Fairgrade has enough support on the school board to change the grading scale in FCPS! A win for a parent group! Amazing. Stu Gibson is the only school board member who is outspokenly opposed. But what would we expect? He's always against parents and students.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/12/AR2009011202941.html

Neen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fairgrade has enough support on the school board
> to change the grading scale in FCPS! A win for a
> parent group! Amazing. Stu Gibson is the only
> school board member who is outspokenly opposed.
> But what would we expect? He's always against
> parents and students.
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
> le/2009/01/12/AR2009011202941.html

Neen as I said before this SB and Dale are shitting in their pants. Parents are up in arms on several fronts.

What this all means is that class sizes will barely increase, Gatehouse II will get built, and everyone will be happy...

except for FCPS staff, who will not get pay raises even for CoL increases.

Congratulations to FFX parents for lowering the standards of Fairfax County schools.

Perhaps maybe next year we can give A's for 50% right.

Now put my boy in game damn it!

yes, fairgrade and the sb have just inflated the grades of under performing students.

Talk about whiners. The prior FCPS students who had to suffer through the six point scale are whining more than anyone else.

Now we can get laughs out of those "My student is an honor roll student at X high school" Your kid gets straight A's... yes and so does ever other kid in Fairfax County.

suck it up Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Talk about whiners. The prior FCPS students who
> had to suffer through the six point scale are
> whining more than anyone else.

Were you a product of FCPS? My stepson is a Montgomery County student and the grading scale is 10 points. There's been a tug of "war" between my stepson and my daughter anytime my stepson comes to visit (they are both in the same grade and happen to be advanced students). They both asked why not the entire nation adopt an uniform grading scale for public and private schools so that competition is evenly distributed? JMO, I find it ridiculous if one county has this grading scale and another under a different one, etc so, you the poster above, "suck it up" if you did not attend FCPS.

You misinterpreted my post. I am a proponent of the change. I think a large number of those protesting the change on this forum are former students who wish they'd had a 10 point scale.

If this goes through then students no longer have to be perfect to get an A. There are too many times my kids have had 15 problems on a math test and one wrong brings you down to a B+. If they had only had 16 questions then they could have missed one and still gotten an A.

Personally, I wish they'd just go to a numeric scale. A 93 is then a 93 and a 99 is then a 99. There's no mistaking what those numbers mean.

If you really want to challenge the kids in Fairfax County teachers should grade on a curve like they did in the old days of Fairfax County schools. The days when a Fairfax County education would get into an Ivy league school and all colleges knew the counties reputation for grading.

Lee Dad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Neen as I said before this SB and Dale are
> shitting in their pants. Parents are up in arms on
> several fronts.

Ain't it grand?!!! I just love it when parents and kids win!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2009 11:23PM by Neen.

FYI

Emily Goodnight's speech on FCPS Grading Scale at the School Board hearing (January 8) is posted on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmMxKxCz6E

oh my god, this girl and her family are one of those "I am GT with an IEP" I need all the resources because I'm smart and have some issues....boo hoo she didn't get into the "business school of her dreams" and her brother with aspergers went to TJ....I know plenty of parents of kids with aspergers that would be happy if their child could go to regular school....

Facts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FYI
>
> Emily Goodnight's speech on FCPS Grading Scale at
> the School Board hearing (January 8) is posted on
> YouTube:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmMxKxCz6E


Utah State? I expected her to be talking about Wharton. It appears from their profile that if you can fog a mirror you will get accepted (6000 application...5900 acceptances...98%), but there are some minimum standards for the business school that she must have known:

From the Utah State website:

All Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Majors (except accounting)
Admit directly to Jon M. Huntsman School of Business major if all of the following conditions are met:

1. Admitted to Utah State University
2. Designated a Jon M. Huntsman School of Business major on university application
3. Less than 24 post-high school earned college credits
4. ACT Composite of 24 or higher
5. High School GPA of 3.5 or higher

So her GPA was under a 3.5...it happens...they have a process for non-freshman to transfer into the business school that does not appear to be too rigorous for a full IB candidate. The same thing happened to me 20 years ago at Boston University...I worked hard my freshman year, taking a good mix of courses, and was able to get into the school of management.

Emily's brother was likely at TJ BECAUSE of his Asperger's, diagnosed or not. While I don't assume that every smart kid has Asperger's, the type of smart kid you see at TJ and similar magnet schools is a likely candidate for this high-functioning form of autism.

boohoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> oh my god, this girl and her family are one of
> those "I am GT with an IEP" I need all the
> resources because I'm smart and have some
> issues....boo hoo she didn't get into the
> "business school of her dreams" and her brother
> with aspergers went to TJ....I know plenty of
> parents of kids with aspergers that would be happy
> if their child could go to regular school....

Of course, Emily was expressing her opinion in public, to be preserved on YouTube, and you are a weasel posting anonymously on a message board. Sounded from the crowd at the end that her speech went over pretty well.

of course her speech went over well she was in front of the home crowd. the very group that wants the grades changed. while I may not have my 15 minutes of fame on perserved on U tube, I have been expressing my views directly to the school board.

suck it up Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You misinterpreted my post. I am a proponent of
> the change. I think a large number of those
> protesting the change on this forum are former
> students who wish they'd had a 10 point scale.

My apologies then. It is understandable that these former students on this forum are wishing they had a 10 point scale back then. I attended fcps and personally didn't have a problem with the grading scale until my daughter and stepson (he is from MD) started buttheading about the current fcps grading scale and Montgomery County's grading scale. They both wish that whatever the grading scale is is to be uniform across the nation.

boohoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> of course her speech went over well she was in
> front of the home crowd. the very group that
> wants the grades changed. while I may not have my
> 15 minutes of fame on perserved on U tube, I have
> been expressing my views directly to the school
> board.

Boohoo,

Just curious, has the school board responded directly to your views? I have heard that people have had problems not getting any form of correspondence from these school board members.

boohoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> of course her speech went over well she was in
> front of the home crowd. the very group that
> wants the grades changed. while I may not have my
> 15 minutes of fame on perserved on U tube, I have
> been expressing my views directly to the school
> board.

Right. Well, good luck with that. The school board is very receptive to such direct appeals (NOT)! It will only respond if shamed into doing so, and sometimes not even then.

Robin Hood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> suck it up Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You misinterpreted my post. I am a proponent
> of
> > the change. I think a large number of those
> > protesting the change on this forum are former
> > students who wish they'd had a 10 point scale.
>
> My apologies then. It is understandable that
> these former students on this forum are wishing
> they had a 10 point scale back then. I attended
> fcps and personally didn't have a problem with the
> grading scale until my daughter and stepson (he is
> from MD) started buttheading about the current
> fcps grading scale and Montgomery County's grading
> scale. They both wish that whatever the grading
> scale is is to be uniform across the nation.


I'm not a supporter of the change, I still think it is just an excuse for under-acheiving children, and a punishment to those that do earn their good grades. If it happens it happens.

But having a uniform grading scale is another pointless idea. Some schools are much much easier than others, unless you're going to have a universal school board which again is unplausible, kids here that get 70's are in a lot of cases smarter than kids who get 90's in other parts of the country. Being as their are different standards and different things learned, what would a universal grading scale accomplish?

I've received responses from some board members on this issue. Since I happen to know personally the board rep from my district, we have spoken on the phone a few times on and my rep has attended two neighborhood meetings on this issue.

boohoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've received responses from some board members on
> this issue. Since I happen to know personally the
> board rep from my district, we have spoken on the
> phone a few times on and my rep has attended two
> neighborhood meetings on this issue.

Only on a board like this would someone boast of insider access to morons such as Stu Gibson and Liz Brasher. YUCK!!

boohoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> oh my god, this girl and her family are one of
> those "I am GT with an IEP" I need all the
> resources because I'm smart and have some
> issues....boo hoo she didn't get into the
> "business school of her dreams" and her brother
> with aspergers went to TJ....I know plenty of
> parents of kids with aspergers that would be happy
> if their child could go to regular school....

The girl and boy got NO HELP from FCPS. FCPS does nothing for smart kids with disabiities except try to throw them into ED centers or special ed classes with kids who are lucky if they read on grade 7 level by senior year. Drug people and abusers are treated better .

hey boohoo, good luck with your school board member. I had my SB rep at my house and she couldn't have been nicer and more agreeable and guess what..she voted against us in the redistricting..so beware...the school board will screw you every time!

Facts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FYI
>
> Emily Goodnight's speech on FCPS Grading Scale at
> the School Board hearing (January 8) is posted on
> YouTube:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmMxKxCz6E

Great speech! Thank you for posting the link.

Emily's List Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> boohoo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've received responses from some board members
> on
> > this issue. Since I happen to know personally
> the
> > board rep from my district, we have spoken on
> the
> > phone a few times on and my rep has attended
> two
> > neighborhood meetings on this issue.
>
> Only on a board like this would someone boast of
> insider access to morons such as Stu Gibson and
> Liz Brasher. YUCK!!

Hahahahaha........so true! Some folks here have delusions of grandeur and self importance.

Jester Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Congratulations to FFX parents for lowering the
> standards of Fairfax County schools.
>
> Perhaps maybe next year we can give A's for 50%
> right.
>
> Now put my boy in game damn it!

yea lowering the standards... ok then, why should we gimp our chances of getting in to colleges by having higher standards than the rest of the nation. a 90% somewhere else is an A, while here it would be a B.

This article supports the position that we should continue with the six point scale. FCPS students deserve to be handicapped with a lower GPA. It builds character. And Lord knows, those spoiled brats don't need scholarships.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=316&sid=1506587

Okay, what I want to know is will the dumbing down of grades be retroactive?

The reason I ask is one of my neighbor's kids flunked out of TJ and is now back at his base school.

Will he be re-admitted to TJ since his grades would be good enough now?

I doubt he "flunked out". Seems like he rather decided the regular high school was a better fit. You are a jerk. What high school did you go to smarty pants?

flunkedoutmyass Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I doubt he "flunked out". Seems like he rather
> decided the regular high school was a better fit.
> You are a jerk. What high school did you go to
> smarty pants?


I'm not going to google it for your lazy, dumb ass, but the Washington Post published a story about the kid. I think it was even discussed on this very forum.

And he can't be the only kid to have ever flunked out of TJ...so my original question stands.

tubby Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> flunkedoutmyass Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I doubt he "flunked out". Seems like he rather
> > decided the regular high school was a better
> fit.
> > You are a jerk. What high school did you go to
> > smarty pants?
>
>
> I'm not going to google it for your lazy, dumb
> ass, but the Washington Post published a story
> about the kid. I think it was even discussed on
> this very forum.
>
> And he can't be the only kid to have ever flunked
> out of TJ...so my original question stands.



Whatever. You asked the original question Tubby, and it was your neighbor that flunked out. So you are the lazy, dumb ass. I cannot stand such ignorant people.

This country is in enough trouble with every thing going on. We already have some of the stupidest,fattest,laziest people in the world. And you dumb asses want to make it easier for our kids to be complete retards. Don't challenge them don't push them to do better.
If our kids cant get decent grades lets all just bitch and whine to lower the grading scale. PEOPLE LOOK AROUND we need to try to help our kids to be smarter and stronger to succeed NOT dumber and lazier. And yes I do have kids.

boo waa shut up!

i dont give a fuck what you think about the fucking percentages.
my bitchass cousin in Howard gets a 90 and gets an A, and my equally bitchass self gets a 90 and get a B+. what the fuck is up with that?

asdfsadf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> boo waa shut up!
>
> i dont give a fuck what you think about the
> fucking percentages.
> my bitchass cousin in Howard gets a 90 and gets an
> A, and my equally bitchass self gets a 90 and get
> a B+. what the fuck is up with that?

Work harder and get a 94, slacker.

We are competing with 10-point grading scale students to get into the same colleges. Why should we be at a disadvantage? We're already at a disadvantage--Fairfax County has far more "A" students than any other Virginia county, yet the colleges only take a "fair" percentage of them.

Clifton Mom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We are competing with 10-point grading scale
> students to get into the same colleges. Why should
> we be at a disadvantage? We're already at a
> disadvantage--Fairfax County has far more "A"
> students than any other Virginia county, yet the
> colleges only take a "fair" percentage of them.

Wait a minute. So if Fairfax County already has so many "A" students that colleges can't accept them all, wouldn't a 90% "A" increase the number of "A" students and ultimately lessen your little Timmy's chances?

If this is what the parents are like, no wonder the school system is so fucked up.

Changing the FCPS grading scale will not increase FCPS students' chances of being admitted to Virginia public colleges, since these colleges do not want to admit "too many" FCPS students. It will, however, increase FCPS students' chances of being admitted to the honors programs or receiving merit-based scholarships from many of those Virginia public colleges.

FCPS students also apply to out-of-state colleges, which generally seem to be less concerned than Virginia public colleges about admitting "too many" FCPS students. Changing the FCPS grading scale will help more FCPS students be admitted to those out-of-state colleges, to the honors programs in those colleges, and also will increase those students' chances of receiving merit-based college scholarships.


MrMephisto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------


> Wait a minute. So if Fairfax County already has
> so many "A" students that colleges can't accept
> them all, wouldn't a 90% "A" increase the number
> of "A" students and ultimately lessen your little
> Timmy's chances?

MrMephisto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wait a minute. So if Fairfax County already has
> so many "A" students that colleges can't accept
> them all, wouldn't a 90% "A" increase the number
> of "A" students and ultimately lessen your little
> Timmy's chances?
>
> If this is what the parents are like, no wonder
> the school system is so fucked up.

That's the problem with the whole thing. These people are so emotionally wrapped up in this thing that they fail to follow their own logic.

They got upset when they moved to this area and they were no longer able to brag that their little 91% intelligent kid was a "straight A student".

They've convinced themselves of all sorts of justifications for wanting a 10 point grading scale, but then they get upset when people point out the contradictions in their logic.

One of their claims is that colleges don't recognize which schools are better than others, so it is only fair that all schools use a 10 point scale. But when they find out the school board is going to redistrict their kid to a "bad" school, they are up in arms and angry over the damage that will cause to their child's future. Colleges don't know which school is good and which is bad, but god dammit, the school board better not send my kid to a "bad" school.

APorIBMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Changing the FCPS grading scale will not increase
> FCPS students' chances of being admitted to
> Virginia public colleges, since these colleges do
> not want to admit "too many" FCPS students. It
> will, however, increase FCPS students' chances of
> being admitted to the honors programs or receiving
> merit-based scholarships from many of those
> Virginia public colleges.
>
> FCPS students also apply to out-of-state colleges,
> which generally seem to be less concerned than
> Virginia public colleges about admitting "too
> many" FCPS students. Changing the FCPS grading
> scale will help more FCPS students be admitted to
> those out-of-state colleges, to the honors
> programs in those colleges, and also will increase
> those students' chances of receiving merit-based
> college scholarships.

This makes sense, but I still question the idea of teaching our kids that life gets easier for them instead of forcing them to work harder.

I always heart shit in high school about how it "gets you ready for college." In college, it's supposed to prepare you for the real world. Nothing does, and making it easier on kids is going to hurt their chances in the long run, even if not academically.

Deflated high school grades caused many FCPS students to end up in colleges where they had higher SAT scores than the average student in their college. Some couldn't even get into their college honors programs, because of their deflated high school grades.

Over the years, I've heard FCPS graduates say that college was easier than high school, and that they were much better prepared than their college classmates. Of course they were. Their FCPS grades kept them from attending colleges (or taking college honors classes) that would be challenging for them.

FCPS staff often talk about "good fit." I wholeheartedly agree. The goal should not be to attend the most prestigious college. Rather, students need to find a college where they can grow academically and otherwise. That's why FCPS needs a new grading system.

MrMephisto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> This makes sense, but I still question the idea of
> teaching our kids that life gets easier for them
> instead of forcing them to work harder.
>
> I always heart shit in high school about how it
> "gets you ready for college." In college, it's
> supposed to prepare you for the real world.
> Nothing does, and making it easier on kids is
> going to hurt their chances in the long run, even
> if not academically.

This seemingly contradicts previous statements that colleges were looking more at GPA than SAT.

I can totally see your side of things, but I just think that lowering the bar, for any reason, will do more harm than good. The students that make it on the current scale accomplished something; lowering the requirements cheapens that accomplishment, and creates more competition.

When less-diligent kids are giving the same opportunity as their more scholastically-inclined peers, it will be harder for individuals to stand out. Then, steps will have to be taken to help more kids stand out, and so on and so forth.

If this was some school in the middle of a slum in Detroit, I would agree; but this is Fairfax County.

Sorry I wasn't more clear. Colleges care more about high school grades than SAT scores, once the SAT scores clear their de facto minimum. If you take two boys with essentially identical SAT scores and activities, the boy in FCPS generally will have lower grades than the boy outside FCPS. That causes the typical college (especially outside of Virginia) to admit the non-FCPS boy over the FCPS boy. Meanwhile, the FCPS boy often will end up attending a college where many of his college classmates had similar high school grades, but lower SAT scores.

Moving to a normal 10 point scale with minuses as well as pluses will avoid the problem you mention. If a 90-93 is an A-, then A will still require a 94. In the rest of the US, it would be more normal for the A- to encompass 90-92, and for the A to start at 93. That changes the A bracket by only one point.

More generally, many FCPS students who score 5 (out of 5) on an AP test apparently don't get As in that class, which suggests that FCPS teachers are exceptionally tough graders by national standards. Meanwhile, the press periodically writes articles about how students in other school districts can fail the AP test (with less than a 3) and still get an A or B in the AP class.

FCPS should not give students As or Bs, if the students fail the AP exam. In fact, those students deserve a D or F in the AP class. And in some school districts, they wouldn't get an extra weighting in their GPA, either.

However, FCPS students should get some type of an A (for example, an A-) if they master enough content to earn a 5 on an AP exam, especially when the College Board states that a 5 on an AP test is roughly equivalent to an A in a college class. Similarly, a student who earns a 4 on an AP exam should get some type of B in his/her AP class. Etc.

Mr Mephisto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This seemingly contradicts previous statements
> that colleges were looking more at GPA than SAT.
>
> I can totally see your side of things, but I just
> think that lowering the bar, for any reason, will
> do more harm than good. The students that make it
> on the current scale accomplished something;
> lowering the requirements cheapens that
> accomplishment, and creates more competition.
>
> When less-diligent kids are giving the same
> opportunity as their more scholastically-inclined
> peers, it will be harder for individuals to stand
> out. Then, steps will have to be taken to help
> more kids stand out, and so on and so forth.
>
> If this was some school in the middle of a slum in
> Detroit, I would agree; but this is Fairfax
> County.

APorIBMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry I wasn't more clear. Colleges care more
> about high school grades than SAT scores, once the
> SAT scores clear their de facto minimum. If you
> take two boys with essentially identical SAT
> scores and activities, the boy in FCPS generally
> will have lower grades than the boy outside FCPS.
> That causes the typical college (especially
> outside of Virginia) to admit the non-FCPS boy
> over the FCPS boy. Meanwhile, the FCPS boy often
> will end up attending a college where many of his
> college classmates had similar high school grades,
> but lower SAT scores.
>
> Moving to a normal 10 point scale with minuses as
> well as pluses will avoid the problem you mention.
> If a 90-93 is an A-, then A will still require a
> 94. In the rest of the US, it would be more
> normal for the A- to encompass 90-92, and for the
> A to start at 93. That changes the A bracket by
> only one point.
>
> More generally, many FCPS students who score 5
> (out of 5) on an AP test apparently don't get As
> in that class, which suggests that FCPS teachers
> are exceptionally tough graders by national
> standards. Meanwhile, the press periodically
> writes articles about how students in other school
> districts can fail the AP test (with less than a
> 3) and still get an A or B in the AP class.
>
> FCPS should not give students As or Bs, if the
> students fail the AP exam. In fact, those students
> deserve a D or F in the AP class. And in some
> school districts, they wouldn't get an extra
> weighting in their GPA, either.
>
> However, FCPS students should get some type of an
> A (for example, an A-) if they master enough
> content to earn a 5 on an AP exam, especially when
> the College Board states that a 5 on an AP test is
> roughly equivalent to an A in a college class.
> Similarly, a student who earns a 4 on an AP exam
> should get some type of B in his/her AP class.
> Etc.
>
Very interesting post.

How do students typically prepare for year-end AP exams? I am inclined to think it is the teacher who should get sacked if he or she is awarding As and Bs to AP students who don't perform well (1s or 2s) on the AP exams.

Some students buy an AP prep book at the local bookstore. Students who take AP exams without taking the corresponding AP courses usually buy at least one of these prep books.

I haven't heard about FCPS teachers giving As or Bs to students who fail their AP exams. But, I have heard about the opposite. In an extreme case, one McLean HS teacher's approach to grades reportedly caused a group of students to "form" a 5-D club, for students who scored 5 on the AP test but received a D in the class.


Mozart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> How do students typically prepare for year-end AP
> exams? I am inclined to think it is the teacher
> who should get sacked if he or she is awarding As
> and Bs to AP students who don't perform well (1s
> or 2s) on the AP exams.

I just love the Sun Gazette. They always seem to talk straight.

http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2009/01/30/fairfax/opinion/bcmt748.txt

The School Board's Abdication

Mark Jan. 22, 2009, in the history books as the day the Fairfax County School Board - unanimously, if you can believe it - gave up the moral high ground and joined the increasingly rapid race to the bottom in public education.

Board members voted 10-0 to scrap the school system’s grading system, one of the few things that truly made Fairfax’s devotion to rigor stand out. Against the advice of their superintendent and staff, board members are moving toward the mediocre, 10-point grading scale.

So much for standards.

Board members apparently were overwhelmed by a vocal, if not always devoted to the facts, group of parents, whose main concern was that Junior and Missy were having a hard time getting into Virginia’s public institutions of higher education.

Parents’ arguments were dubious, but their tone was deafening. And, apparently, the School Board couldn’t take it any more. Board members just gave up.

“We’re not lowering standards but adopting a more standard language,” School Board member Jane Strauss (Dranesville) told The Washington Post. If she wants to believe that in an effort to justify this decision, fine, but in her heart she knows exactly what board members have done, and why.

Having abdicated the high ground on this issue, we wonder what will be next. Will School Board members turn redistricting over to those who shout the loudest? Will decisions on what courses are taught be left to those who put out the most press releases?

The nation has poured trillions of dollars over the past 40 years on a public-education system that puts the actual needs of students somewhere toward the back of the line and has failed to produce tangible improvement over what students learned a half-century ago. Those few school districts that try to maintain standards, like Fairfax, get told they’re not up with the times, and need to reach for the lowest common denominator. If you need proof, look at the Jan. 22 decision.

The Sun Gazette is right on. It's a damn shame the school board is caving in to a group of parents, who make a ridiculous case and scream in their kkk whites.

FCPS has been a premier public education group for decades, why change to appease a group of parents who failed their children and now want to lower the bar for all the children in the county?

Good to know Steve that you don't want a public school system that is ever responsive to the public, those who pay the bills.

Thank goodness they so rarely cave to what parents want, those pushy swim and dive parents won't get anywhere! Those jock-wanna-be parents, who try to live through their kids, don't stand a chance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2009 12:40AM by Neen.

Neen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good to know Steve that you don't want a public
> school system that is ever responsive to the
> public, those who pay the bills.
>
> Thank goodness they so rarely cave to what parents
> want, those pushy swim and dive parents won't get
> anywhere! Those jock-wanna-be parents, who try to
> live through their kids, don't stand a chance.

The problem is, this "the public" that you speak of is a small but very vocal minority. They do not represent the other 98% of FCPS parents (and the other 100% of FC taxpayers).

I'm sure that more than four-fifths of the group that demanded this change are people who have lived in this area for less than 10 years. Probably less than 5 or 6 for most of them.

They never got past their initial shock that junior was no longer a straight-A student like he was in east bumfuk nebraska or whichever rock these people cralwed out from under. Instead of adjusting to, and appreciating the fact that their kid was now getting a real education, they instead demanded that one of the highest ranked school systems in the country dumb itself down to the level they were accustomed to in their little backwater town they came from.

Neen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Thank goodness they so rarely cave to what parents
> want, those pushy swim and dive parents won't get
> anywhere! Those jock-wanna-be parents, who try to
> live through their kids, don't stand a chance.


Hey Neen, maybe the opposite will be true and the school board won't cave to a group of parents who just want their kids to catch a few extra zzzz's in the morning.

And you would be wrong Bobby.

Most of us who support Fairgrade have been here for decades and have seen the harm that FFX's weird grading scale does to our kids ability to get into out of state colleges to which we must resort because the legislature fails to provide enough seats at Virginia's public colleges.

It's not just the A students who are adversely impacted. The FFX kids getting an 83 are seen as a C+ student doing 79 by the file reader at Shippensburg or Frostburg. If that states high schools don't use the +-, then the kid with the 83 is seen as a C student. Experience has shown us that the FFX kid with the 83 excels at those schools.

Thanks to whole language FFX kids don't write very well.

Bob, do you see it your personal mission to defend all things FFX government?

Bob Wrote:
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>
> I'm sure that more than four-fifths of the group
> that demanded this change are people who have
> lived in this area for less than 10 years.
> Probably less than 5 or 6 for most of them.
>
>
Sorry Bob, I was born and raised here. Not a noobie. I still think the 6-point scale is a bad idea. What benefit does the harder scale give? None. Many school systems that have tried using grading systems other than a 10-point scale have been switching back in droves.

Ideally, there should be a uniform grading scale nationwide and, personally, I think it should be numerically based. That would end the debate quite nicely.

Almost everyone seems to like numeric grades in concept. And if FCPS had nothing but numeric grades, colleges would convert them into letter grades and/or GPAs using some type of 10 point scale - as long as FCPS did not have its own grading scale. Perhaps because only a small percentage of US high schools use numeric grades (and most seem to be in New York), though, I have not heard or read about any school districts that switched from letter grades to numeric grades.

Bob, my children attended Fairfax County public schools starting in kindergarten. They've fared well under the weird 6-10 hybrid FCPS grading scale. However, that didn't prevent me from realizing that something was wrong, after hearing about all the other FCPS students who were unfairly penalized for living here.

CountyParent Wrote:
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> Sorry Bob, I was born and raised here. Not a
> noobie. I still think the 6-point scale is a bad
> idea. What benefit does the harder scale give?
> None. Many school systems that have tried using
> grading systems other than a 10-point scale have
> been switching back in droves.
>
> Ideally, there should be a uniform grading scale
> nationwide and, personally, I think it should be
> numerically based. That would end the debate quite
> nicely.

6 point grade system or 10 point grade system. Does it matter? No. Kids that made a B with a 92 will make a B with an 87 +/- under the new system. The teachers will change the way they score but A work is A work. By changing the grading system you just made more work for the teachers.

As pretty as that sounds, FCPS parent of 2, I don't buy it. Why would they change the numerical value of anything? If you score 90 out of 100, it's still 90%, it isn't magically going to be 87% suddenly.

Interesting math you have.

Suburbanite Wrote:
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> As pretty as that sounds, FCPS parent of 2, I
> don't buy it. Why would they change the numerical
> value of anything? If you score 90 out of 100,
> it's still 90%, it isn't magically going to be 87%
> suddenly.
>
> Interesting math you have.

For example -- the teachers will make the mutliple choice tests either harder or longer. They will be more "subjective" in their grading of essays. They will change the percentages they use to count for homework, quizzes, tests, projects etc. in their class. Maybe they won't use extra credit. Whatever. So, FCPS Parent of 2 is right, B students will stay B students and A students will stay A students.

I think some teachers will use the same tests, etc. so that many if not all of their students who would have received a B+ will get an A-. Others probably will make their tests harder or give less extra credit, etc. One question is what percentage of the teachers fall into the first and second groups.

Unfortunately, teachers are not uniform in how they grade (whether they change the scale or not). Even now, kids take who are taking, for example, AP English 11 can have different teachers at the same school and the classes, tests, homework, etc are totally different. And, like all schools, some teachers are hard graders and others are easier. None of this will change with the grading scale.