., what they got to see from the report cards). Of course, there's no guarantee that MCPS central upper management decides to keep things as they were.


That might make selection more robust if so. Now the only number the committee has is a single MAP-R or MAP-M.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 16:20     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will be on the transcripts. Juniors and Seniors families would revolt. Maybe a couple of years from now they could consider that. But for right now it would be a bad decision.


But Op is right that some schools require it for seniors for first quarter. I had a friend whose school sent that out to the ED school without even telling the kid before hand. I’m sure some kids are gojng to be surprised by this. They should have been more clear about this. Well know for next year I guess.


I wonder how this will impact magnet admissions, since they look at Grade 8 MP1. For those who say "everyone gets As," it's now going to be much easier to see if an A is a 90 or a 99.


My completely unofficial (not an MCPS EE) understanding is that, previously, the various admissions committees got to see some other columns on the report card. (Maybe the little-used class participation column? Maybe the Honors/GT/HS-credit designation columns? One has to assume they didn't show the teacher name column, since that would tend to identify the MS from which the applying student would be coming, which is supposed to be forbidden.) If so, the number score now reported for this past quarter also might appear (or not, depending).

This was only for the "relevant" subjects to that magnet (e.g., Math & Science for the criteria-based Engineering or SMCS, to go along with MAP-M; English & Social Studies for the criteria-based IBs, Poolesville Humanities or Blair CAP, to go along with MAP-R; etc.). They stopped providing the full student academic profile to the magnet committees a couple of years back.

Maybe there's an admissions committee member at one of the magnets on DCUM who could enlighten us as to that prior practice (i.e., what they got to see from the report cards). Of course, there's no guarantee that MCPS central upper management decides to keep things as they were.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 12:30     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I doubt it will be on the transcripts. Juniors and Seniors families would revolt. Maybe a couple of years from now they could consider that. But for right now it would be a bad decision.


But Op is right that some schools require it for seniors for first quarter. I had a friend whose school sent that out to the ED school without even telling the kid before hand. I’m sure some kids are gojng to be surprised by this. They should have been more clear about this. Well know for next year I guess.


I wonder how this will impact magnet admissions, since they look at Grade 8 MP1. For those who say "everyone gets As," it's now going to be much easier to see if an A is a 90 or a 99.
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 20:46     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why on earth don't they just switch to a standard -/+ system?


Bear in mind that this can back fire as some competitive schools receive applications from school systems where 89.5 isn’t an A.


I’m fine with that.
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 20:36     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:Why on earth don't they just switch to a standard -/+ system?


Bear in mind that this can back fire as some competitive schools receive applications from school systems where 89.5 isn’t an A.
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 18:55     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why on earth don't they just switch to a standard -/+ system?


I think that’s more confusing than the numbers.



No, it's less confusing. Is a 93 an A- or an A? Listing that would be clearer. I also don't love the stress this puts on perfectionistic kids (I got a 95 but so and so got a 98!) If the grades are both listed as As, kids won't fixate on that kind of thing.

Of course pluses and minues are more confusing; the cutoffs for pluses and minuses aren’t standardized across every school in the US. However, the actual percentage of total possible points earned is standardized. In every school district 93% is greater than 92% and less than 94%.


But the work that merits a 93 or 94 or whatever isn’t standardized; grade inflation is still issue. This is just one way to further differentiate. Pluses and minuses are another.
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 18:39     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
The transcript is going to have final grades for each semester Class A, Class B only.
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 10:52     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why on earth don't they just switch to a standard -/+ system?


I think that’s more confusing than the numbers.



No, it's less confusing. Is a 93 an A- or an A? Listing that would be clearer. I also don't love the stress this puts on perfectionistic kids (I got a 95 but so and so got a 98!) If the grades are both listed as As, kids won't fixate on that kind of thing.


Playing devil's advocate - One could make a valid case that this is good because there is certainly a huge difference between 100 and 89.5.
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 10:23     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
Anonymous wrote:The grades on the report card are rounded. Is that the number that will be used to calculate final grades? Or the number that we see in parentvue (which goes to I think the tenth column). Seems like a picky question, but it could make all the difference a couple of months from now!


The numbers I see for MP1 in Parentvue are also rounded. Where are you seeing not-rounded numbers?
Anonymous
Post 11/09/2025 10:06     Subject: Report cards now show number grades in addition to letter grades
The grades on the report card are rounded. Is that the number that will be used to calculate final grades? Or the number that we see in parentvue (which goes to I think the tenth column). Seems like a picky question, but it could make all the difference a couple of months from now!