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Post by MissBianca on Jan 29, 2021 0:25:14 GMT
Just got off the phone with the school. They are offering to have him do the missing assignment, and then take a PASS for the class. This means he would be ineligible for an A in the class which would have really helped his GPA. The other offer is for him to drop his PE class for this current quarter and switch to Art. During this quarter, he would re do all the work for the whole quarter, including the missing assignment, and whatever his grade is, it would replace the F. Then next quarter, in April, he can switch back to PE for full credit even though he would have missed half of the PE class. I'm not happy with either choice, but the second is the one he wants to do because he doesn't want all his work to be for nothing and he wants that A. I am concerned that the teacher will be a jerk to him in class, and I don't want him to miss out on PE because I know it will improve his stress. We're going to think about it and then follow up tomorrow. I would do the art class over but be up the teachers butt about grading and posting in a timely manner. I’d also lean into the school about email communication being sent to both of you. You can add that to the 504. I let my DS lead his 504 planning meeting but I made sure I was CC’ed on any school email.
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,465
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Jan 29, 2021 0:43:57 GMT
I’m a middle school, not high school teacher but I’m going to weigh in. . I have a few questions.... Is the teacher aware of this HUGE weight of the one assignment? Sometimes points get messed up in the entry of scores on my end. It’s brought to my attention, I fix it. Did you not get a quarter report card? Our HS has semesters and the quarters are averaged for the semester grade. There is no carry over between quarters, they’re separate grading periods. I absolutely would not be ok with either option offered to me! You should request that your son be given the opportunity to make it up and that’s it. Nothing more or less. I’m sorry but thanks some bullshit and I’ll join you on the bench. I hope it gets sorted out and he doesn’t have to give up PE. If he does retake it, can he resubmit the work he’s done already? Have an easier time of school. I totally would encourage him to. Ugh!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 31, 2024 23:46:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2021 0:52:05 GMT
I wouldn't accept either choice. There is ZERO reason for your child to retaken an entire semester of Art to recapture a grade because the school does not provide clear guidance or policy on how they communicate about assignments with students and parents.
If the school does not allow the single assignment to be redone then get your district level administration involved. If that does not work then pick up the phone and call your school board representative. I hope it doesn't get to that level but there have been issues within our school district that had to be escalated to a board level because the campus would not do their due diligence.
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Post by hop2 on Jan 29, 2021 1:17:27 GMT
Here’s a kid who did almost all of his work. and tried to keep in contact with the teacher and somehow one assignment that was no bigger than any of the others caused him to fail 2 quarters of a class
Meanwhile all over the internet people are asking if they can/should really fail students who haven’t done anything and don’t even ‘show up’ to remote class time, bemoaning how can we fail these children when none of this is their fault....
The contrast is so bizarre.
Now I’m going to ramble a bit.
Yes, OP, I don’t like your options either. Where was this teacher all semester? Where were the grades that should have been put in, where was the teachers communication with the parent? Was there a syllabus or something listing the assignments, due dates, and weights?
I’ve never dealt of an assignment that is THAT weighted that one can not pass without it without me and my child both having to sign & return a syllabus or outline with dates and expectations. So when said child fails everyone knows why. And my kids had plenty of those assignments but there was always always a signature at the beginning of the class so I knew and the student knew what was expected. And the teacher had proof that we should have known because we signed a paper about it.
What is the school teaching your son in this teachable moment? That one mistake can over write anything else he does? That only teachers/adults get ‘grace’ when they are overworked and trying to manage the craziness of this pandemic? I just can’t see how this went 1/2 a school year without anyone at the school addressing it.
Technically, where my kids went to school, they would have to have been put on academic probation within 2 weeks of the missed assignment that would cause the ‘failure’ and the teacher would be required to assist the student in how/what to do to improve that grade. Teachers would never ever put an assignment THAT weighted at the beginning of the semester because the teacher would have no way to provide a remediation plan when academic probation kicked in.
If the teacher gets a free pass for dropping the ball/lack of grade entry/lack of communication during remote teaching during a pandemic ( which the teacher should ) then why is there little to no solution for a minor child who is dealing with the same constraints during the same pandemic?
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Post by freecharlie on Jan 29, 2021 1:48:43 GMT
What does the students 504 say? What accommodations are in place? Did the student tell the teacher about said 504? Without a case carrier, the student or parent should advise teacher of said 504 and accommodations if any are in place Do you have "ability to redo assignments" as an accommodation? My son didn't tell the teacher about the 504, likely because he didn't think the contents applied to an online class. His 504 is mainly to allow him the opportunity to leave a chaotic or noisy classroom to complete his work in a safe/quiet space like the hallway or media center. His focus is affected when there is a rowdy, noisy, over stimulating environment. We don't have any accommodations for the ability to redo work. My thought about the 504 is that if a teacher is aware that one exists, they might be more inclined to check up on that student, or at least check in with their parents. I know now that it's not fair for me to make that assumption, and I'm planning to meet with the school to modify his plan to include that if they will. nope, bullshit. Your son doesn't have to tell the teachers about the 504, it is their responsibility to know, however at the same time, the teacher can not know what the student needs if it isn't in the 504. I'd also go to the principal and superintendent. Mine would be LIVID if a teacher wasn't doing zoom type classes
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Post by freecharlie on Jan 29, 2021 1:57:22 GMT
So they averaged the two quarters instead of a rolling grade. Is there anything on the 504 they didn't follow?
Are the classes he wants to take with the same teacher?
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Post by freecharlie on Jan 29, 2021 1:59:31 GMT
Honestly, I would take option 2.
He does the work, gets the grade replaced, gets to do pe for 4th quarter and gets full semester credit for pe?
Sounds like a good deal as it doesn't short him credit and his GPA is helped
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paigepea
Drama Llama
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Posts: 5,609
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Jun 26, 2014 4:28:55 GMT
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Post by paigepea on Jan 29, 2021 5:07:28 GMT
High school teacher here.
It doesn’t make sense that the two missed assignments can lower the grade to an F. Are the 100% assignment marks on formative assignments while the 2 missed assignments were summative ones? Was there a summative assignment in the 2nd quarter. Did you get a report card after the first quarter?
Teacher should have called you. We have to call any student who could possibly receive an F ahead of time so it isn’t a surprise. I wouldn’t necessarily call home for a missed assignment unless it was affecting the student’s grade to a great extent or becoming a pattern with the student. Teacher also should have called you because of the - I forget what you call it. 504? We call it something different here.
It’s sucky that the computer program didn’t show the first quarter grades.
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Post by wrongwayfeldman on Jan 29, 2021 14:42:32 GMT
High school teacher here. It doesn’t make sense that the two missed assignments can lower the grade to an F. Are the 100% assignment marks on formative assignments while the 2 missed assignments were summative ones? Was there a summative assignment in the 2nd quarter. Did you get a report card after the first quarter? Teacher should have called you. We have to call any student who could possibly receive an F ahead of time so it isn’t a surprise. I wouldn’t necessarily call home for a missed assignment unless it was affecting the student’s grade to a great extent or becoming a pattern with the student. Teacher also should have called you because of the - I forget what you call it. 504? We call it something different here. It’s sucky that the computer program didn’t show the first quarter grades. I don't know about the summative vs formative. There was a "final" in the second quarter, which was 100 pts like every other assignment and weighted 1 like every other assignment, but even though is was labeled a final, it was not technically a final assessment over the previous material, just basically a last assignment. The problem really seems to be this random assignment, given on Oct 9 when the semester started the first week of Sept. Why on earth a "project" at practically the beginning of the year was worth so much, yet it was less points than any final work in the class. It really wasn't even anything difficult, just something that he missed. It was labeled as "project" but only worth 100 points like every other assignment. It was a line drawing with a bit of shading, no different or more difficult than anything else assigned that week. But it was weighted at 800 points. Missing those points brought his quarter grade to an F, but even with a straight 100% A in the second quarter, he still gave him an F in the semester grade for the class. I'm talking with the school's VP today about this crazy grading structure, so hopefully I'll know more later. After speaking with two of his previous HS teachers from last year, they are telling me that our district (in Missouri-go figure) was getting a LOT of push back from parents who demanded our schools open back up. They were threatening lawsuits, etc. They did eventually open back up in January even though our numbers are some of the highest in the US. During these fights with parents, the school district asked teachers to come up with a way to prevent so many kids from failing their classes because the amount of homework they were turning in had dropped so much that kids were failing in record numbers. So teachers were asked to provide assessment projects that counted for more to allow kids to pass a class without having to be responsible for so much homework. In other words, with or without the homework ,they could still pass the class as long as they passed whatever assessment the teacher deemed appropriate. Most teachers applied these assessments at the end of the quarters, like you would think, but it looks like this art teacher applied this line of thinking to the next lesson on the books, the one in October, to get it over with. This backfired for my kid since he DID do well on all his homework, he just happened to miss this heavily weighted one. AND for this art class, there was no final. Not first quarter and not second quarter. This is exhausting! What also sucks is the amount of time it's taking me to advocate for my kid on what should be a minor thing, and could have easily been overlooked, and thinking about so many kids out there who don't have parents with the time to worry about this and will just take the F.
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Post by Basket1lady on Jan 29, 2021 14:52:48 GMT
High school teacher here. It doesn’t make sense that the two missed assignments can lower the grade to an F. Are the 100% assignment marks on formative assignments while the 2 missed assignments were summative ones? Was there a summative assignment in the 2nd quarter. Did you get a report card after the first quarter? Teacher should have called you. We have to call any student who could possibly receive an F ahead of time so it isn’t a surprise. I wouldn’t necessarily call home for a missed assignment unless it was affecting the student’s grade to a great extent or becoming a pattern with the student. Teacher also should have called you because of the - I forget what you call it. 504? We call it something different here. It’s sucky that the computer program didn’t show the first quarter grades. I don't know about the summative vs formative. There was a "final" in the second quarter, which was 100 pts like every other assignment and weighted 1 like every other assignment. The problem really seems to be this random assignment, given on Oct 9 when the semester started the first week of Sept. It was labeled as "project" but only worth 100 points like every other assignment. It was a line drawing with a bit of shading, no different or more difficult than anything else assigned that week. But it was weighted at 800 points. Missing those points brought his quarter grade to an F, but even with a straight 100% A in the second quarter, he still gave him an F in the semester grade for the class. I'm talking with the school's VP today about this crazy grading structure, so hopefully I'll know more later. What also sucks is the amount of time it's taking me to advocate for my kid on what should be a minor thing, and could have easily been overlooked, and thinking about so many kids out there who don't have parents with the time to worry about this and will just take the F.Yup. I’m with you 100%. We need to teach kids to advocate for themselves. When DD was in the Same Gender (all girls and all boys) program in middle school, we had conferences with the students. The student led the conference and told what they were doing. I thought this was a great idea to teach girls to use their voice.
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Post by wrongwayfeldman on Jan 29, 2021 16:03:00 GMT
UPDATE: Just got off a conference call with the teacher, counselor, and VP. DS will be able to change this quarter from PE to Art just long enough to complete the missing assignment, then return to PE. His grade will be refigured to include what score he gets on the missing work, then changed on his transcript. As long as he gets at least a B on the assignment, he will have an A in the class. They will not change how it's weighted, but they seemed concerned that the teacher assigned such an early project that did not include any assessment value so early in the year with no assessment at the end. I'm sure they'll have conversations about that without me present.
DS is very happy with this solution, it keeps him in PE with the potential to still get the A in art. He anticipates it'll take a day to complete, but the teacher said DS needs to be in class for two weeks to get the instruction beforehand.
We scheduled a meeting to modify his 504 plan.
Thanks for all your insight. I copied these replies and used them in my letter to the VP to get this meeting scheduled, and it helped SO MUCH!! It's hard to get my thoughts together, and hearing other's perspectives made it easier for me to formulate what I needed to say. I really do appreciate how often the PEAS help each other out in situations like these. You're the BEST!!
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 29, 2021 16:05:20 GMT
Glad there's a good resolution!
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psiluvu
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,217
Location: Canada's Capital
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:26 GMT
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Post by psiluvu on Jan 29, 2021 16:30:06 GMT
Great update!! Good job !
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Post by Basket1lady on Jan 29, 2021 17:32:05 GMT
I still think the new resolution is ridiculous, but it sounds like they are trying to make everyone happy. I hope they take a look at the grades for his other students to make sure this didn’t happen with anyone else. I’m all for holding kids accountable, but a single everyday assignment should not tank an entire semester’s grades.
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Post by mrssmith on Jan 29, 2021 17:41:59 GMT
Our system is like that too - not consistently updated, so it is very easy to miss a big assignment that brings the whole grade down. I wish this whole year could be a do-over for kids.
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Post by jenjie on Jan 29, 2021 17:46:47 GMT
Good resolution. I love that the peas were able to help you with this.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 31, 2024 23:46:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2021 17:55:24 GMT
UPDATE: Just got off a conference call with the teacher, counselor, and VP. DS will be able to change this quarter from PE to Art just long enough to complete the missing assignment, then return to PE. His grade will be refigured to include what score he gets on the missing work, then changed on his transcript. As long as he gets at least a B on the assignment, he will have an A in the class. They will not change how it's weighted, but they seemed concerned that the teacher assigned such an early project that did not include any assessment value so early in the year with no assessment at the end. I'm sure they'll have conversations about that without me present. DS is very happy with this solution, it keeps him in PE with the potential to still get the A in art. He anticipates it'll take a day to complete, but the teacher said DS needs to be in class for two weeks to get the instruction beforehand. We scheduled a meeting to modify his 504 plan. Thanks for all your insight. I copied these replies and used them in my letter to the VP to get this meeting scheduled, and it helped SO MUCH!! It's hard to get my thoughts together, and hearing other's perspectives made it easier for me to formulate what I needed to say. I really do appreciate how often the PEAS help each other out in situations like these. You're the BEST!! What a great update!
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Post by silverlining on Jan 29, 2021 18:10:39 GMT
Wow, I'm relieved to hear this resolution.
Let's hope in the future the teacher thinks twice about how assignments are weighted, when in the semester they occur, and how higher-weight assignments are explained to students.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 29, 2021 18:18:59 GMT
I still think the new resolution is ridiculous, but it sounds like they are trying to make everyone happy. I hope they take a look at the grades for his other students to make sure this didn’t happen with anyone else. I’m all for holding kids accountable, but a single everyday assignment should not tank an entire semester’s grades. We've had a few classes where the teachers are struggling with assessments with remote learning. In general, they're aware of the difficulty in assuring academic honesty, so many are giving far fewer tests. It's caused a few wonky weightings in classes. Where typically assessments would be 60% of the grade, but there would be 5 or 6 of them, but instead there's 2 or in some cases 1 and it's NOT the final. For example my son's physic teacher decided to make the final last semester a lab and that got thrown in into the lab grade which was supposed to 25% But he'd only given 1 quiz and 1 test the entire semester, so suddenly some random quiz in September was worth 20% of the overall grade. It caused a huge ruckus when he rebalanced. He realized it wasn't fair, but a bunch of kids who'd been watching their grades all semester and blowing off hw and/or labs as the assessment score was boosting them were surprised when suddenly their grade dropped.
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maryannscraps
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,736
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Aug 28, 2017 12:51:28 GMT
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Post by maryannscraps on Jan 29, 2021 18:29:43 GMT
Nice update. I'm glad he can make it up without too much disruption.
It sure has been a trying year for everyone.
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