<p>My DD is considering dropping her foreign language class at mid year. </p>
<p>A little background - she has had 2 years of this language in high school plus an additional two years in Junior high. At this point, she is in a Level 4/5 combined class this year. She is getting an A in the class - and has gotten an A in the language since she started it in 7th grade (she is now in 11th). </p>
<p>The issue is that her teacher, new last year, is not equipped to be a HS teacher and has grown increasingly indifferent to the teaching of the class. As a few examples: </p>
<p>1) She has no lesson plan on most days, asking the students what they want to do
2) Frequently (at least once a week) she does not return from lunch in a timely manner, and thus when the students show up, the classroom is empty for 20-30 minutes.
3) She apparently has no idea what work she has assigned in the past - for example, they are reading a novel and she assigns them nearly random chapters to read (e.g. read chapter 17 tonight... then the next day read chapter 25.) </p>
<p>The students are frustrated and have gone to the administration (as have their parents including me) but the administration is not willing to do anything about the situation - and the teacher has proven by her actions last year that complaining about her will result in retaliation when it comes time for grading. </p>
<p>My DD has just had enough and wants to drop the class at the semester. </p>
<p>The reason for the query is how do people think that colleges will view this next year when she is applying for college. She is a high end student - with ambitions (and the supporting stats) of going on to schools such as Pomona or Scripps.</p>
<p>I think at that level of language she should be fine IF she replaces the missing class with another elective.
Will she be able to self study and take the language AP exam in May (thus proving her competency)?</p>
<p>Unfortunately I don’t think she would be able to study for and pass the AP - the last 1.5 years have not been terribly useful in developing her skills in this language and she has other APs this year where her study time would be better spent. </p>
<p>What if she were to take an appropriate community college class instead?</p>
<p>If she has more than 3 years in the same language, most schools won’t care if she has 3 1/2 or 4. However, talk to your D’s GC to make sure the change won’t make him or her not check the “most rigorous courses available” box on the applications. GC is probably aware of the problems with the teacher and will be willing to help - but maybe a conversation is in order. Replace language with another course of equal difficulty.</p>
<p>She doesn’t want to give up the language - and plans to take it in college (as well as doing a semester abroad to gain further fluency).</p>
<p>She could take the language at the CC over the summer or next school year. It is not possible to add for spring semester as CC spring semester is already in progress and HS won’t start for another 3 weeks.</p>
<p>Her concern (and mine) is how would a top LAC admission officer view this situation - and how best to compensate for it.</p>
<p>I think the CC course is a good idea, especially if she would like to continue the language. And she may want to continue with cc courses through summer and/or senior year. It could become valuable transfer credit for her. Just be sure she doesn’t get HS credit as well. Some colleges will not transfer a dual credit course.</p>
<p>This sounds like a great focal point for an essay topic. Your D should emphasize her proactivity. </p>
<p>Can she get a semester elective at her HS to replace the language hole? That and the cc language courses should be more than ample ‘compensation’.</p>
<p>Looks like what to add will be a challenge - it is a small school without a lot of electives. Most academic classes are taught on a year long basis. Looks like only three academic choices (ignoring Teachers Aid etc) - Newspaper (she wants to major in English), Psychology, and Philosophy. The latter two require major changes in her schedule and I am not sure that they can be fit in (e.g. there is only one section of each and they are offered a different period - opposite some of her AP courses which may also be offered only once). Newspaper would be a direct substitute - same period.</p>
<p>What an unfortunate situation for your d and the rest of the class. It always amazes me that schools don’t require lesson plans to be turned in.</p>
<p>Before she drops this, I would look at the cc schedules and make sure its doable for her to get the class she needs- we found the cc language courses at the upper levels to be impossible to combine with h.s. schedule. </p>
<p>Does she get a weighted gpa for the for lang class? If so, her gpa will drop if she changes to another elective and so will her class rank, against others who will be in weighted courses. This is something to consider…</p>
<p>Going against the advice of others, I think she should finish out the year if possible and do her best to get a decent grade since she wishes to continue in the language and study abroad.</p>
<p>It will simply be too complicated to explain why she dropped it and too negative a story to focus on. All kids have to deal with a teacher they don’t get along with or don’t respect at some point–although I would certainly agree that this one is a fairly extreme example!</p>
<p>If she really can’t stand it and is in danger of getting a poor grade, then substituting the Newspaper course and continuing the language in the summer would be a reasonable course of action that would not have to be explained away.</p>
<p>My son’s HS had a teacher who was obnoxious and grossly incompetent, but he was the only person available for one of the major sciences. Eventually the school got rid of him, but it took several years and the students had to suffer through it. You can’t say “I didn’t finish the science sequence because the teacher was a jerk” on your applications.</p>
<p>"Going against the advice of others, I think she should finish out the year if possible and do her best to get a decent grade since she wishes to continue in the language and study abroad.</p>
<p>It will simply be too complicated to explain why she dropped it and too negative a story to focus on. All kids have to deal with a teacher they don’t get along with or don’t respect at some point–although I would certainly agree that this one is a fairly extreme example!</p>
<p>I TOTALLY AGREE with Consolation, ESPECIALLY in light of where she hopes to be accepted [a highly competetive college like Pomona]. Sometime students just have to “tough it out”, and the reasons given for dropping her current class may risk coming across as “whining”. Many top students, especially those in poorer school districts, encounter lousy teachers, and that is just something that they need to be deal with. I also worry that her GC won’t be as supportive in his letter of recommendation if she drops the class.</p>
<p>My son encountered a similar situation in his 4th year AP Latin class- a new teacher who had no teaching skills per se. None of the students liked her for various reasons, but he stuck it out and had 4 full years of language on his college apps, which can’t have hurt - he was accepted at many top colleges, including Pomona. So I would tell your D to stick it out- she’s likely to encounter bad profs at some point in her college career as well.</p>
<p>As just another bit of data, the school will not be offering Level 4 or Level 5 next year in her senior year - so this is the end of the line for her and this language. This year they had less than 10 kids sign up for the two classes - so they combined them into one and announced a few weeks ago that they will not be offering the language beyond year 3 in the future.</p>
<p>I appreciate the differing points of view and will discuss them with my DD. I’ll let you all know what she decides…</p>
<p>^^ that is even MORE reason for her to finish out the language program. She can then take a CC language course in her Sr year if she wants to show continued commitment to language.</p>
<p>I agree with MPmom and Consolation, but more importantly, I just don’t see this as a good essay topic. Overcoming the obstacle of one teacher doesn’t sound like a Pomona level essay to me.</p>
<p>I agree. I wouldn’t write a college essay on this. In addition to sounding whiny, it reflects badly on your high school.</p>
<p>Could a few parents take turns sitting in on the class for a few weeks and take notes? It is hard to believe it is as bad as described. If two weeks of documentation written by parents were provided to the superintendent and the school board, I do not think this situation would continue.</p>
<p>Dropping the class after this semester and taking the language at community college next semester sounds like a good idea. I don’t mean to suggest that she should stay in this class.</p>
<p>concur with consolation and menloparkmom. I do not see this as an essay topic – no matter how well done, it will come across as an excuse; plus, the essence of the essay is to ‘cut and run’. Now of course, if the student can fix the HS problem for all of her classmates, it’s a wondeful topic. </p>
<p>Adcoms know that ALL high schools have crappy teachers – sometimes you just got to tought it out and move on, assuming she can still pull a good grade. </p>
<p>Btw: should every kid drop a class and move to a juco just bcos a teacher is incompetent? And, of course, some colleges have crappy teachers…hmmmm, what to do then?</p>
<p>I agree with the others. I am sure there will be much more interesting topics that your daughter can use that will allow her to reveal her personality. Our son attends Pomona and also had a less than stellar HS Spanish experience. Found on the Pomona admissions website:
"…expect that competitive candidates will have completed:</p>
<pre><code>* four or five academic subjects each term, including 10th, 11th and 12th grades
four years of English
three years of a foreign language
two years science with laboratories
two years social sciences
four years mathematics (one year geometry, second year algebra, year of trigonometry and analytical geometry, year of calculus is highly recommended)
one year each biology, chemistry and physics for students interested in pursuing science majors"
</code></pre>
<p>The three years of foreign language seemed pretty standard among the schools at this level. I would recommend toughing it out and if she does not continue the language at a CC, include a one sentence explanation in the “Additional Information” section of the Common App stating that her high school does not offer an additional year of Spanish. If she attends Pomona she will take a placement exam and start at the class that best fits her preparation. Our son had taken through Spanish V at his school and tested into Spanish 33 (third semester) he learned a lot yet felt that it was very labor intensive because he had had some gaps in his high school preparation. He has fulfilled the language requirement for graduation but intends to continue taking courses as he enjoys speaking the language. He is a science major. </p>
<p>Next year, it might be helpful if she replaces her Spanish class with one that would fall into the “most rigorous” category. Our son is grateful that he had taken additional courses that required critical thinking and writing.</p>
<p>Best wishes to both you and your daughter through the process.</p>
<p>How supportive is her guidance counselor? The situation seems like the sort of thing that it would be helpful for him/her to include in the rec letter. That way the schools she’s applying to understand what happened, yet it doesn’t come across as whiny or like she’s just trying to make excuses. And yeah, documentation for the superintendent/school board sounds good; even if parents couldn’t do it, student-kept records would still be better than nothing, particularly if multiple students are doing so, and their records mention the same/similar incidents.</p>