<p>what do you do? You live where you live. You send your kid to the town HS. Then the cheating begins: a math teacher tells your kid she’s doing fine, then gives her a D for the marking period - and doesn’t return phone calls. The next year, the new math teacher has “personal problems” and so is absent 3 days out of every week. There is no substitute for math teacher. Yet she’s back in time to give a final on what she never taught - and of course your kid can’t do well when she was never taught the material. Now you try to reach the math supervisor for your town, only to be ignored (no phone calls returned, no e-mails returned).
The HS teachers refuse to send exams home so your kid can learn from her mistakes. It’s not school policy. You ask a supervisor to make the teachers send the exams home (meaning the teachers now have to make up new tests) and the supervisor says the teachers have been there longer than the supervisor, so the supervisor is powerless.
How do you overcome these injustices on the college app without whining, self-pitying, etc? Is my town the only one like this?</p>
<p>Well, all I can say is even my kids’ worst teachers were better than this. If I had problems like this regularly I’d move or homeschool. Easier said than done of course.</p>
<p>Not only is your town NOT the only one like this, there are many, unfair situation in many schools. How many kids are in this high school? Where are they getting into college? How many are in your kid’s math program and situation? What kind of grades are they getting? Is this just bad luck on the part of your kid or does the school routinely do this? </p>
<p>If the high school is truly a terrible one with many incidents like the one you list and does not send kids to the types of college you have in mind for your kids, then start looking for another highschool. Gotta swallow hard and go private. There are often catholic highschools that are not as expensive as the independent schools. Or move into a better school district. But if other kids are coping just fine, you might what to eyeball your kid closely. If the problems are his–not saying that they are 100% his, but if he is the sort that attracts these sorts of issues, again that may not be the right school for him.</p>
<p>I live in a area with what is considered an excellent school system. But they are not a match for my kids. We pay to send them to private schools for that reason.</p>
<p>In my town, I would contact the school board. They are elected and respond to issues. If that wasn’t effective, perhaps a letter to the local paper?</p>
<p>NJM,
I’ll try to respond from a teacher’s point of view. I have repeatedly had the experience of having students “doing fine” most of the way through the quarter and then simply not doing a major assignment near the end. There was no forewarnng, the midterm progress report was fine, but the kid just didn’t follow through and the missing work was summative in nature and represented a big part of the grade (quarter grades just came out and I’ve had four parent conferences with this scenario as the root of the problem in the last week). That said, if such a situation isn’t the case, it might just be a question of the teacher not keeping up on grading and as a result, being unaware of a problem until grades were reported–it shouldn’t hapen, but it sometimes does. </p>
<p>I’m a history teacher, and I don’t give tests back for students to keep. It is just too much work to write new good questions each time. I give the graded tests back for students to look at and make notes about what topics they need to review for the final, and then I collect the tests back again. It seems to me that it might be a bit easier for math teachers to come up with new test items by substituting values in the same type of problem, but I don’t know for sure–I’m not a math teacher.</p>
<p>Absent teacher–that’s a problem. However, it seems that every student in the class would have the same issue–do you know if that is the case?</p>
<p>I think you are right to start with contacting the teacher directly. I would try one more time and ask for a conference. If you don’t get a response, then call the office and ask them to schedule the conference. If that doesn’t work, contact the principal, explain that you have tried without success to set up a conference, and ask for his or her help. I hope these problems can be resolved to your satisfaction and for the benefit of your daughter’s education.</p>
<p>If you do get through to someone in charge, and that someone investigates the situation, he/she is likely to report back to you that a high proportion of kids in the class did well on state exams, SAT IIs, and other tests. How did this happen despite incompetent instruction? Usually, it’s because the kids had tutors.</p>
<p>If the problem in your child’s school is limited to math, tutoring may be the answer for your family, too. In fact, tutoring may be the only way to make up for the gaps your child now has in his knowledge of math. Even a good math teacher may not be able to successfully teach trigonometry to a student who never learned the basic principles of algebra. I suspect your son may be in that kind of situation now.</p>
<p>When my daughter was in the 8th grade, she was “taught” geometry by the most incompetent teacher I’ve ever encountered. Complaining to the department head wouldn’t have worked in this instance; he was the department head. I worked with her every night on the geometry assignments all year. If this had not been successful, I would have paid for professional tutoring. It’s better to spend the money, in my opinion, than to let a kid fall behind in a sequential subject such as math.</p>
<p>This sort of thing sounds very familiar. Math and science teachers are particularly hard to come by, so often they are the worst in a school. In our town the local Catholic school situation is even worse in math and science then at the public schools as they pay less. Our closest good private school is 80 to 90 minutes away on a two lane road. Think about hiring a tutor to get your D through math. I realize that you should not have to do this, but it is much less aggravating in the long run then battling teachers/administration.</p>
<p>Schools must be really bad there. Usually, you ask for a meeting with the prinicpal and the teacher and bring your notes. I hope you’ve kept records that you can produce. I’m very pro teacher because the situation you describe doesn’t happen here or barely rarely. But I’ve butted heads with some posters over teachers issues from jersey, so maybe it’s jersey.</p>
<p>We experienced one situation near to yours. We asked for a meeting without the student and met with prinicpal and teacher. We had a file folder of information, along with school course outline, the teacher had a folded piece of paper. We were able to make our point and refute his a couple of times. The prinicpal of course at that momment did nothing. A few days later, she called with a good solution and the next year that teacher transfered. </p>
<p>The prinicpal did the right thing in supporting her faculty in front of us, then she dealt with him in private and he left later, maybe because she dealt with it. </p>
<p>I respected how she went about things because in coaching we teach praise publically, criticize privately. There was no real need to tear him down in front of us. Good luck, and hopefully you’ve kept records.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get far complaining about this to colleges. Every kid, at publics and privates, encounter weak teachers. Every kid is not the best at communicating garde drops to parents.</p>
<p>These issues need to be fixed as they arise. If your kid has a bad teacher you need to help them get the material somewhere else. On line course, tutor, parents or relatives.</p>
<p>If the school is cheating your kid, get them out. I’ve been there and while the private school tuition hurt, it was the best thing I ever did for yongest DD.</p>
<p>marian, is right. I know it is frustrating. As another NJ parent it is really annoying to pay high property taxes for schools and then to need to pay again for your child’s tutoring. Tutoring can get expensive. I ended up paying a lot to have my son tutored. It was annoying b/c I felt that I was paying for what the school should have taught my son. I don’t regret it, b/c he needed it and the school was simply not meeting what my son needed. I will say that paying the extra money was a hardship for us, and it is just simply not possible for many families.</p>
<p>BTW, my son has a friend who had to attend summer school to raise his grade from a D in math (apparently if one takes an approved summer program the 2 grades are averaged together). It really can effect college admissions, and just as important for many students…merit aid. If SAT scores are high, but gpa does not make “the grade” one might not get any, or get less merit aid. Explaining a grade, or which hs one graduated from is not going to matter when merit aid is given out.</p>
<p>Let’s all remember that sometimes it is not the teacher’s fault. Some kids refuse to ask questions in class (and limit their understanding of material). Others downplay the “value” of certain assignments. Both have happened to me with different DDs and I’ve been chastened after saying something at a parent/teacher conference.</p>
<p>Certainly the teacher should be willing to meet to discuss this. But if the messages left were in the same vein as the OP’s post [cheating, wasn’t taught the material, make them send the tests home], I wouldn’t be surprised at not getting a call back.</p>
<p>Is this only your child? If this is really the situation other families must be having problems too. Ask your son or daughter the names of the families who have these teachers and get in contact with them. If they are relectant to give this information to you, that may signal something, but then again no one returning calls is a little strange, though I’d keep trying. Also try the guidance counselor, guidance secretary, guidance head, try the principal if you have to. Someone has to pick up. Send emails (creates a “paper trail” if you do get a response). If the situation is not checking out and others are having problems, then they will not be able to ignore a group. If everyone kind of gives up thinking it’s only them, then the problem will go ignored.</p>
<p>My kids are at catholic schools that are not as good as the public schools by reputation, test scores, etc. But MY KIDS are doing well there, and that is what count. We are supplementing as needed. My son will be taking courses at a local college to augment his courses, as his brothers did. But the highschool is a good fit socially, emotionally , etc, and we have a good relationship with the school which as been invaluable dealing with a bunch of teen aged boys.</p>
<p>NJM - H. Ross Perot’s famous challenge to his managers was “Is this something you want to talk about, or is this something you want to do someting about.” You’ve spoken to the Supervisor who indicated there was nothing he could do. Uh, the most likely reason he feels this way is that his BOSS has “schooled” him on this topic in the past. It’s not personal IMHO, it’s the way the institution is run.</p>
<p>If you want to talk about the issue some more, by all means speak to the Principal, the Superintendent, and the Board of Education. Godspeed.</p>
<p>But if you want to DO something, get your D a tutor for the coursework she’s having difficulty with. Perhaps this tutor could be shared with other students in the classes who are having “teacher” problems. If work of this parental insurrection reaches school board members they may even begin to ask questions. Hmmmm. </p>
<p>Good luck with whatever approach you decide to try.</p>
<p>One year the AP history teacher was so bad we got a group of 8 parents together to make the appointment with the principal. Harder to ignore a group. Fortunately the teacher was basically good, just bad techniques for that class, had never done AP before. They gave her a coach and she really turned around into a good teacher. Win win all around.</p>
<p>Just curious, when you say high property taxes ( I have heard this complaint on this board re: NJ & TX) what is the general rate? On a $500k house or $1 million house what would your rate be? </p>
<p>In CA people pay about 1% and there is a limit of increases to about 1% a year, so a $1 million dollar home (not that fancy!) would be about $10,000 a year plus. But then, the old couple next door who bought that house in 1967 for $70k would be paying maybe $1000 a year and the couple who bought in the same neighborhood for $250k are paying about $2500- so you don’t get priced out, but if you move you feel “screwed” :p</p>
<p>In WA I have seen that they re-value homes about every 4 years (depending on the county) and there are no limits to the reassessed value, it ia market value, so you can be priced out of your home (limited protection for some elderly low income) A $1 million home would also pay about $10k or so…no limit on increases, no limit on the local govt to budget.</p>
<p>In my extremely limited experience, prop 13 which is the bane of CA schools existance, is not so bad- much more money in the schools in WA (I have been on school board and seen in detail many budgets) but I was more impresed with the results in my Ca community that what I saw in a WA school - which is not to say that there are not lousy schools in CA and excellent ones in WA, just that it was not the difference in money that made the difference in outcome :D</p>
<p>So, how are taxes calculated in the other states? How are the increases limited?</p>
<p>to the OP: I’d go for a two-pronged attack. Get your child the tutoring she needs to improve her grade/understanding of the coursework and then speak to the building principal, and in a nice way ask what the building policy is regarding the return of graded exams and papers, explaining that your child finds them to be an invaluable study tool. (Imagine that!) It almost never works to approach a school when you’re angry and making demands (even when it’s justified). You just might get the principal to take the hint that this is an area where a little leadership is called for in the building. They can take it as an opportunity to work with parents and staff to improve teaching for all students. </p>
<p>This approach has worked to some degree in our h.s. You won’t get far if the principal doesn’t buy into it and we made progress really only after a new principal was hired (former classroom teacher) but you lose nothing by trying.</p>
<p>I would try to deal assertively with these problems as they come up. Start with the teacher - if no response - go to the principal - in person. We had an English teacher who gave our son a 60 on a paper because she felt he did not go through enough revisions cycles. We called to discuss and heard nothing back. Our son talked to us some more and revealed that this teacher spent most of the class time shopping online. Their writing portfolios were empty - and it was January. I called another parent I know with a child in the class and we both met with the principal. He said he was shocked (“this is one of our best teachers”) but agreed to investigate. He called me a week later confirming my original reports and apologized. She shaped up for the rest of the semester - my son did fine. She went out on disability the next year. This stuff is time consuming but it’s worth it! My blood pressure went up when I heard about the online shopping - he even described a coat she purchased!<br>
Bottom line, deal with it before it’s too late. And do it in person.</p>
<p>somemom, In NJ property taxes are what take care of most of the school’s budget. Taxes do vary, and one actually votes for increases to the public school budget (which would mean property tax increases if voted in). In some school districts one pays less property taxes if there is commercial property to help pay some of expenses. I would be hard pressed to give an exact figure. I would say generally, that someone in a 500,000 home, could be paying 12,000 in property taxes and that would not be out of line in many areas with very good public schools. Also, one might not find a house for sale in such districts for less than 400,000 (this might be a “starter”, or “fix me up” home). NJ does offer some property tax rebate money, but it is really not much. Perhaps we received $250 last year (not sure about the exact amount). Seniors get back a bit more I believe, and perhaps those with generally lower incomes also get a larger rebate. It is still hefty. Generally, many seniors vote down the school budget. It is a real hardship for them to pay their property taxes. Many move, but many who want to be near family stay in their homes b/c they say that there is nothing less expensive anywhere in the area (this includes condos where taxes and monthly maintenance + additional assessments are also very expensive) .</p>
<p>Our town’s high school operates in a similar way to the OP’s. We have had some problems with teachers over the 8 years or so that my kids have been going through. It is extremely difficult to get responses, and even harder to get anything done. They ‘yes’ you to death, and nothing is fixed. If your child finds him/herself in trouble in a class there is no way to get them out. Guidance and the supervisors claim to have their hands tied. My daughter’s precalc teacher is a bad teacher. He is also the wrestling and football coach, and has his attention elsewhere. My daughter asks questions in class, and is often ridiculed for it. She has stopped asking. I have emailed, called, etc with no luck. My daughter has always been good in math. She scores around 700 on the math portion of the SAT. But this precalc is killing her GPA. Wwe didn’t know where she stood until it was too late to pull her out of the class becase he never grades his papers or posts grades. I found out by accident last week that the teacher was supposed to offer to set my D up with a math tutor from the NHS months ago. I sure wish they had done that. I finally called the township supervisor for the third time this year in a panic, an they gave her a tutor. She is now hooked up with a kid once weekly, and can go to a drop-in tutoring session once weekly with the MuAlphTheta kids that she’s been using all along. Hopefully this’ll all get her out of precalc alive, lol! It illustrates the way this HS works, though. No one has said anything to this teacher. My D tells me that, even though she’s often made fun of in this class, there are kids who are treated even worse. How do these people keep their jobs? My D is so disheartened that she almost didn’t take a math next year, but her counselor finally talked her into Stats. She just better not be assigned to that teacher next year, though, cause all bets will be off then!</p>