I got some infromation about grades from the last grading period. do we have bad teachers or bad students?
Numebrs of F's 2nd Quarter
Algebra 1 -- 110FS
cHEMISTERY 138 F's
Biology 130FS

oVERALL 768 STUDENTS GOT AT LEAST 1'FS doing the 2nd quarter. if you want to know more about a how many F's where given ut in a class pleseee replay to this message I will be happy to give out the infomation.

1st Quarter grades where not that bad./
Algebra 1 -- 70FS
cHEMISTERY 108 F's
Biology 90FS

Honestly, most people that get F's actually do deserve them. They are typically the kids that don't do any of the work in class until either their parent or an administrator tells them to, and by that time it is usually too late. I don't know if that's a high amount of F's for West Po., but those classes are for mostly freshmen, which also doesn't help.
TL;DR- Students earn their grade, teachers don't just fail kids.

Student Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I got some infromation about grades from the last
> grading period. do we have bad teachers or bad
> students?
> Numebrs of F's 2nd Quarter
> Algebra 1 -- 110FS
> cHEMISTERY 138 F's
> Biology 130FS
>
> oVERALL 768 STUDENTS GOT AT LEAST 1'FS doing the
> 2nd quarter. if you want to know more about a
> how many F's where given ut in a class pleseee
> replay to this message I will be happy to give out
> the infomation.

That would be over 1/3 of West Po's students getting at least 1 F. Doesn't sound likely to me. Are you double-counting? Some students manage to fail multiple courses.

It's probably due mostly to bad students, with some bad teachers in the mix as well.

Trifecta of Failure Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Student Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I got some infromation about grades from the
> last
> > grading period. do we have bad teachers or bad
> > students?
> > Numebrs of F's 2nd Quarter
> > Algebra 1 -- 110FS
> > cHEMISTERY 138 F's
> > Biology 130FS
> >
> > oVERALL 768 STUDENTS GOT AT LEAST 1'FS doing
> the
> > 2nd quarter. if you want to know more about a
> > how many F's where given ut in a class pleseee
> > replay to this message I will be happy to give
> out
> > the infomation.
>
> That would be over 1/3 of West Po's students
> getting at least 1 F. Doesn't sound likely to me.
> Are you double-counting? Some students manage to
> fail multiple courses.
>
> It's probably due mostly to bad students, with
> some bad teachers in the mix as well.


NOT doubble counting. if someone is failing m0ore than 2 classes. it shows on the students page

I absolutely take issue with the person who posted that "most people (honestly) deserve the F's". Completely untrue. What I have observed both as a parent of 4 students suffering through FCPS and as a therapist in the community for over 20 years is that there is absolutely NO correlation to the amount of skill, effort, ability or intelligence and the grade. The sole deciding factor in what grade you get relies on which teacher and your personality and the match. Some teachers withold good grades religiously like giving them out diminishes them in some way (typically middle aged female teachers) some teachers just have horrific personalities where it is like playing a football game with an active explosive and a bipolar person, where their behavior cannot be predicted, and some teachers just suck. I have seen plenty of underserved F's, and the parents do nothing about it they just assume that because they paid X amount of dollars for their ranch home it is a good school with good teachers, wake up FCPS parents.

I've also noticed that some students do poorly in classes in which there are expectations of making an effort, doing homework and classwork, and if they don't then they get F's. Had a student once that did absolutely nothing, I mean unbelievable, he blamed the teacher, transferred to another class and got great grades by drawing posters. Maybe it was me, but I suspect that expectations were fundamentally different. I actaully got in trouble once for giving all my students A's or B's in an elective class, so it's not like I gave good grades begrudgingly.

I also got in trouble once for giving too many D's and F's. In that case, I had kept detailed records of attendance including tardies, completed classwork and homework and the majority of the D's and F's were by students who simply didn't do anything. I showed the administrator the data and she said I should come up with alternative assingments that would allow students to succeed!

and heres the problem I have with grades-if the majority of students do not do well on a specific instrument (exam, assignement, etc) like in a recent AP exam they were told that the best grade in the class was a D, then there is something wrong with the tool or the instruction and that needs to be the focus and should NOT count. Yet, as usual, no one is paying attention at all.