The first semester of the 2020-2021 school year was a turbulent and stressful time for Montgomery County Public Schools teachers, students and parents. As a result of it remaining completely virtual, many students reported having less focus, reduced motivation to complete assignments in time and, inevitably, lower grades.
In a study released by the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE), teachers and staff reported record high absentee and failure levels among students in middle and high school. In response to the growing concerns among parents and teachers for their students’ mental health and track records, the BOE is making adjustments to curriculum and gradebook requirements. You can find more information about the new policy changes effective during the second semester here.
High schoolers across the county have been trying to adapt to the virtual learning environment. Along the way, many encountered difficulties and are nervous about the remainder of the school year.
“I’m pretty apprehensive about the second semester because even though online school was alright with me at first, I started to have a much harder time with it in the second quarter. Distance learning makes it really tough to stay on top of all our work and I think that’ll only get harder as things like AP exams approach,” Richard Montgomery High School sophomore Julianne Cruz said.
One of the biggest changes will be the removal of the 10% progress check grading category, previously mandated by the school district.
“[The] removal [of] progress checks, will reduce a lot of unnecessary stress … because they were 10% of our grades,” Poolesville High School sophomore Megha Jasti said.
MCPS has revealed that the Measures of Academic Progress Tests (commonly referred to as MAP) will now be optional for all grade levels.
“I’m very glad that MAP is optional because most students don’t see any advantage to taking it, and it is just a waste of time,” Jasti said.
Many high school students were confused when MAP tests were administered in the fall of 2020, as MAP tests were previously only given to students in grades three through eight.
Students and parents also agree with the board’s decision to increase leniency with late assignments and homework.
“Additional flexibility with assignments will help students be able to attain better grades because they have more time to study for them and make sure that they are doing them correctly,” Jasti said.
On the other hand, some students think that more leniency with deadlines would be counterintuitive.
“I think that asking teachers to be more flexible with deadlines is a nice thought, but it’s not something that’s going to increase motivation and work ethic, especially because right now teachers are already showing a large degree of flexibility and it seems to be one of the causes of the lack of motivation,” Richard Montgomery sophomore Crystal Li said.
In addition to increasing flexibility with missing assignments, MCPS disclosed that they would lower the recommended mandatory number of assignments in the gradebook for teachers. While this may be easier for teachers and students, many high schoolers are viewing this as a problem that may backfire.
“My concern would be that reducing the amount of total graded assignments we have tends to make teachers prioritize the bigger, harder assignments like tests, which could make it harder for people to bring their grades up because when we are in person, there are a lot of lower-stakes assignments that aren’t homework for us to earn a decent amount of points with,” Cruz said.
Mental health was also a big priority for a countless number of students, teachers and parents this year. Taking this into account, MCPS deployed school wellbeing teams as support groups for students. MCPS closed with the promise of a downsized curriculum and lower coursework, meaning a shortened curriculum from previous years.
Both actions were met with praise and criticism. While some people defended the county system for its efforts, others argued that coddling students with less work would not benefit them in the long run.
“Mental health support programs are beneficial, but … we can’t just make sacrifices on school curriculum because people feel unmotivated,” Poolesville sophomore Swetha Sridaran said. “[In] a school setting, we’d get help if we feel unmotivated, but that doesn’t mean our work is reduced. How are we going to be prepared when we get back or for college?”
Article by Hrishita Mareddy of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic by Angelina Guhl of Richard Montgomery High School