Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The goal of school is to learn the material. Why does it matter if they do retakes — they demonstrate they have learned the material. If you fail the bar exam you can take it again. If you fail your drivers license exam you can retake. So why should school be any different?

+1 That's growth mindset, "I don't know this yet"

Exactly. We want kids to learn the material and be motivated to keep trying.

My kid right now has a cool grading policy for geometry that is motivating: the grade is only based on quizzes and tests. If you do better on the test than the quizzes then your quiz scores get bumped up to the test score. And if you get any problems incorrect on the test, you can do a thoughtful exercise on why you got it wrong and how to do it correctly - to bump up grade by 1/2 point per problem.

It's been very motivating for my kid and I hope to see more teachers (esp math) use this grading policy.

I used to agree with this but then I heard someone say - what it’s going to be like when it’s these kids age working at nasa. Oops we just missed the moon - we will just do a redo.

That person was an idiot. NASA needs people who persevere and take time to master things.

These kids aren't going to be working at NASA. However, they may calculate someone's dental bill wrong or worse, their medication dosage wrong, and oops...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The goal of school is to learn the material. Why does it matter if they do retakes — they demonstrate they have learned the material. If you fail the bar exam you can take it again. If you fail your drivers license exam you can retake. So why should school be any different?

+1 That's growth mindset, "I don't know this yet"

Exactly. We want kids to learn the material and be motivated to keep trying.

My kid right now has a cool grading policy for geometry that is motivating: the grade is only based on quizzes and tests. If you do better on the test than the quizzes then your quiz scores get bumped up to the test score. And if you get any problems incorrect on the test, you can do a thoughtful exercise on why you got it wrong and how to do it correctly - to bump up grade by 1/2 point per problem.

It's been very motivating for my kid and I hope to see more teachers (esp math) use this grading policy.

I used to agree with this but then I heard someone say - what it’s going to be like when it’s these kids age working at nasa. Oops we just missed the moon - we will just do a redo.

That person was an idiot. NASA needs people who persevere and take time to master things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The goal of school is to learn the material. Why does it matter if they do retakes — they demonstrate they have learned the material. If you fail the bar exam you can take it again. If you fail your drivers license exam you can retake. So why should school be any different?

+1 That's growth mindset, "I don't know this yet"

Exactly. We want kids to learn the material and be motivated to keep trying.

My kid right now has a cool grading policy for geometry that is motivating: the grade is only based on quizzes and tests. If you do better on the test than the quizzes then your quiz scores get bumped up to the test score. And if you get any problems incorrect on the test, you can do a thoughtful exercise on why you got it wrong and how to do it correctly - to bump up grade by 1/2 point per problem.

It's been very motivating for my kid and I hope to see more teachers (esp math) use this grading policy.

I used to agree with this but then I heard someone say - what it’s going to be like when it’s these kids age working at nasa. Oops we just missed the moon - we will just do a redo.

I doubt he will.

My teacher spouse also thinks kids are too coddled. Parents complain and principal doesn’t back teachers so easier to do grade inflation and pass the kid on to the next teacher.

“ It is a school by school (sometimes even individual department or team) decision. I have been at a school with a max retake of 80, a max of 83, a max of 100. I’ve been on teams that did retakes, others that did reflections/corrections, others that did alternate assignments. FCPS’s official policy is very vague and open for interpretation.”

I could support a retake for below 80 and only ever up to 80 policy. The fact that it is all over the map though is really u fair since kids across our district get compared to one another when applying to colleges.

Grocery tax first. Food is insane.

I feel bad for those that have to cut back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope Youngkin has better things to do than micromanage the gradebooks of school systems.

--Another high school teacher

he doesn't

He should be working on his poor approval rating.

Anonymous wrote:I really hope Youngkin has better things to do than micromanage the gradebooks of school systems.

--Another high school teacher

he doesn't

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is ridiculous. I think it is ridiculous that parents allow their kids to get away with this crap.

Agree that the parents play a role. I have a number of friends who accept their kids grades, knowing that htey are getting the benefit of this, knowing their kids can submit late assignments for full credit, knowing their kids can do re-takes to increase grades if the initial grade is low enough.

Have some standards for your children.

At our MS you can retake any test. You can retake a 98% if you want. Guess who's kid re-takes a majority of her tests? Mine. I have standards and want my kid to get the best grade possible. Don't think taking retakes says otherwise. She's never score less than an 89% on any original test but why settle for a B+ or A- when you can get an A.

You are going to hurt your child with that attitude. A's are great but studying and getting a B+ or an A- on a test is not a bad thing. Those are good grades. Your kid is being taught that they are only doing well if they score an A and that is going to hurt her when she gets to a place where retakes are not allowed. She is going to freak out about having a B+ or an A- for no good reason.

Our standard is that DS makes his best effort. Did he do his homework and study? Then he earned the grade that he earned and we can accept that. If he needs a tutor because he is not fully understanding the concepts, then fine. But making an kid with an A- retake a test is a bit much. I mean, you are going to do your thing but there can be some negative consequences to that type of extra pressure on a kid who is doing well in school.

Unfortunately, these games need to be played to stand a chance at the more competitive colleges. I agree that aiming for perfectionism with retakes isn't innately helping children be better learners, but it's the kind of thing that you have to do because everyone else is doing it. It's another way that grades are inflated and the floor is higher as a result. And that 0.33-0.5 GPA difference is meaningful enough.

This.

What MS allows you to retake any test? The usual FCPS policy is you can retake a test that you earned under 80% and the maximum you can get is 80% on it.

It is a school by school (sometimes even individual department or team) decision. I have been at a school with a max retake of 80, a max of 83, a max of 100. I’ve been on teams that did retakes, others that did reflections/corrections, others that did alternate assignments. FCPS’s official policy is very vague and open for interpretation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The goal of school is to learn the material. Why does it matter if they do retakes — they demonstrate they have learned the material. If you fail the bar exam you can take it again. If you fail your drivers license exam you can retake. So why should school be any different?

+1 That's growth mindset, "I don't know this yet"

Exactly. We want kids to learn the material and be motivated to keep trying.

My kid right now has a cool grading policy for geometry that is motivating: the grade is only based on quizzes and tests. If you do better on the test than the quizzes then your quiz scores get bumped up to the test score. And if you get any problems incorrect on the test, you can do a thoughtful exercise on why you got it wrong and how to do it correctly - to bump up grade by 1/2 point per problem.

It's been very motivating for my kid and I hope to see more teachers (esp math) use this grading policy.

That's awesome! I'm also jealous, but what a great teacher!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is ridiculous. I think it is ridiculous that parents allow their kids to get away with this crap.

Agree that the parents play a role. I have a number of friends who accept their kids grades, knowing that htey are getting the benefit of this, knowing their kids can submit late assignments for full credit, knowing their kids can do re-takes to increase grades if the initial grade is low enough.

Have some standards for your children.

At our MS you can retake any test. You can retake a 98% if you want. Guess who's kid re-takes a majority of her tests? Mine. I have standards and want my kid to get the best grade possible. Don't think taking retakes says otherwise. She's never score less than an 89% on any original test but why settle for a B+ or A- when you can get an A.

You are going to hurt your child with that attitude. A's are great but studying and getting a B+ or an A- on a test is not a bad thing. Those are good grades. Your kid is being taught that they are only doing well if they score an A and that is going to hurt her when she gets to a place where retakes are not allowed. She is going to freak out about having a B+ or an A- for no good reason.

Our standard is that DS makes his best effort. Did he do his homework and study? Then he earned the grade that he earned and we can accept that. If he needs a tutor because he is not fully understanding the concepts, then fine. But making an kid with an A- retake a test is a bit much. I mean, you are going to do your thing but there can be some negative consequences to that type of extra pressure on a kid who is doing well in school.

Unfortunately, these games need to be played to stand a chance at the more competitive colleges. I agree that aiming for perfectionism with retakes isn't innately helping children be better learners, but it's the kind of thing that you have to do because everyone else is doing it. It's another way that grades are inflated and the floor is higher as a result. And that 0.33-0.5 GPA difference is meaningful enough.

This.

What MS allows you to retake any test? The usual FCPS policy is you can retake a test that you earned under 80% and the maximum you can get is 80% on it.

Totally agree with the OP. I teach a gen ed HS class for upperclassmen that requires basic communication skills and very basic math--no higher than rudiments of Algebra 1.

I'm often stunned by the disconnect between the performance of many of my students and their expectations. They have trouble with very basic consumer math such as fractions and percentages and struggle with writing a coherent paragraph. And yet some of these students state that they expect to get "at least a B" in the class and fancy themselves bound for UVA, WM, VT... They don't do the work that is expected and then come haggle with me towards the end of the quarter to see "what else they can do to raise their grade."

College is a business and I worry that there will always be some college somewhere that will take their money, sell them a worthless degree commensurate with their academic performance and leave them saddled with debt they can't repay. There are plenty of stories of college grads with no prospects going back to CC or trade schools to get a vocational degree.

It’s nation wide FYI and I think it’s insane as a parent that kids do not get held accountable. I stumbled upon a teacher subreddit and the horror stories make FCPS seem wonderful. Which says a lot.

Anonymous wrote:No, he can’t do anything about FCPS. I teach in another district where zeros are still given. This isn’t a state decision. My own kids attend FCPS and I see my son picking which assignments aren’t worth the effort because the 50 won’t affect the grade on something small. I wish they would go away.

I think that's a realistic skill for real life though. We all have things that we can let "drop" in order to provide effort in other places where it will be better spent.

Some people are really dumb AF.

No, the governor of VA is not going to define grading policies for all school districts in VA.

WTAF?