Anonymous wrote:

I agree with a PP that a narrative, child specific evaluation that tells the child's strengths and suggestions on how to improve would be a lot more useful. The current report card sends the kids a wrong message: No matter how much effort you put or no matter how smart you are, you will get at most P. That's a sure way to discourage and suppress truely gifted, high achiever kids.

+1 This isn't good for kids with learning problems either. My DS is very strong in some subjects but much weaker in others. He has been on a 504 as this stems from a learning disability. It makes no sense that he received all Ps and performed equally in all subjects unless 2.0 magically cured him. I know this isn't the case because the teacher this year has already urged us to increase his medication. This teacher isn't too keen on keeping up with the accommodations so I'm worried that her giving him all Ps is an attempt to skirt the 504.

I think you are on to something here.

My daughter's teacher (1st grade) was able to tell me exactly what earned a P and what earned an ES. She did say that no child will ever get all ES's and that the goal was to get everyone to Ps. She had two or three examples of each grade base on actual assignments.

Our teacher showed us no examples of DC's work or assessments during the conference. It was strange. She showed us a sheet that DS had filled out putting down what he though he should get which was almost completely reversed from where his strengths/weakness exist. She had a sheet with areas that she marked as strengths and weakness but weaknesses were pretty much blank. He had 1 ES 1 I and Ps. I asked about the ES and she could briefly say that he provided more detail in some writing assignments, when I asked which ones because I have not seen anything come home with an ES, should' couldn't tell me.

The one I in a math area really surprised me because it was an area that was very similar to what they did last year in 1st year, he's good at this, and I have never seen any homework in that area come home with an I. I asked if there was an assessment or test that he had done poorly on and she said she doesn't have tests but its from her observation. The area where she gave him an I wasn't even on her sheet as a weakness.

Anonymous wrote:

To be fair, what criteria were teachers ever really given in the past to assign an A or a B or a C?

I have no problem with the new report cards. I can tell what progress my son is making because I can see it in his homework and his increased reading and math abilities. It seems like the report cards are making some parents uncomfortable because they can't tell if their child is doing well anymore. The conference with the teacher, and the level of homework being done at home, should answer that question for them.

Disagree. In the past teachers have shown tests or assessment that have a clear scale. There was definition about what constituted an N, S, or O. One year, our child received several S grades and the teacher was able to clearly articulate and show where he needed to improve to achieve an O. This year the teachers can't articulate what a P is let alone what would be required to receive an ES.
I'm also bothered at the MCPS message line that this new system is better because the old one was broken and there were no real standards for grades in the past. 1.) I don't believe that this is true based on our experience 2.) The principals certainly were not saying that their grading system was broken or lacked any consistency last year or in prior years. 3.) If this is true then they should all be fired as incompetent educators for giving meaningless grades for the past 20 years.

I was hesistant on this years report card because of the posts on DCUM. I disagree with the bolded part. My daughter's teacher (1st grade) was able to tell me exactly what earned a P and what earned an ES. She did say that no child will ever get all ES's and that the goal was to get everyone to Ps. She had two or three examples of each grade base on actual assignments. I think it was the most informational conference I've had (I also have older kids).

I agree with a PP that a narrative, child specific evaluation that tells the child's strengths and suggestions on how to improve would be a lot more useful. The current report card sends the kids a wrong message: No matter how much effort you put or no matter how smart you are, you will get at most P. That's a sure way to discourage and suppress truely gifted, high achiever kids.

+1 This isn't good for kids with learning problems either. My DS is very strong in some subjects but much weaker in others. He has been on a 504 as this stems from a learning disability. It makes no sense that he received all Ps and performed equally in all subjects unless 2.0 magically cured him. I know this isn't the case because the teacher this year has already urged us to increase his medication. This teacher isn't too keen on keeping up with the accommodations so I'm worried that her giving him all Ps is an attempt to skirt the 504.

I agree with a PP that a narrative, child specific evaluation that tells the child's strengths and suggestions on how to improve would be a lot more useful. The current report card sends the kids a wrong message: No matter how much effort you put or no matter how smart you are, you will get at most P. That's a sure way to discourage and suppress truely gifted, high achiever kids.

To be fair, what criteria were teachers ever really given in the past to assign an A or a B or a C?

I have no problem with the new report cards. I can tell what progress my son is making because I can see it in his homework and his increased reading and math abilities. It seems like the report cards are making some parents uncomfortable because they can't tell if their child is doing well anymore. The conference with the teacher, and the level of homework being done at home, should answer that question for them.

Disagree. In the past teachers have shown tests or assessment that have a clear scale. There was definition about what constituted an N, S, or O. One year, our child received several S grades and the teacher was able to clearly articulate and show where he needed to improve to achieve an O. This year the teachers can't articulate what a P is let alone what would be required to receive an ES.

I'm also bothered at the MCPS message line that this new system is better because the old one was broken and there were no real standards for grades in the past. 1.) I don't believe that this is true based on our experience 2.) The principals certainly were not saying that their grading system was broken or lacked any consistency last year or in prior years. 3.) If this is true then they should all be fired as incompetent educators for giving meaningless grades for the past 20 years.

Anonymous wrote:OK, phew. My daughter got all P's and I was concerned. I guess gone are the days when a kid strive for straight A's. I have a feeling most teachers like this better as they don't have to write any comments. It must be hard to come up with constructive comments for 20+ kids.

No it's not difficult, plus if done thoughtfully it can be helpful. Same as performance reviews and work feedback in the real world.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter had either all Ps last year or maybe one I -- can't remember (Kindergarten -- there weren't ESs last year). This quarter she ended with a few Is this time and none of the ESs. It def. looked like a decline but she's doing better so I don't know.

Goal is mediocrity. Don't bother trying to improve cuz there is no reward nor recognition.
Worse, some kids might shoot for the bare minimum to get a P. that was a problem in our house-- there was such a range of efforts and skills for so many P grades, we got the Why Try talk...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hold on, report cards aren't distributed until Wednesday county-wide, I thought. Our teacher gave us a little print-out at our recent teacher conference of about 17 things, like you said, but it was not the complete and official report card that will be coming home on Wednesday.

We got the report card handed to us and the conference. It is a single page with about 30 possible measurement topics, but I think only 19 are graded this marking period. There are separate "grades" for learning skills, and a box showing reading level.

Confused. We were given a progress report, which is the same thing you described. That is not a report card.

Does it say "Progress Report Card" at the top, have grades of ES, P, I or N listed under each measurement topic for first marking period?
That is the report card.

We got no information from the PT conference. We get no info from the report card. The curriculum wasn't ready for prime time but for some reason there was a rush to implement. Well done MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, what criteria were teachers ever really given in the past to assign an A or a B or a C?

I have no problem with the new report cards. I can tell what progress my son is making because I can see it in his homework and his increased reading and math abilities. It seems like the report cards are making some parents uncomfortable because they can't tell if their child is doing well anymore. The conference with the teacher, and the level of homework being done at home, should answer that question for them.

I agree that you can tell how your child is doing based on work coming home and the parent-teacher conference. What I don't understand is the purpose of the current report cards. They really don't tell you much. Why not do away with report cards altogether and just write up a comprehensive, narrative, child-specific evaluation? Now that would be much more helpful.

To be fair, what criteria were teachers ever really given in the past to assign an A or a B or a C?

I have no problem with the new report cards. I can tell what progress my son is making because I can see it in his homework and his increased reading and math abilities. It seems like the report cards are making some parents uncomfortable because they can't tell if their child is doing well anymore. The conference with the teacher, and the level of homework being done at home, should answer that question for them.