Any public school teachers/parents

[MomaMary8]

I recently had a conversation with my 15 yo son about homework. His 8th gr math teacher believed in the “no homework” theory, and his current math teacher has the opposite view. My son’s response was that he wished he had more homework in 8th grade! He actually saw the value of practicing the math problems. He is one that struggles with math (but has the math facts memorized), so practicing the equations until he “gets” them is helpful.

My son is dyslexic and works harder than any of my other children.

This brings up a huge issue with me. My son was originally tested through a local public school district when we were 1st becoming aware of his dyslexia. The head of the special education department didn’t believe dyslexia existed and was a myth! One poor teacher or administrator can sabatoge the education of soo many children. I ache for the students under his care who are told dylsexia isn’t real and have to fight for simple accomidations (ie: no scan trons, etc). We are lucky and he attends a H.S. in a dif’t district now.

In our experience, the school is as good as the teacher your child has. My son has good teachers for the most part. I could do without the biology teacher who loves to use cross word puzzles (have you ever watched a dyslexic try to fill out one of those??), but as with all things, that teacher will be a part of his history in a few short months.

Involved parents make the best schools…public or private (I have kids in both)

 

[Jofantioch]

I wonder if teachers or parents of kids in public schools have an impression that there are certain policies that they can put their finger on, which are damaging the education that the school delivers.

My underlying questions: to what extent would problematic conditions persist if the public were very aware? are parents by-and-large unaware of such day-to-day fundamentals? how the heck can they be made aware?

John

Hey John, Forward this to all the presidential candidates, become an anonymous tip giver to the newspaper, DON’T TELL ANYONE. If you do, you’ll lose your job. It stinks, but there you are.

 

[JenDid]

I wonder if teachers or parents of kids in public schools have an impression that there are certain policies that they can put their finger on, which are damaging the education that the school delivers.

Example: The district in which I teach advances kids through middle school irrespective of their readiness for the next grade. This is not uncommon, yet I wonder if the public (parents) are starkly aware of this hard-and-fast policy, and its damage to learning.

Others: -calculators are given out in the early grades as a matter of course

-there’s no policy in high school about food in the classroom; teachers do their own thing, which typically means that any food/drink is allowed

-homework is no part of the lesson plan for many teachers

-headphones are often permitted in the classroom, although the school recently officially banned them

My underlying questions: to what extent would problematic conditions persist if the public were very aware? are parents by-and-large unaware of such day-to-day fundamentals? how the heck can they be made aware?

John

Hi John!
I am an elementary teacher in a public school. You have some good questions here, but I’m going to limit my comment to the subject of retaining students. I’m sure others will comment on the rest.
I am part of our school SST (Student Success Team) which addresses the subject of academic or behavioral problems or challenges. Often, the subjectregarding retention comes up during our discussion with parents. In our district, a student is not retained until a series of steps have been taken and the parents are included in the entire process. Also, the parents have the final say whether their child is retained or not. But let me try to shed some light on the whole retain or promote issue, because there are many misconceptions out there about why schools choose to retain students or not.
There have been extensive studies that show holding a student back is not always the most effective strategy for dealing with under-performing students. In fact, they have found that the older the student is, the less chance the student will actually improve, and is more likely to drop out of school than the child who was not retained.
So, what determines whether a child will be held back? In our district, we look at a lot of factors, including IQ, the age of the child,how far behind he (or she) is, size and who the child’s playmates are, whether the student will return to our school the following year, to name a few. Let me explain these examples.

Age: Children whose birthdays are closer to the start date of school (May, June, July, August birthdays) are younger than many of their classmates and that can put them at a developmental disadvantage in terms of what they are ready to learn. Those students do not necessarily need an extra year in the same grade, but may need additional academic support. However, if there are other factors, retention may be the best strategy.
Low academics: We try to determine whether the child has a learning disability causing the poor performance. Often a child will receive a series of cognitive and academic tests to determine if there is a discrepancy between his/her IQ and academic performance. If a child has a normal or above average IQ, but test scores are below what he is capable of, he may qualify as having a learning disability. A child with a learning disability can not be retained. He qualifies for Special Education (which is not a lifelong sentence, at least in our state) and is promoted with his classmates. If the child has a low IQ (but not low enough to qualify as mentally retarded) and his performance is in line with that IQ, he does NOT qualify as being learning disabled.** (These are the federal rules, not my district’s) **
Size: Sometimes a child who struggles academically and or behaviorally is considerably smaller or larger than his/her classmates. If a child is small, working a year behind his classmates, and has no evident learning disability, he will likely benefit from being held back another year. On the other hand, if the child is already larger than his classmates, studies have shown that retaining him will probably do more harm than good.
Playmates:If a child is small for her age, a year behind in academics and plays with younger children or becomes the “baby” when playing with her peers, she may benefit from being retained.
If a student is going to be moving (we have a large military population), repeating a grade at the new school may be desirable. At a new school, no one will know that the student has already been in first grade, so he’s starting with a clean slate and doesn’t have to worry about anyone knowing he “flunked.”

These are not the only factors that we look at, and certainly we don’t have a checklist where, if a child has so many checks, they are eligible for retention, but I want to give you some idea of the complications that are entailed in the decision whether a child is promoted or retained.
This is just skimming the subject, but I hope it is of some use to you.
In Christ,
Jennifer