Strong argument for using A- and B+, etc. for the semester grade.

Anonymous wrote:The downside is when a kid has a tough first quarter in a class, gets a B (84.5)for whatever reason then tries really hard and has a 93 for the second quarter, but still ends up with a B for the semester as if they hadn’t tried hard the last half. Sort of demoralizing for that kid. Seems like they could find a way to do this where an A above a certain level means the semester remains a A? That is upward trajectory of effort and skills, is it not? Makes some kids feel like “ why did I put in so much more effort if I still end up with the B?” (Or C in some other cases for others other there I am sure)

Agree. I have two high schoolers and it is extremely mathematically hard to get very high A grades (96, 97, 98, etc.) in most classes even if you are capable, engaged, and don’t slip up much. So if you have a mid B 1st quarter, it’s very demoralizing that you probably can’t claw your way back to a semester A even if you earn a solid A 2nd quarter.

Does anyone have a copy of the letter that MCPS will send with transcripts? This is news to me as a parent of a junior.

For all of you who are worried about GPAs.....
Colleges know school systems can manipulate policies to get higher GPAs. It's not just MCPS; lots of systems have been doing this. Colleges know that our honors classes are not the same content and rigor as they were 15 years ago. They know the inflated impacted recent grading policies have on GPAs. I'm sure the number has some value in the college admission process, but I'm also sure that colleges take it with a grain of salt and look at other factors with more weight than 20 years ago. A kid with a 4.53 weighted GPA but a 1060 on the SATs and 2s on AP exams is not going to overshadow a kid with a 3.96 weight GPA, 1360 on the SATs, and 4s on AP exams.

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Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

I hope you reached out to your team lead or department head to assist you in managing this. You have terrible or even catastrophic stats and really need to figure out how to work through this if you expect to keep your job. I’m not a teacher but it seems like there have to be strategies beyond extending due dates to get kids to a passing level.

Teacher here at a different school. This is not that unusual actually. Assuming that the previous teacher is at a low income/high immigrant school, you will be shocked at how appalling attendance can be. Two years ago, I had a kid who attended 5 days of school out of a full year and administrators pressured me to pass her so she could graduate. That stuff is harder to pull off now - as it should be.

You're right that I am shocked. It doesn't surprise me that some kids have bad attendance and, probably in most cases, consequently bad grades. But the numbers are what shock me. Especially given that it's an honors course. I don't understand why kids who have poor attendance would even be signing up for honors classes. Regardless, at this point, though, I would think that at least some of that would be weeded out by the attendance policy that calls for disenrollment after a certain number of absences - which actually happened to one of my kids who had to be out for medical reasons.

The downside is when a kid has a tough first quarter in a class, gets a B (84.5)for whatever reason then tries really hard and has a 93 for the second quarter, but still ends up with a B for the semester as if they hadn’t tried hard the last half. Sort of demoralizing for that kid. Seems like they could find a way to do this where an A above a certain level means the semester remains a A? That is upward trajectory of effort and skills, is it not? Makes some kids feel like “ why did I put in so much more effort if I still end up with the B?” (Or C in some other cases for others other there I am sure)

I love that the new grading policy actually cares about the strength of their grade. I've had kids in the past who would calculate how much effort they needed to put out to get a 89.5 in the past. They would be like, "I still get an A even if I get a 30% on the final project" So they would turn in 30% of an assignment basically.

I'm not saying these kids need to be grade grubbing and begging for 98% but they need to run the race up to the finish line.

In response to the OP-
I have seen a lot more of my students get Bs in my class when, in years past, they would have gotten As. However, what I really appreciate about this new system is that students who got Cs the 1st quarter, and then went into a pattern of high absences 2nd quarter, failed the course. In the past, however, they would have gotten a D, despite 2nd quarter percentages below 40% and excessive unexcused absences. Seems like the grade was a better indicator of the student's mastery of the content than being able to manipulate the system.

My kid got his first C (low B in Q1 and mid C in Q2 - would've been a B under the old system) - plus 1 B and 5 As. These grades a more accurate reflection of his work, but it seems unfair for this to happen junior year, even with the letter MCPS will send with transcripts explaining the change. I also have a 9th grader and have no issues with the new grading system overall.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

I hope you reached out to your team lead or department head to assist you in managing this. You have terrible or even catastrophic stats and really need to figure out how to work through this if you expect to keep your job. I’m not a teacher but it seems like there have to be strategies beyond extending due dates to get kids to a passing level.

Or - and hear me out here - high school kids could take responsibility for their own education.

Anonymous wrote:How about among AP classes? This is the population where a good portion of the class is really striving for an A. Is the new grading system actually lowering the number of semester As?

My AP grades went down but I gave out a few pity Ds instead of Es. Most of my AP students want good grades but are woefully unprepared for the rigor of AP classes. They lack a strong foundation and have not learned study skills. It’s pretty depressing

My grades went down this year. But it is for the best. So many kids are used to getting good grades for assignment completion with no focus on trying to do a good job or actually understanding content. They can’t understand why they get a low grade and they refuse to adapt. Many of them claim that all they had to do in middle school was turn in stuff and they got As. I get blank stares when I tell them that high school doesn’t work like that

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. It has to change. DD's AP Calc BC teacher warned us at BTSN that our kids, maybe for the first time in their lives, would have Bs. And it's true - DD has an A for the semester, but a B for the last quarter. Her first B in math.

I love this new grading policy, BTW. It's so much more fair than the previous one.

Explain that to me like I'm five. Are you one of these people who think grading needs to be on a bell curve to be "fair?"

How about among AP classes? This is the population where a good portion of the class is really striving for an A. Is the new grading system actually lowering the number of semester As?

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Anonymous wrote:First year teacher here so i cant compare to previous years but 40% of my 9th graders failed semester 1 of Honors English 9

??? Are you in a low-income neighborhood?

I am outside the Beltway. That is all i will say

That's unusually low. If it's in-line with your school's previous achievement, it's not you. If it's not, it's you. Be prepared to document how you did things.

It was because of zeros. We had 12 AT assignments and 12 PP assignments in Q2. 24 assignments. The kids who failed on average had 18 missing assignments. I even disobeyed the grading policy and had unlimited deadlines. Nothing. Even the

I hope you reached out to your team lead or department head to assist you in managing this. You have terrible or even catastrophic stats and really need to figure out how to work through this if you expect to keep your job. I’m not a teacher but it seems like there have to be strategies beyond extending due dates to get kids to a passing level.

How do you have an opinion about these stats if you're not a teacher? Even among teachers this is hard to assess since student engagement varies a great deal across schools.