Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also have a junior, and I haven't written her teachers about anything since she started high school (in fact, I don't think I contacted her teachers in middle school about her grades, either).

My DD contacts her teachers on her own behalf, and asks them herself. As it should be, since she's almost a legal adult. Mom, it's time to cut the cord. You should not be contacting his teachers anymore. He's 17, not 7.

I agree. I’d led the kid talk to the teacher and when I got involved I’d be talking to school board members, principals, assistant superintendent’s, superintendent’s, state and congressional representatives, state department of education, federal department of education, social media review sites, etc.

I hope this is a joke. If not, your crazy is showing.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college professor who rounds up at .5

I will look at the grades again, but people are right that sometimes that means the calc is lower.

I would respond this way:

Hi Mom,

Thanks for reaching out about Johnny's Math grade. I've reviewed the calculations and the 79.2 is correct. This includes 100% for class participation, which was 10% of the course grade. My firm policy is to round up to the next percentage point at .5, which is not an option in this case; if I were to make an exception, I would have to make exceptions for all of my students, and the policy that I follow is fair and consistent so I do not make exceptions to the grading procedures.
Johnny did very well in Algebra this year and struggled somewhat with Trig; if he would like to meet to discuss his strengths or resources for summer enrichment or strategies for his future math studies, I would be happy to meet with him after school before June 16th.

Be well, and have a nice evening,
--Teacher

Very reasonable. However, the parent will come here and state that he/she reached out to the teacher and was shut down. Rigid guidelines and uncaring. I'm leaving FCPS, I have had it.

Anonymous wrote:My kid had an A in math all year until one “unit test” given during the final exam period brought him down to an A-. Since it isn’t a “final exam” the policy of it not being able to bring his grade down doesn’t apply. It was three days before the last day of school and the teacher offered no remediation. Not a thing in the world my kid could do about it.

The issue with the school board limiting the number of assignments/tests this year is that fewer grades make each one worth way too much.

Then this particular teacher was not using the "Total points" policy. As far as I can tell, most teachers are using it but not all. The normal method of grading is to have tests carry more weight than homework , etc. I really hope they go back to this

My kid had an A in math all year until one “unit test” given during the final exam period brought him down to an A-. Since it isn’t a “final exam” the policy of it not being able to bring his grade down doesn’t apply. It was three days before the last day of school and the teacher offered no remediation. Not a thing in the world my kid could do about it.

The issue with the school board limiting the number of assignments/tests this year is that fewer grades make each one worth way too much.

I would not contact the teacher for the same reasons already mentioned. However, I do have a strong opinion on the grading method used this year...

My student was also very close to getting an A in a math class. However, he ended up with a B+ which will affect is GPA. My student has never received less than an A in any math class.. Most high schools were using what's called "Total Points" grading system If you were monitoring SIS this year, you would have seen that most if not all your students assignments, quizzes, and tests were weighted almost exactly the same. This is a bad idea. Why? Because the students get locked in almost immediately to a letter grade and then it becomes very difficult to move up a letter grade. I know because I saw it for myself. .

Rolling grade book WITH total points grading is going to make things much more difficult for the students. Now I know some smart-ass is going to chime here and say it's not a bad idea just to be argumentative but I want you to actually contemplate what I've said.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college professor who rounds up at .5

I will look at the grades again, but people are right that sometimes that means the calc is lower.

I would respond this way:

Hi Mom,

Thanks for reaching out about Johnny's Math grade. I've reviewed the calculations and the 79.2 is correct. This includes 100% for class participation, which was 10% of the course grade. My firm policy is to round up to the next percentage point at .5, which is not an option in this case; if I were to make an exception, I would have to make exceptions for all of my students, and the policy that I follow is fair and consistent so I do not make exceptions to the grading procedures.
Johnny did very well in Algebra this year and struggled somewhat with Trig; if he would like to meet to discuss his strengths or resources for summer enrichment or strategies for his future math studies, I would be happy to meet with him after school before June 16th.

Be well, and have a nice evening,
--Teacher

Nice not but surprised you took the time to write this when it doesn’t apply to you now.

This is virtually. They have been saying they were going to go easy on the kids. The teacher may be well within her right to not round the grade up. However, she sounds petty to me and I would sure let whoever is willing to listen how I felt.

IB is hard, and the grades reflect that. As another parent of an IB diploma junior who is ending this crazy year with 3 C+ grades that are only a hair away from being B-, it is what it is. I would never dream of reaching out to a teacher about it.

I would have strongly campaigned against his desire to do the IB diploma if I had known this year would be virtual, except for a couple months of 2 days a week, but it’s what he wanted, what he chose. In my opinion, it kicked his butt. In his opinion, it’s all good. Onward and upward, I suppose.

I’m glad you aren’t asking. Your kid is a junior in an IB class and needs to advocate for himself. He already did and got his answer. Please familiarize yourself with the IB grading system on tests. It is very generous with awarding points. Sometimes teachers put in the raw score then their conversion. The grades already have a lot of points added in by the time the final score is calculated. Math in high school becomes difficult and this is a solid grade.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college professor who rounds up at .5

I will look at the grades again, but people are right that sometimes that means the calc is lower.

I would respond this way:

Hi Mom,

Thanks for reaching out about Johnny's Math grade. I've reviewed the calculations and the 79.2 is correct. This includes 100% for class participation, which was 10% of the course grade. My firm policy is to round up to the next percentage point at .5, which is not an option in this case; if I were to make an exception, I would have to make exceptions for all of my students, and the policy that I follow is fair and consistent so I do not make exceptions to the grading procedures.
Johnny did very well in Algebra this year and struggled somewhat with Trig; if he would like to meet to discuss his strengths or resources for summer enrichment or strategies for his future math studies, I would be happy to meet with him after school before June 16th.

Be well, and have a nice evening,
--Teacher

NP. You sound super reasonable!

I'm a college professor who rounds up at .5

I will look at the grades again, but people are right that sometimes that means the calc is lower.

I would respond this way:

Hi Mom,

Thanks for reaching out about Johnny's Math grade. I've reviewed the calculations and the 79.2 is correct. This includes 100% for class participation, which was 10% of the course grade. My firm policy is to round up to the next percentage point at .5, which is not an option in this case; if I were to make an exception, I would have to make exceptions for all of my students, and the policy that I follow is fair and consistent so I do not make exceptions to the grading procedures.
Johnny did very well in Algebra this year and struggled somewhat with Trig; if he would like to meet to discuss his strengths or resources for summer enrichment or strategies for his future math studies, I would be happy to meet with him after school before June 16th.

Be well, and have a nice evening,
--Teacher

Anonymous wrote:I also have a junior, and I haven't written her teachers about anything since she started high school (in fact, I don't think I contacted her teachers in middle school about her grades, either).

My DD contacts her teachers on her own behalf, and asks them herself. As it should be, since she's almost a legal adult. Mom, it's time to cut the cord. You should not be contacting his teachers anymore. He's 17, not 7.

I agree. I’d led the kid talk to the teacher and when I got involved I’d be talking to school board members, principals, assistant superintendent’s, superintendent’s, state and congressional representatives, state department of education, federal department of education, social media review sites, etc.

Two issues with this:

1. Most problems the child can and should coordinate with the teacher on his own. Him asking the teacher if there might be extra-credit opportunities was appropriate. There are very few situations at this age where parents should involve themselves. If for example, there had been a medical condition, family emergency, etc. that affected his ability to complete work on time, that is something the parent should notify the teacher of. Complaining because you don't like the grade your child earned and wanting the teacher to make up for his shortfall is absolutely not one of them.

2. You are placing the emphasis on the grade instead of the learning it represents. I'm not convinced any parent/teacher discussion is appropriate here, but if there is one it should be on whether the child needs remediation to make sure he's ready for next year (retaking the class, tutoring, etc.). I suspect most colleges will understand the challenges kids faced because of COVID and will take that into account. His "competition" (other students applying to the same colleges) will have faced similar challenges. While it is possible that his grade could lower the chances of getting into his pick of colleges, there are still lots of colleges that he can get into. I think it is better to get into the college that is the best match for a student than to try to manipulate him into a more selective school where he may struggle more. Hopefully, with vaccines available now, COVID will soon be behind us, but there's no guarantee that a new variant (or something else) won't cause disruption during his college years.

I also have a junior, and I haven't written her teachers about anything since she started high school (in fact, I don't think I contacted her teachers in middle school about her grades, either).

My DD contacts her teachers on her own behalf, and asks them herself. As it should be, since she's almost a legal adult. Mom, it's time to cut the cord. You should not be contacting his teachers anymore. He's 17, not 7.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Screw these nay sayers, this is your kid and their future! Yes, reach out to the teacher and copy the appropriate admin.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and when applying tocolleges, the colleges don't know that you were the squeaker when they make that first cut because of gpa!

This, look over everything and try to find any error in any graded assignment. We had a teacher who took forever to fix grades after realizing that the name field was being marked as an incorrect answer. If you can find one error, you can go to her and the administration complaining about her sloppy grading - where there is one, there are surely more- hurting your child

Do the same if you find that the teacher was generous in grading. "Teacher gave ds an 80 in this class, my calculations show he actually had 79.6. Please have the teacher correct the error - this is unacceptable!"

Exactly, sometimes the error is in their favor. No one ever complains about those...

.5 and above rounds up so making 79.6 an 80 is no error.