On Jan. 28 MCPS passed a new rule that changed the grading regulations. The main change is the elimination of the Covid-era 50% rule. Now teachers will give zeros for assignments that are not submitted. This new mandate also stated, “Teachers should be updating grades on Synergy once a week but are given some leniency. Additionally, teachers must have nine graded ‘all tasks’ assignments and at least five ‘practice and preparation’ assignments each quarter, ” according to the Montgomery County Board of Education. MCPS implemented this new system for semester two, leaving students and staff at this school with opinions on its effects.
Sami Saeed is the MCPS student member of the board (SMOB) and he promotes the new regulations on grading because he thinks students have had the chance to take the easy way out through the previous system. It was easy for students to think “No I can just not do the work and then do a couple of assignments later and bring the grade up to a 60, and boom that class is now passed,” Saeed said.
Saeed also supports the requirements given to teachers to put “R”s under the assignments students are able to reassess and “Z”s under the assignments students haven’t completed. He believes it “will help students so they can know what assignments they can retake and exactly what they’re missing,” Saeed said.
Students realize that the old 50% rule was a cushion and could be easily taken advantage of. Now students can be given zeros on any assignment after at least one attempt of communication from the teacher to the parent or caregiver. One student, freshman Samir Ako-Adjei, doesn’t agree with the new regulation because he likes being able to relax on assignments and have less stress revolving around school. “The old policy was better because it felt less stressful and more laid back,” Ako-Adjei said.
Being able to get by in a class where you only need to give minimum effort to pass was part of the cushion that the old grading system used to provide. Students only needed to submit their assignments in the “all tasks” category to maintain decent grades.
Saeed has a strong opinion on how the old regulation allowed students to be able to get by without working. He said this wasn’t a good quality to promote, especially in the sense of trying to prepare students for working in the real world.
Saeed believes that teachers like the new regulation. It used to be that students could more easily ignore the teachers and the topics and completely disregard the class. That was unfair to the teachers and made it much harder for them to do their jobs. History teacher Lauren Ehrlich agrees with Saeed and believes that it helps with real-world preparation. “I believe it can help students academically because they’re now held accountable when they don’t submit an assignment,” Ehrlich said.
