TO:  MCCPTA Delegates

FR:  Shirley Brandman, Chair, Grading and Reporting Committee

RE: Proposed Resolution on  Monitoring the Grading and Reporting Implementation

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At the November Delegate Assembly, the MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee presented the following resolution for consideration.  The proposed resolution was circulated without  discussion due to limited time.  

The MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee recommends adoption of this resolution as a critical step toward improving oversight of the implementation of the grading and reporting procedures (particularly at the secondary level). While MCPS has received a limited number of complaints/questions regarding implementation of the grading and reporting procedures this year, members of the MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee remain concerned that many schools are implementing contrary to the procedures and adverse to students' interests but that these implementation violations are undetected because students and/or parents are unaware of the discrepancy between what is being done and what should be done.  Moreover, the MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee steadfastly maintains that the responsibility for monitoring implementation cannot and should not be assigned to students and parents but must be assumed by MCPS.  Indeed, the grading and reporting procedures adopted by MCPS all provide that the procedures will be "supported, monitored and supervised".  The MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee proposes this resolution to ensure that MCPS proceeds immediately to fulfill its monitoring obligation.  Questions about this resolution can be addressed to Shirley Brandman, sdbhms@verizon.net or 301-320-6033.

Proposed  Resolution from the MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee  11/22/05:

WHEREAS MCPS has specifically adopted grading and reporting procedures for grades 6-12 which govern reteaching/reassessment, homework and grading; and

WHEREAS these procedures indicate that they "will be applied consistently within and among schools"; and

WHEREAS the MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee is aware that there have been several instances where these procedures were incorrectly applied in a secondary class such as, for example, where students were only permitted to take a reassessment if they earned below a 70% on the original task or where students' grades on a reassessment were capped at 85%; and

WHEREAS we cannot equate the small number of complaints that MCPS has received from parents with a conclusion that the grading and reporting policy has been implemented successfully; and

WHEREAS the MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee believes that in the interest of fairness to all students, MCPS needs to be more proactive in monitoring compliance with the grading and reporting procedures;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that MCCPTA requests that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) immediately require that Community Superintendents working with local school principals review school wide, department wide and course specific grading practices to ensure that they are in accordance with MCPS procedures and to ensure the immediate correction of any practices that contradict the stated procedures.