Anonymous wrote:Teacher here - I always sent home graded work every Friday in the students' data notebooks. I did ask parents to keep the papers in the data notebooks until the end of the marking period but they saw the work come home every week. It is unacceptable for a teacher not to be providing timely and specific feedback to his/her students. Now pulling the FERPA card...I don't recommend going that route as you will come off sounding like a lunatic.

You may sound like a lunatic but you will get what you want very quickly if you go up the chain each time someone refuses -- teacher, principal, supervisor outside of school. I almost always am able to get what I need with a FERPA request to the principal.

Is this thread for real? Six years in MCPS and I have NEVER seen a graded paper, test, or other assignment sent home. I was also told that any graded work had to be kept by the teacher for record keeping. I could make an appt. to go in and see the graded assignments for my child, but they could not be sent home.
The idea that MCPS is consistent across schools really is a myth.

Under the old curriculum, the unit tests coyukd not be sent home. Under 2.0 all papers can be sent ho!me. OP- if the teachger does not agree to send papers home, go too the principal.

There are some unit assessments that cannot be sent home, but most other work should be sent home.

MCPS elementary teacher here. I agree that student work should be sent home in a timely manner, but here are a few added thoughts.

1. Voice your concerns about the grading system. I hate it. Always have. It tells parents little, largely because of the vast P range. Nobody-- literally nobody -- in the Central a Office can articulate a meaningful explanation of what constitutes ES work. Tell the School Board members! Teachers have no influence on these type of policy issues. In fact, the union--often described as "powerful"--is explicitly barred from raising issues tied to the curriculum.

2. Though I like the MAP tests because the questions adjust to the student's level, and I get timely feedback that helps me understand student strengths and weaknesses, they constitute just a snapshot of where your kid is academically. He/she might have had an "off" day. Also, some of the concepts covered on the test might not yet have been covered or reviewed during the current school year.

3. Some scores, like Parcc, aren't available for months. That is not the teacher's fault.

4. Scanning documents takes time. Our school has more than 100 staffers and more than 700 students. We have one scanner. We have one copier. The scanner is in the computer lab. The computer lab is almost never available because of standardized testing in the primary grades. The copier breaks down...frequently. We do not have printers in our classrooms. The few we do have are shared among between 8 and 12 teachers. We are told we should not use the printers as copiers, because of the ink costs. So...please just talk with the teacher and see if you can arrange a time to look at your child's work.

Teacher here - I always sent home graded work every Friday in the students' data notebooks. I did ask parents to keep the papers in the data notebooks until the end of the marking period but they saw the work come home every week. It is unacceptable for a teacher not to be providing timely and specific feedback to his/her students. Now pulling the FERPA card...I don't recommend going that route as you will come off sounding like a lunatic.

I am not very happy with As in IM in 6th grade.
Child got 100% on unit test. At home cannot do (a+b)(c+d)
We teaching and reteaching and teaching again after this terrible 2.0. Child retains very little.
This is disaster.

Anonymous wrote:I have a 5th grader and I have never received any graded work. Last year I asked about it and was told teachers were not permitted to share any graded work. It all had to be kept for records. Frustrating I know.

This is absolutely wrong. Parents have a right under FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) to view all educational re ords of the child. This is basically anything at school with your child's name on it. If the teacher needs a copy for her records, then you can be invited in to view the record (at which time you could also take a pic of it) or the school can give you a copy.

Under FERPA you are also entitled to an explanation of the meaning of the record, which would include test problems, grades, how test was administered and why points were taken off.

Please write a simple letter to the teacher who denies you access to educational records. Re-state your request, restate the teacher's denial and rationale, and reference the FERPA obligation to produce access. COpy a supervisor or principal.

BTW, FERPA also applies to MAP and PARCC. There is underlying data to the MAP R and MAP M which further breaksdown skill sets. Normally only teachers get that, but parents have a right to access it under FERPA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher and I do my best to send home work in a timely manner. Parents are part of the team and need to be kept informed of how their child is doing. We can work together to support the child. You need to speak to the principal about this. I make copies of student work for my files, but all originals go home.

I think the county did a disservice to the upper elementary students when they hanged the grading scale. P has a wide range of understanding. It can be anywhere from an A or a C. Parents and students are lulled into a false positive until they get to middle school and get letter grades. If a parent does not actually look at the quality of the work or know what true proficiency is, they think their child is mastering everything.

OP double digit by double digit multiplication was taught in 4th grade. It was reviewed in the first weeks of 5th. Your daughter is not alone in the struggle, but she is not at proficiency. She does need support with that concept or future indicators will be difficult for her. 6th grade math could be overwhelming. Good luck

This is further compounded when parents don't know what is proficient; for example, I have no idea whether my first grader's handwriting is terrible or normal. Not like I have seen a lot of first grade papers.

Everything is proficient in 1st. As long as she's making marks on the page and you can read letters and they are kind of in a straight line. The P grading in 1st is fine because there is a wide, wide range of age appropriate skills. By 4th the children start to separate and giving everyone Ps helps no one.

My 5th grader gets graded every week on quizzes. We get almost too many math grades sent home. Her teacher gives an I if there's any error in even one answer (including, for instance, where you get the answer right but draw the demonstrative model wrong), so she gets tons of I's. I have a hard time knowing whether to worry.

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher and I do my best to send home work in a timely manner. Parents are part of the team and need to be kept informed of how their child is doing. We can work together to support the child. You need to speak to the principal about this. I make copies of student work for my files, but all originals go home.

I think the county did a disservice to the upper elementary students when they hanged the grading scale. P has a wide range of understanding. It can be anywhere from an A or a C. Parents and students are lulled into a false positive until they get to middle school and get letter grades. If a parent does not actually look at the quality of the work or know what true proficiency is, they think their child is mastering everything.

OP double digit by double digit multiplication was taught in 4th grade. It was reviewed in the first weeks of 5th. Your daughter is not alone in the struggle, but she is not at proficiency. She does need support with that concept or future indicators will be difficult for her. 6th grade math could be overwhelming. Good luck

This is further compounded when parents don't know what is proficient; for example, I have no idea whether my first grader's handwriting is terrible or normal. Not like I have seen a lot of first grade papers.

I find it very hard with the current grading system to have any idea of what my child actually knows and does not know. Even when I question why my child does not understand something, they say they don't know- maybe because they were working in a group. How can you not know how individual students are performing? Are there really no quizzes or tests even in 5th grade? How is it possible to prepare ANY 5th grade student for percentage grading at the middle school level? So frustrating. They need to return to the old grading system at least./

I am a teacher and I do my best to send home work in a timely manner. Parents are part of the team and need to be kept informed of how their child is doing. We can work together to support the child. You need to speak to the principal about this. I make copies of student work for my files, but all originals go home.

I think the county did a disservice to the upper elementary students when they hanged the grading scale. P has a wide range of understanding. It can be anywhere from an A or a C. Parents and students are lulled into a false positive until they get to middle school and get letter grades. If a parent does not actually look at the quality of the work or know what true proficiency is, they think their child is mastering everything.

OP double digit by double digit multiplication was taught in 4th grade. It was reviewed in the first weeks of 5th. Your daughter is not alone in the struggle, but she is not at proficiency. She does need support with that concept or future indicators will be difficult for her. 6th grade math could be overwhelming. Good luck

Anonymous wrote:I have a 5th grader and I have never received any graded work. Last year I asked about it and was told teachers were not permitted to share any graded work. It all had to be kept for records. Frustrating I know.

That is the most horrendous bullshit I have ever heard. Which MCPS school said that?