Fairfax County Parents Association
@FFXParentsAssoc
·Mar 7
During Board Matters, Melanie Meren mentions Madison HS's new grading policies, expressing enthusiasm to learn more.
As a reminder, these changes were put in place to lower standards in the name of equity.

I think Meren & Reid were both at Madison on Friday to hear a presentation of the grading system. If Meren is enthusiastic, it is despite having heard from many concerned Madison parents. She was the only SB member to vote to keep the 4.0 grading scale.

I just requested semester grades for Madison HS.

Check your email:

Hello Madison Families,

I am reaching out to you to let you know about an opportunity to provide feedback on FCPS’ current grading and reporting system.

Instructional Services is currently conducting feedback sessions around grading and reporting at a few secondary schools, and Madison has been selected as one of the sites that will be hosting feedback sessions. The goal of these sessions is to better understand changes that were made this year and to consider additional needed changes moving forward.

Our feedback session will be on March 12 at 7 p.m. If you are interested in attending, please fill out this Google Form with your contact information. Additional information about the session will be sent via email.

To ensure that there are an adequate number of facilitators for this session, there will be a set number of available slots. If the form is no longer accepting responses, then the session has reached capacity.

Thank you for considering,

​​​​​​​Liz Calvert

Principal

^^^ At least, this is how my DCs math and history classes work. English does not reassess, nor does Psychology. All grades stay in those classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

Seeing teachers doing SBG, when based on 4 point scale, giving 4 only if 100% and drop to 3 if not 100%. Not hearing teachers giving in-between scores, but even if do, isn’t it disheartening for kids that unless do 100% on an assignment, can’t get an “A”? Or is that not how working for other teachers/classes?

https://madisonhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting

This has been DCs experience. If it’s not 100%, you can’t get an A/4. And many teachers do not use + and - grades, so if your average on a skill is a 3.7, which is an A-, you will receive a grade of B/3 on the skill because you didn’t “master” it. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Ok, but how many chances do they have to take/attain a particular skill? I assume multiple extra chances. I'm also assuming the skills are not difficult, i.e they cover the fundamentals. If so, it shouldn't be too hard to get 100% with multiple tries.

It doesn’t work that way in most classes. Reassessment of a skill does not replace earlier grades. At best, grades on the same skill are averaged. So a kid who has trouble with a skill at first and maybe gets a D/1 works really hard to get an A/4 on the next assessment. Those average to a 2.5, which rounds down to a C/2. And the assumption that the skills “are not difficult “ is incorrect. They cover everything a student does.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

Seeing teachers doing SBG, when based on 4 point scale, giving 4 only if 100% and drop to 3 if not 100%. Not hearing teachers giving in-between scores, but even if do, isn’t it disheartening for kids that unless do 100% on an assignment, can’t get an “A”? Or is that not how working for other teachers/classes?

https://madisonhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting

This has been DCs experience. If it’s not 100%, you can’t get an A/4. And many teachers do not use + and - grades, so if your average on a skill is a 3.7, which is an A-, you will receive a grade of B/3 on the skill because you didn’t “master” it. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Ok, but how many chances do they have to take/attain a particular skill? I assume multiple extra chances. I'm also assuming the skills are not difficult, i.e they cover the fundamentals. If so, it shouldn't be too hard to get 100% with multiple tries.

It is very difficult to get a 100% on every test actually, at least in our experience at Madison in the hardest classes. You do get multiple chances, but not for every exam. In math, there is no retake for the cumulative tests and history doesn’t seem to have any retakes. And just one B will lower your grade to an A- even if you have four As before. That is the stressful part. When you only get three or four grades per quarter, it makes it hard. The kids are not going from A to C GPAs, but when getting into some Virginia tech programs requires almost all As and that is now harder only at SBG schools, it feels inequitable. If it is good enough for some schools, let’s make it county-wide.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

Seeing teachers doing SBG, when based on 4 point scale, giving 4 only if 100% and drop to 3 if not 100%. Not hearing teachers giving in-between scores, but even if do, isn’t it disheartening for kids that unless do 100% on an assignment, can’t get an “A”? Or is that not how working for other teachers/classes?

https://madisonhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting

This has been DCs experience. If it’s not 100%, you can’t get an A/4. And many teachers do not use + and - grades, so if your average on a skill is a 3.7, which is an A-, you will receive a grade of B/3 on the skill because you didn’t “master” it. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Ok, but how many chances do they have to take/attain a particular skill? I assume multiple extra chances. I'm also assuming the skills are not difficult, i.e they cover the fundamentals. If so, it shouldn't be too hard to get 100% with multiple tries.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

Seeing teachers doing SBG, when based on 4 point scale, giving 4 only if 100% and drop to 3 if not 100%. Not hearing teachers giving in-between scores, but even if do, isn’t it disheartening for kids that unless do 100% on an assignment, can’t get an “A”? Or is that not how working for other teachers/classes?

https://madisonhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting

This has been DCs experience. If it’s not 100%, you can’t get an A/4. And many teachers do not use + and - grades, so if your average on a skill is a 3.7, which is an A-, you will receive a grade of B/3 on the skill because you didn’t “master” it. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

The student representative to the School Board focused her remarks last night on the need for consistent grading practices within and among FCPS high schools. As is often the case, the student representatives focus on the most important things, which are often ignored by School Board members.

If anything, the SB should add another student rep. They have been quite good especially the one during the pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

The student representative to the School Board focused her remarks last night on the need for consistent grading practices within and among FCPS high schools. As is often the case, the student representatives focus on the most important things, which are often ignored by School Board members.

I think this issue is supposed to change next year to the 50 to 100 scale. So the 0.75 out of 1 grades will hopefully stop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

Seeing teachers doing SBG, when based on 4 point scale, giving 4 only if 100% and drop to 3 if not 100%. Not hearing teachers giving in-between scores, but even if do, isn’t it disheartening for kids that unless do 100% on an assignment, can’t get an “A”? Or is that not how working for other teachers/classes?

https://madisonhs.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

I agree, it is just so confusing. But one of my main frustrations with SBG is that it is only at a few schools. If it was implemented county-wide, I’d be less concerned at least about the impact to college admissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.

I meant more support for the people frustrated by SBG.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there will be more support when this is rolled out across FCPS.

More objections is also a possibility.