Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is terrible! Why would they do this? Kids who loved school will now learn to hate it. They make it so unfun.

Kids who were skipping school were one of the main reasons for changing the policy, because once they had their first or third quarter grade set, they could blow off the second or fourth quarter classes and still pass.

They should instead have a policy where if you have more than 6 unexcused absences or what ever number you fail the class. Or make attendance part of the grade.

We had that. I do miss the LC policy, but the truth is that it was never applied with fidelity. Every middle class parent I knew (myself included) gamed the system by writing notes to cover our kids’ absences and tardies. Low income parents didn’t know this. In some cases, I told parents what to write in a note so I didn’t have to LC their kid for things other kids were getting away with.

Why do you assume low income families wouldn't know or do this as well? They can make it so you have a doctors note after a certain number to deal with irresponsible parents like you. Why is it you blame others for your bad behavior.

I know because retroactively low income parents would tell us teachers that they wish they had known they could have just written a note. And I’m not talking about instances where students were absent more than four consecutive days. I’m talking about the old LC policy which was 5+ unexcused absences or 10 unexcused tardies at any time during the semester. The doctor’s note existed before the LC policy and has nothing to do with anything I or anyone else (teacher or parent) did to try to mitigate low income kids being LCed unfairly while MC kids skated free.

Yes, ending grade inflation de-inflates grades. Students earning an 85 average across two quarters (eg, 79.5 and 89.5) will no longer get the same grade as students who get in the high 90s both quarters. A fairer way would have been to end averaging since the 1st and 3rd quarter grades should technically be snapshots of mid-semester performance and not something that gets magically averaged in as 50% of semester grades. But that change will come a decade from now. When they apply to colleges seniors compete against seniors, first from the same school and second, from the same district. Colleges and universities will take MCPS weighted averages more seriously.

Anonymous wrote:I just read the OP. This is completely standard and how MOST schools in the country work! lol!

I don’t think it’s standard. It’s very odd to average the percentages for the two quarters, which may have had different numbers of graded assignments and different numbers of total points.

A running semester grade, where the quarter grade is basically a mid-term grade, would make much more sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is terrible! Why would they do this? Kids who loved school will now learn to hate it. They make it so unfun.

Kids who were skipping school were one of the main reasons for changing the policy, because once they had their first or third quarter grade set, they could blow off the second or fourth quarter classes and still pass.

They should instead have a policy where if you have more than 6 unexcused absences or what ever number you fail the class. Or make attendance part of the grade.

We had that. I do miss the LC policy, but the truth is that it was never applied with fidelity. Every middle class parent I knew (myself included) gamed the system by writing notes to cover our kids’ absences and tardies. Low income parents didn’t know this. In some cases, I told parents what to write in a note so I didn’t have to LC their kid for things other kids were getting away with.

Why do you assume low income families wouldn't know or do this as well? They can make it so you have a doctors note after a certain number to deal with irresponsible parents like you. Why is it you blame others for your bad behavior.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New policy approved: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/07/18/mcps-new-grading-policies/

Cna someone replace Jawando with a sound board where every button just yells "That's racist!" It would be cheaper and easier than carting him around everywhere, and nothing would be lost.

They should more clearly report the rounding does not account for the percentage. So 79.5 is still an 80. Also they should note that only ES/MS are year long courses. All HS courses are semester.

What about the middle school courses that count towards earned HS credit such as Foreign Language and Advanced Math classes? Will those classes be held to the high school grading standards despite being offered in middle school?

Yes, the change is for secondary school, not just hs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is terrible! Why would they do this? Kids who loved school will now learn to hate it. They make it so unfun.

Kids who were skipping school were one of the main reasons for changing the policy, because once they had their first or third quarter grade set, they could blow off the second or fourth quarter classes and still pass.

They should instead have a policy where if you have more than 6 unexcused absences or what ever number you fail the class. Or make attendance part of the grade.

We had that. I do miss the LC policy, but the truth is that it was never applied with fidelity. Every middle class parent I knew (myself included) gamed the system by writing notes to cover our kids’ absences and tardies. Low income parents didn’t know this. In some cases, I told parents what to write in a note so I didn’t have to LC their kid for things other kids were getting away with.