Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 20:25     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


Jerk move. Teachers who do this are trying to lighten their load by having fewer late assignments come in. This is why no one respects teaching anymore.


OR... kids could turn in assignments on the due date. Teachers should not be expected to continue going back and grading things and updating the gradebook because we are too lame to hold kids accountable. What do you think kids did in the 70s?


How would I know? I can ask my boomer mom who was in high school in the 70s. Why would what my child’s grandma experienced in high school over 50 years ago be the data point you think is relevant?
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 16:50     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


Jerk move. Teachers who do this are trying to lighten their load by having fewer late assignments come in. This is why no one respects teaching anymore.


OR... kids could turn in assignments on the due date. Teachers should not be expected to continue going back and grading things and updating the gradebook because we are too lame to hold kids accountable. What do you think kids did in the 70s?


I agree that we shouldn't have so many exceptions and handholding but... Kids also have more assignments now than ever before due to not wanting to "stress them out" with fewer, higher stake assignments (IMO stress has moslty just become different now, possibly worse). It's really a lot. It can also be a lot to keep track of it all. For instance, at my kid's school, all humanities teachers (so English, foreign language, history) decided the due date is the same as the deadline for AT assignments. However, if something is marked "late" by the system due to being submitted after the due date and the grades are synched, it gets temporarily autograded as a 0, even if it's before the deadline. I temporarily freaked out seeing a massive grade drop and a 0, but I was reassured that the assignment did get submitted, but this makes it hard to know what exactly is going on. However, for PP, you have to submit by the due date or you get a 0. So there's a bunch of different rules and interpretations between teachers, types of assignments, subjects etc.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 12:39     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


Jerk move. Teachers who do this are trying to lighten their load by having fewer late assignments come in. This is why no one respects teaching anymore.


OR... kids could turn in assignments on the due date. Teachers should not be expected to continue going back and grading things and updating the gradebook because we are too lame to hold kids accountable. What do you think kids did in the 70s?
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 09:17     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s been an awful transition for kids on IEPs with extra time because they’ve been used to a lot of flexibility and now there is no uniformity to when their due date actually is. There are due dates and deadlines and whatever is in the system is usually not the time and a half allotted (but sometimes is!!) so it’s now up to the kids to keep deadlines straight and then follow up with the teacher to override the system nearly every time.

All of this. And if you bug the teacher for these dates, the administrator tells you that the teacher has to announce them in class, but isn't required to post them to parents (it would be too burdensome). The executive functioning burden on IEP and 504 kids to keep up with this is absurd.


My coteacher and I put all the due dates and deadlines for regular students and extended time in the assignment title so there is zero confusion

For example:

Enders Game Close Read 2 due date 4/20(ext. time 4/21) deadline 4/27(ext. time 4/28)

Thats how it looks in canvas and parentvue and nobody can claim we didn’t go over it in class(which we do anyway in the daily agenda slide)


We have a couple teachers that do this and I LOVE it. Thank you! Wish more teachers were just clear and transparent about stuff. I’ve actually never seen a teacher give an extension on the deadline for those with IEPs though. Do you also post the due date on the canvas calendar? And if the kid doesn’t turn it in, does it post with a Z in Gradebook? If so, you might be my dream teacher!
jj

I was on the grading and reporting workgroup, where central office made clear that both the due date and deadline should shift for students who get extended time. If they get 1.5 time, then it shifts forward by; if 100% then it doubles.

Example - for kids without accommodations, an assignment due in 4 days, deadline is in 6 days. For kids with 1.5 time, the due date is in 6 days, and the deadline is in 9 days. Kids with 2.0 would have due date in 8 days and deadline in 12 days.


My high school told us the opposite so clearly central office sucks at communication.


Central office does suck at communication. But they are trying to make clear in the updated reg, which is up for comment here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19cDQr7J7LodmaYl2hkqHTFsrtbGxBML4/view

On page 12/23, where it says: "Students with the Extended Time accommodation will be given their Extended Time Due Date and Deadline according to the specifications outlined in their EML/IEP/504 plan."
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 06:20     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


New poster. Verbal reminders are not helpful if there are no written deadlines. Or if verbal contradicts with written. If it were a normal workplace students could confirm / clarify instructions and due dates over slack or email to confirm understanding of have receipts in case the unclear supervisor contradicts themself. I am teaching my kid to follow up with emails in these cases, but the teachers who don’t keep their written due dates up to date are usually the ones who don’t read/ respond to email. (What a surprise!)

Just follow IEPs and 504s , learn about learning styles if you call yourself an educator, and put the due dates in the system.


I'm the teacher who posted this. I also am the one that posted about how every single assignment I create in Canvas has not only the due date in the title, but also the deadline and the dates for those who get extended time. I also have these due dates and deadlines written on the daily agenda slide every day which is also published onto canvas for everyone to see. Read all the posts in the thread before you cherrypick one to reply to next time you want to try to do a call out.


I'm the poster with the original call out. It wasn't necessarily directed at you. Just a tongue in cheek response on the absurdity of how trends change in education and a bit of commentary on the value of our pro-dev. But also, a bit towards you since you were judging teachers that aren't using learning styles when if you're actually up to date on the latest research is currently not a thing.


Sorry posted too soon about the comment - see now you were referring to the poster I had responded to as well. Carry on 😅
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 06:18     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


New poster. Verbal reminders are not helpful if there are no written deadlines. Or if verbal contradicts with written. If it were a normal workplace students could confirm / clarify instructions and due dates over slack or email to confirm understanding of have receipts in case the unclear supervisor contradicts themself. I am teaching my kid to follow up with emails in these cases, but the teachers who don’t keep their written due dates up to date are usually the ones who don’t read/ respond to email. (What a surprise!)

Just follow IEPs and 504s , learn about learning styles if you call yourself an educator, and put the due dates in the system.


I'm the teacher who posted this. I also am the one that posted about how every single assignment I create in Canvas has not only the due date in the title, but also the deadline and the dates for those who get extended time. I also have these due dates and deadlines written on the daily agenda slide every day which is also published onto canvas for everyone to see. Read all the posts in the thread before you cherrypick one to reply to next time you want to try to do a call out.


I'm the poster with the original call out. It wasn't necessarily directed at you. Just a tongue in cheek response on the absurdity of how trends change in education and a bit of commentary on the value of our pro-dev. But also, a bit towards you since you were judging teachers that aren't using learning styles when if you're actually up to date on the latest research is currently not a thing.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 06:14     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


New poster. Verbal reminders are not helpful if there are no written deadlines. Or if verbal contradicts with written. If it were a normal workplace students could confirm / clarify instructions and due dates over slack or email to confirm understanding of have receipts in case the unclear supervisor contradicts themself. I am teaching my kid to follow up with emails in these cases, but the teachers who don’t keep their written due dates up to date are usually the ones who don’t read/ respond to email. (What a surprise!)

Just follow IEPs and 504s , learn about learning styles if you call yourself an educator, and put the due dates in the system.


I'm the teacher who posted this. I also am the one that posted about how every single assignment I create in Canvas has not only the due date in the title, but also the deadline and the dates for those who get extended time. I also have these due dates and deadlines written on the daily agenda slide every day which is also published onto canvas for everyone to see. Read all the posts in the thread before you cherrypick one to reply to next time you want to try to do a call out.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 05:38     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


New poster. Verbal reminders are not helpful if there are no written deadlines. Or if verbal contradicts with written. If it were a normal workplace students could confirm / clarify instructions and due dates over slack or email to confirm understanding of have receipts in case the unclear supervisor contradicts themself. I am teaching my kid to follow up with emails in these cases, but the teachers who don’t keep their written due dates up to date are usually the ones who don’t read/ respond to email. (What a surprise!)

Just follow IEPs and 504s , learn about learning styles if you call yourself an educator, and put the due dates in the system.


Our professional development this year was all about how learning styles isn't really a thing anymore.

Any teacher that's been in the profession for more than 10 years knows these sort of things rise and fall in cycles. We'll get back to "learning styles" in another 2-3 years with a repackaged name and gimmick.


I was about to post the same thing. Learning styles are out right now.

https://onlineteaching.umich.edu/articles/the-myth-of-learning-styles/


Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 05:34     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


New poster. Verbal reminders are not helpful if there are no written deadlines. Or if verbal contradicts with written. If it were a normal workplace students could confirm / clarify instructions and due dates over slack or email to confirm understanding of have receipts in case the unclear supervisor contradicts themself. I am teaching my kid to follow up with emails in these cases, but the teachers who don’t keep their written due dates up to date are usually the ones who don’t read/ respond to email. (What a surprise!)

Just follow IEPs and 504s , learn about learning styles if you call yourself an educator, and put the due dates in the system.


Our professional development this year was all about how learning styles isn't really a thing anymore.

Any teacher that's been in the profession for more than 10 years knows these sort of things rise and fall in cycles. We'll get back to "learning styles" in another 2-3 years with a repackaged name and gimmick.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 03:04     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


New poster. Verbal reminders are not helpful if there are no written deadlines. Or if verbal contradicts with written. If it were a normal workplace students could confirm / clarify instructions and due dates over slack or email to confirm understanding of have receipts in case the unclear supervisor contradicts themself. I am teaching my kid to follow up with emails in these cases, but the teachers who don’t keep their written due dates up to date are usually the ones who don’t read/ respond to email. (What a surprise!)

Just follow IEPs and 504s , learn about learning styles if you call yourself an educator, and put the due dates in the system.
Anonymous
Post 06/05/2026 00:20     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Loves it and wishes it was implemented sooner!
Anonymous
Post 06/04/2026 21:25     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


As a parent trying to help my kids learn to manage all the assignments across all their classes, the teachers that don’t post grades until after the deadline are the most frustrating. I can’t help my kids stay on top of assignments if I don’t even know they exist. Why only post the grade after the deadline, when there is no longer a chance to complete the assignment?


I remind the students every single day during the daily agenda about upcoming due dates and deadlines. By 9th grade they shouldn't need mommy to remind them that something should have been completed 7 days ago. Are you going to go to work with your child every day when they grow up?


Some kids really struggle with this, especially those with ADHD. They need much more support than MCPS provides.


Unfortunately, MCPS cannot provide an unlimited well of support. Parents have unrealistic expectations. They expect their kid to have all As. Kids learn by messing up. You have to let them mess up and figure it out over time.

Ex-teacher here. I agree that an unlimited well of support isn't possible, and all A's is a ridiculous (and too common) expectation. And kids learn a little by messing up and figuring it out.

But they learn even more by receiving explicit instruction, plus repeated opportunities for practice. It's so much more efficient. ADHD kids need more repetitions than NT kids, so this is even more important for them.

The over-focus on messing up and figuring it out is a holdover from the era of discovery learning, balanced literacy, constructivism, the over-use of Carol Dweck's work, and pedagogy built on philosophy at the expense of science. I see it a lot in MCPS. I wish the county would do better at supporting teachers to move away from this approach. It'll take a total overhaul of how classrooms are run.
Anonymous
Post 06/04/2026 20:56     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Clarification: A’s each quarter under either system mean A’s for the semester.

Not everyone was gaming the system.
Anonymous
Post 06/04/2026 20:54     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I love it!

The old system was so unfair. My oldest graduated with the old system, and it certainly benefited him on paper because he was at the border between A and B many times, and ended up with As. However MCPS looked so unprofessional next to FCPS (who has A- and A+) and other school systems that maybe some universities just mentally recalibrated the MCPS students' GPA - which hurts kids who really earned their As.

My youngest grumbled a bit but I was adamant that the new system is much more fair to everyone. This year's seniors had a note on their transcripts that the grading policy changed.

All is well.


All is not well, as my studious senior and their friends will tell you. It may become well, but I can promise you that many a senior this year, including those who normally work hard, felt the effects of changes especially as teachers grappled with all the changes(some well some not). It will likely get better but it is not all well yet. This due date/deadline madness is still crazy. It just needs to be one date. The only exemption is students with excused absence.


Hm, NP here, my studious student will tell you all is well. He’d never had a quarter grade under the old system so didn’t start now. As each quarter mean semester As under either system. And keeping up with keeping up with deadlines and due dates is not hard.
Anonymous
Post 06/03/2026 22:08     Subject: How are high schoolers finding the grading changes?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I admit I don’t use the Z in my gradebook. To my knowledge the Z is supposed to be a placeholder that says a student didn’t turn in an assignment but still can until the deadline. I avoid that by not syncing my grades until the deadline passes. If you did it the grade shows, if you didn’t its a zero. I basically sync the grades from canvas to synergy every week using this because there is always an assignment that reached its deadline every week. Longest you ever wait to see your grade is one week after you hopefully turned it in.


Jerk move. Teachers who do this are trying to lighten their load by having fewer late assignments come in. This is why no one respects teaching anymore.


Posts like this is why nobody respects parents anymore also