<p>In another thread, there is a discussion about last Friday's 20/20 Stupid in America story. I challenge all to post their "Is my child's school stupid or do they think I am stupid" story. </p>
<p>The most common story is when a parent complains to a teacher or school about an obvious problem and the parent is told (with a straightface), "You are the only parent to complain about this" OR "This is the first time I (teacher or principal) have heard this complaint". Later, we find out other parents have complained about the same issue!!! Are they stupid or do they think we're stupid?! </p>
<p>My story: My son's science teacher will let B, C, D, F test grade students bring their grades up on a test by doing "test corrections" and get full credit up to a B+, BUT an A- student is not allowed to do test corrections and bring his/her grade up to a stronger A. The teacher's (stupid) reason -- "If I allowed that then the A students wouldn't study for their tests." WHAT!?! Her stupid system encourages B,C,D & F students not to study for tests. After all, with her system, you can get an "F", then do test corrections and get full credit up to a B+. But an A- student is stuck with his/her grade. When this is pointed out to the teacher, she got "huffy" and said, "I'm doing the kids a favor by allowing test corrections -- I don't have to do it at all." Does she think WE'RE stupid?????</p>
<p>...or is SHE stupid??? LoL, I can tell this will be a funny thread. </p>
<p>On the side note, as a student, I get that impression, too. Teachers or school officials, sometimes, will try to make me and my friends calm down about an issue by making US!! look stupid. I know we're the only students who complain about absurd policies, but they can, at least, hear us out. Jeez, LoL</p>
<p>After all, with her system, you can get an "F", then do test corrections and get full credit up to a B+.</p>
<p>My daughter who has disabilities that affect the way she performs on tests occasionally is able to retake the test or to finish it after school.
This is noted on her 504 plan.
The teachers who do allow retakes- only allow students who have gotten 50% or below to retake the test.
My daughter studies, she gets A & Bs on her homework and classwork, but has a processing speed difficulty that influences testing. The test that is marked fail- is not reflecting her participation or knowledge of the material- it is only reflecting her difficulty with processing and phonetic decoding ( she has to figure out what a word is by looking at context- she can't sound out words- and has limited verbal working memory)
It would be preferable in my point of view for her to take the test untimed in a seperate room- however- she wants nothing to be visibly different from the others in the class. I have the impression that when the bulk of the students turn their tests in and leave, she does too- whether she is done or not.
Hence the retaking or extended time taking of tests.
I don't know why the teacher would allow those who are passing the tests to retake it,I have never heard of that before.
But for a student who has good attendance, does well in homework and classwork, but has difficulty with testing, I think it is appropriate to find another method of evaluation or to allow different testing methods</p>
<p>I don't have a problem with a teacher letting passing grade students do "test corrections" and bring up their grades -- afterall, the test correction process is a learning one. </p>
<p>However, I think that such students should only be given "half credit" for each test correction -- which means a C student will probably only be able to bring grade up to a mid or high B. And, this way, an A- student (92%) can bring his grade up to a stronger A (96%). I just think her "logic" of not allowing A- students to do test corrections because "then they won't study" is just stupid (and the other parents think so, too.)</p>
<p>My son's school once outlawed "no show" and "quarter length" socks BUT they allowed the kids to wear crew socks and fold them down a few times until they became like "quarter length" socks. LOLOLOL After many complaints about the stupidity of this rule, as of Jan 1, 2006, any length sock is allowed!!! Until then, did they think we were too stupid to see the silliness of this rule???</p>
<p>Our son's middle school tried to "get tough" with discipline and came out with a list of offenses and punishments. The faculty must have been drunk when they compiled the list because having a "messy locker" received the same punishment as "stealing money from someone's wallet or purse" -- both offenses earned a detention. We pointed out that they don't discipline their own families this way so they shouldn't discipline students this way. We gave the example: if your child comes home drunk you don't give him the same punishment as the child who left his dirty socks on the floor. The school looked at us as if we were from Mars. BUT, the following year (without verbally admitting their previous error), the stealing money offense was given a heavier punishment -- in school suspension.</p>
<p>What is a "test correction?" If that means the students with the poor grades learn the material and can demonstrate proficiency, then I like the sound of this policy. The A student has already understood the material. They should be doing something else, not spending their time on old material grubbing for a slightly better grade.</p>
<p>My neighbor's child's teacher doesn't read the weekly essays that he assigns -- he just randomly puts a grade on the top (with no other markings) and hands them back. When parents complained that the teacher wasn't reading the assignments, the principal believed the "ver respected excellent" teacher (the principal's description of the teacher). Now it has come out that the kids (wised up to the fact that their teacher wasn't reading the assignments) have been turning in the same paper -- week after week after week (just kept reprinting out one essay and changing the date) ---Proving to one and all that the teacher wasn't reading the assignments!!!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL</p>
<p>At my Ds middle school, for like, 20 years they gave the same tests from the same text books... so if you were smart, your sibling would save the test and you would just study the test...after a while, the teachers got smart, and after your parents signed the test, you had to bring test back to school...oh yeah, they hadn't really hear of COPYING MACHINES</p>
<p>Also, they would teach one class one book, and the other another, then swap books (they didn't have enough copies of the paperbacks they had been using for ten years) anyway, hey you give me the test for the pearl and i will give you huck finn</p>
<p>Or kids would have the same test at another school a week before my Ds would and some kids would just study a friends test</p>
<p>The teachers were to lazy to make their own tests, they new about the copying, and only made a show of talkng about it</p>
<p>I like the idea of averaging the two grades for a test make up</p>
<p>And if you know you are going to fail a test by a 60 grade, if the teacher lets anyone with a 50 or below retake, wouldn't you just miss one or two more questions so you could retake it a few days later?</p>
<p>BTW the disliked my girls Middle School emmensly, if you couldn't tell</p>
<p>I had a teacher in school that we "thought" was like the one jlauer just described. We had to do all of these written reports and we were completely convinced that he never read them. That was until the day in 8th grade that he made one boy stand up and read his report that had all sorts of comments written throughout it. Turns out he had been reading them all along and the joke was on us.</p>
<p>That is not fair to say that an A student is "grubbing for a better grade" any more than the B student is "grubbing for a better grade". It is NOT a waste of time for an A- student to learn what he got wrong and why. After all, similar questions may appear on the midterm or final exam. Learning is learning.</p>
<p>As far as old tests being regiven, I noticed a student years back complaining about fraternities having copies of the old tests on file. This student who was not in a fraternity felt his gpa was really hurt by this. He posted this info on that website students use to complain about their schools.</p>
<p>Teach 2005 The teacher may NOT have been reading the essays BUT his eye may have just "caught" one of the comments and it encouraged him to read further. Anytime a teacher just randomly puts grades on the top of essays without making any markings or comments about why points were deducted, the teacher is probably not reading the essays.</p>
<p>city: Absolutely!!! If only failing tests get to be retaken, then students who felt that they weren't going to get a "good grade" would purposely miss more problems so that they would get an F and then could retake the test!!!!</p>
<p>Schools are often too dumb to figure out that their silly rules are easily "jumped over" by using some smarts. </p>
<p>One school made a rule that parents couldn't bring their child's "left at home" homework to school, so parents started signing their kids out of school, handing them their homework, and then signing them back in!!!!</p>
<p>(continued from above) Or... they would put their child's forgotten homework in a lunch sack and bring it to school and have the school give it to their child!!!</p>
<p>Our son's school made a rule that the kids would get a detention if they forget to bring a sick note from their parents on the day after they are sick. Sooooooo, I made up a pile of "sick notes" that say, "My child was home sick on the previous school day," and then I signed my name. My son keeps the pile in his backpack so if I forget to give him a note, all he has to do is pull out one of his "stash" and turn it in!!!! Schools can be sooooooo dumb. (Don't worry, my child is an A+ "never ditch a class" kind of kid so I know the notes won't be used for ditching. Plus, the school calls home everytime a child doesn't show up for class just to make sure a child hasn't gotten into a car accident on the way to school.)</p>
<p>The collared shirts (and everything else!) sold in our school store are against the dress code. You'll get a detention for wearing our school's collared shirt since it has the name of the school and the logo on it.</p>