My son has struggled with his AP Cal teacher all year. This teacher does not have a disciplined way of grading and keeping grades updated. We ran into this problem in semester 1 when my son’s grade trended at C/D until the very end when the teacher had to be pushed to complete grading before mid year grades were due to colleges and he got it done in the nick of time and it went to a decent B+.
Now we are at year end (2.5 weeks of school left) and tests and assignments from Jan have not been graded and my son’s grade is trending at D! I know the grade will improve to atleast a C+/ B- (DS missed 7-8 assigments which are weighted at 15% of total grade) if the teacher completes grading of tests which are weighted at 70% of grade.
I have sent multiple emails, escalated to school counselor and Vice Principal, etc. They have started pushing on their end but the teacher has been unresponsive. Tenured teachers are very protected in this district and I am afraid he’s not going to complete grading and DS will be stuck with a D.
I am terrified he will be rescinded by Purdue where he has committed. All other grades are As and Bs.
Should we contact Purdue in advance and give them a heads up? How do we do this without sounding victimized or throwing a teacher under the bus?
This one thing is playing havoc with my son’s mental state… the last two weeks of senior year are going to be tense.
Sorry if I am rambling.
What more would you do?
I think, and this is my personal opinion, that you should at least try contacting Purdue. At least to let them know the situation and as a precautionary measure. Your child seems to be doing well in all their other classes so Purdue may understand what’s going on. It’s worth a shot. Be professional in your letter/email and explain what happened the first semester(so they know that he was doing well). Then, don’t explicitly state the situation but briefly overview it so they have a clear understanding. Again, I don’t know if this helps but if I was in this position, this would be how I would undertake it.
I wish you and your child the best on the rest of his senior year! Hope everything works out in the end
I would not contact Purdue if the grade is going to end up a C or B-. I would schedule a meeting with the principal and go to superintendent.
We had a tenured teacher like this as well and a meeting with principal AND superintendent helped our issue and it also became clear that our complaint was useful to them.
Sounds like Purdue over enrolled. You don’t want to give them a reason to rescind their offer. Get on the principal or higher to get grades in and make sure your student doesn’t miss any more assignments and works his tail off to bring up the grade.
First I would have your son talk to his guidance counselor and find out what grades appear on the final transcript sent to colleges. If it is only the year end grade and he expects to get a C or better for the year I would not contact Purdue. If the D will show up then discuss with your son’s guidance counselor. I think as long as the year end grade is a C he should be OK.
Be sure he studies hard for the final (consider a few sessions with a tutor)and hands in every single assignment for the quarter.
Thank you! I have reached out to his school counselor and hope to get some concrete guidance from her.
I just wanted to come back here and let you all know that this teacher finally got the grading going and it’s up to a B+ . My distressed son also managed to pull off a 100% on his final. I am glad it ended the way it did and we can be peaceful this last one week of his high school life.
Thank you all for your input and advice when I needed it.
Good for him for nailing the final! Glad everything worked out. Hope he has a great four years at Purdue!
Thanks for coming back and good luck to him!