<p>You’re right lilmom - there are some grades that look worse than they are. But some are accurate too! </p>
<p>And I think college is a lot different from high school, and it can be a lot easier on the kids who get worn down by the relentless daily homework. My older son is a freshman in college, and he was surprised at the lack of daily homework. This will be a problem for kids who have trouble keeping up with studying without any external accountability, but for kids whose trouble is the daily grind, it can be a lot easier. He is enjoying it a lot more.</p>
<p>Hopefully your daughter will get some much needed down time over Christmas break!</p>
<p>Variation of the “doing math” all day problem.</p>
<p>We had a teacher request that we talk to our son and ask him to quit “helping” some of the other students. Seems he was showing them things that had not yet been covered in class.</p>
<p>I’m half convinced that my DS is paying his teachers to put in 0’s in powerschool. I hear him in my head saying, “hey, I’m trying to give my mom a heart attack. Can you please put a few 0’s in powerschool? Thanks.” Usually, it ends out being the teacher putting in the wrong grade or misplacing the HW or whatever, and it turns out fine. However, the 3 zeros in powerschool right now are making me a little crazy! DS says not to worry mom, it’s all going to be fine. grrr.</p>
<p>My son is the same way with the grades posted online. “Don’t worry mom, it will be better by the end.” I hope. We have also found many, many mistakes over the years of grades that have been posted wrong or work that was turned in but not posted. We always check and double check.</p>
<p>Usually, when there are online 0’s or missing grades, I ask my son about them and he will also say not to worry. Most of the time it really is “a teacher input” issue and it is rectified in due time. Unfortunately, they also do a number on me psychologically. I am looking forward to not knowing everything when he is in college (and also praying that no news is good news).</p>
<p>D is in a program where her Math and Science classes are dual enrollment at the local CC in college classes. HS students can’t register for another week and both the Math and Chemistry classes are already full. Frustrating. I know she can try to get in on the first day or off the wait list but it is annoying that they don’t allow the HS students in this special program to have an earlier registration time.</p>
<p>Doesn’t seem quite fair, mom60. Hopefully she gets into the classes she wants quickly. </p>
<p>It’s nice to hear that other parents are in the same boat as I am! I’m really waiting for the PSATs to come in. Then we shall see how much we need to be sweating it!</p>
<p>D2 is having some playdates with her advisor now. The advisor is a bit of an air head. I made a point of stopping by her office to say hello on parent/teacher conference day. She said to me, “Wow, I didn’t know D2 (name) is such a good student, all As.” I was thinking, “Excuse me?” So I told D2 to start cultivating a relationship with this woman.</p>
<p>H asked the advisor (not school’s college counselor) how many counselors they had for 180 students. She said ONE. H said, “You only have one?!!(we had 1 GC to 30 students at the other school) My kid could be applying to minimum 15 schools if she didn’t get into her ED, would you be able to get all her paper work out on time? Could we hire few people next year to help you stuff envelopes?” I kicked him under the table. The advisor, being very local, said to H, “No worries.” </p>
<p>oldfort, I’d be jumping for joy if the GC to student ratio was 1:180 here. Alas, it’s 1:300. Their first responsibility is getting at-risk kids to graduation. Then it’s schedule planning. </p>
<p>College counseling consists of (maybe) one meeting. (Son never got one, but we hear other kids did.) On the positive side, the transcript, secondary school report and LOR process was flawless.</p>
<p>This is a 1200-kid public school that’s in and out of the Newseek top 1000. Affluent area, little to no diversity or crime. greatschools.net scores it a “10,” which it probably deserves. There just isn’t much college help. No Naviance, either. :(</p>
<p>I wonder if most colleges let applicants track document submissions online so that parents and students can make sure everything is OK before the deadline. I am sure that most high schools have good processes in place for applications (provided they have some lead time). This is something to worry about next year! </p>
<p>Now we have to send good vibes to the parents of those laid-back boys… :)</p>
<p>Oh, today D learned that her AP Chem teacher left. Left? Yup, not coming back. Good luck to the school finding a replacement with experience --think chem will have to be added to D’s self-study list now. Always something…</p>
<p>Yup, always something… we just learned that the HS is going to a paperless college documentation system next year. I don’t know the details, but they will use Naviance to submit transcripts and LORs. does anyone else have experience with this? I hate to be the guineau-pig year :eek:</p>
<p>D2 will most likely avoid the GC - D1 received such abysmal advice, even from a GC who <em>seemed</em> to be better informed than the others. I’m willing to cut them some slack, though, because their focus is necessarily on the 90% of students who go to school in-state or to a handful of schools in nearby states.</p>
<p>pathways - I can’t imagine losing an AP teacher mid-year. good thing your D is able and willing to self-study - that would not be a happy process at our house.</p>
<p>Our student/GC ratio is 1/200… but only 50 of those would be graduating in any year, and out of those only 35 or so are applying to college. It’s a lot but it doesn’t seem unreasonable–of course there are always kids who need lots of help, for all kinds of reasons including all kinds of family issues. I really admire the GC’s (and I kind of envy them-- they really do have the chance to help kids in so many ways.) </p>
<p>I didn’t know a teacher could just up and leave like Pathways chemistry teacher has! In these economic times though, there might be qualified people available to sub.</p>
<p>pathways - I’m pretty sure my son had an online account with all the colleges he applied to last year. It did seem to take the colleges quite a while to get his account up to date, but eventually everything was posted. </p>
<p>My son’s precalc teacher’s last day is this Friday. I haven’t heard who they are replacing her with yet. I’m not happy.</p>
<p>PRJ - Our school’s college application process is paperless. It worked fine for my oldest last year.</p>
<p>My D finished her first class to get rid of the first incomplete after her pneumonia. She managed to get an A in AP Art History. She is so excited. That class is so hard. If any of your kids have an interest and their school offers it, they should consider it. It is one of two AP classes that Yale accepts for credit, so that tells you something. One class incomplete made up. Two more to go. This was a “real” grade as she is in a 4x4, so each quarter is the equivalent of a semester. Next off — AP US History.</p>
<p>For those of you trying to decide if your kid is a one and done on the SAT, google the schools your kid wants to attend with the phrase “common data set”. This will give you the admissions stats for the last year’s freshman. The general rule is that if your kid’s score is within the top 25% percent, you are good to go. Of course, rules are made to be broken. My D looked at it and decided she should try to get that extra 60 points she is wanting. She will take next fall.</p>
<p>At D’s school the AP Chem teacher was gone most of last year (medical leave). The Chem Honors teacher was physically present, but mentally absent most of the time (ill parent, on leave this year). Needless to say most parents were NOT happy with the chemistry department…and the AP scores reflected the challenge the kids faced. D’s PreCalc H teacher was gone several weeks (son’s wedding, dental surgery, illness). The class grades reflected her absence…especially since the district has gone to a “first on the subsitute teacher list gets the call”. Sounds nice if you are a teacher who has been laid off, but for the kids it means that PreCalcH could be taught by a Kindergarten teacher. The regular teacher left practice sheets and planned for nothing new to be taught while she was gone. No one can plan illness, but long term situations are really hard on the kids.
FYI–for a while the district was offering early retirement to teachers–many of whom had to leave mid-year or they would lose the “deal”. Several came back to finish the year as long term subs, but some just left mid-year. That might be the reason the teacher left mid-term.</p>
<p>Chrissyblu, Congrats to your D! Glad to hear she’s feeling better and clearing those incompletes so she can have a restful winter break!</p>
<p>Congrats Chrissyblu to your DD! Glad she is feeling better and finishing her assignments. </p>
<p>PRJ - our HS went paperless (Naviance) last year. Apparently it didn’t go over so well. This year they are getting “more training” using the system while returning to their old methods. Who knows what it will be like next year when DS applies to schools. We have 3 guidance councilors for the 870 kids in the HS. I just hope that she gets everything in on time!</p>
<p>chrissyblu - Congrats to your D in getting the A in AP Art History. My D (college freshman) took that class last year and loved it. She is at school in NYC for musical theatre and has decided to add an Art History minor as well because she loves it so much.</p>
<p>My D2 will take Art History next year as a senior.</p>
<p>Congrats, chrissyblue for D getting an A and getting back to school.</p>
<p>Would Art HistoryAP satisfy a fine art requirement? Do AP tests count a lot in college admissions? My D’s school would rather not do anything with AP tests. They do have advanced courses which are according to some tranfers much more demanding than AP’s their previous HS offered. My understanding is that the advanced courses do not conform to AP tests.</p>