<p>jasmom--that's exactly the way it is in our family! I believe my daughter when she says she got docked for late homework, even though it wasn't late. Teacher won't budge, though, and there is no "proof." But, it is not a final grade. Maybe she'll bring it up from a B- to a B+. It's her worst grade on her report. </p>
<p>Contrast that with her older brothers, who ALWAYS had "stories" to tell about their grades. So, naturally, I did not believe my oldest when he got a D in Spanish and claimed it was a mistake. Turned out it was! And there was no problem changing it, teacher admitted mistake and promptly changed it to a B (and I felt bad for not believing him)--that happened twice in high school with him. Unfortunately, he also got some poor grades that weren't "mistakes."</p>
<p>Your school's grading system is the same as our was in grades k-8 (private) but when the kids moved to high school the school had to match its grading policy to the publics so that our kids wouldn't be penalized "sports-wise" by having to have higher scores to participate than the public school kids do. (Therefore a kid with a 70 still gets to play). </p>
<p>I take it that your school is not a public but has decided to continue with this system. I'm surprised that the athletic director (and parents) haven't complained.</p>
<p>Mstee- I think one of the reason's my son started bringing home the printout's is that we didn't believe him when he told us he was doing all his work and studying enough. He wanted to prove his grade was what he said it was. My son in previous year's was like your oldest. We haven't quite adjusted to the new "him" and still are in shock everytime he brings home a grade sheet.</p>
<p>WE stopped "just taking the teachers' word for it" when our kids kept producing graded papers that the teachers had said were never turned in. Once we experienced that 10-20 times, we stopped trusting the teachers at all on this issue. Besides, both our boys are "hit the books" kind of kids who ALWAYS do their homework.</p>
<p>my oldest is homeschooled, so this is only an issue with my youngest who is in 6th grade. Since I knew this was a problem -- we have been addressing it since the beginning of this year.</p>
<p>Last semester he got 2 B's, one in English because he didn't do 2 in class assignments the last 2 days before xmas break (he was out sick). The quarter ended then and he wasn't given any opportunity to make up the work. The second B was in study hall -- what a surprise! Never a mention of a problem to him or to us. When he asked, he was told that she felt he had to be redirected a few too many times. He had no idea that it was even a graded class.</p>
<p>He is learning -- and since this is middle school, it is the place to do it! Many of the grades are posted on the computer, so we can go over them on the weekend and he can follow-up with the teacher that week.</p>
<p>When it is something important (thought he turned in the assignment, but no grade showing -- really low grade when he knew he did well) I have had him request a conference with the teacher.</p>
<p>He is learning to be proactive and I am confident that by the time high school rolls around he will feel confident and knowledgeable in how the school system works. His teacher's are telling him that C's and B's are fine and that he shouldn't be worrying (even though he earn's A's) but his older brother and I tell him to do his best and if that is an A, that is what he should get.</p>
<p>jlauer: LOL, No Our S's school is a large (2900 students) suburban public,part of the largest school sysytem in our state.
When 1st quarter report cards come out we can always count on losing a few off the football team.</p>
<p><<<< His teacher's are telling him that C's and B's are fine and that he shouldn't be worrying (even though he earn's A's) but his older brother and I tell him to do his best and if that is an A, that is what he should get.>>>></p>
<p>I hate that!!! I hate it when teachers say c's and b's are fine when a child has EARNED an A. They make the kid feel like he's groveling for a better grade than he deserved. (When this happens I wonder what kind of grades these teachers often got themselves.)</p>
<p>Does your whole state use this grading system? Otherwise your school/district is putting its athletes at a disadvantage when competing against schools outside your district. If the whole state uses this grading system, then it sounds ok.</p>
<p>Yep, It's that way all over our state as far as I know. The 2.0 rule for sports is an effort to make students focus more on academics if they want to play sports.</p>
<p>Pack: The 2.0 rule, I think, is pretty universal for sports qualification (no grade lower than a C) It's just that if one group (the publics) define 2.0 as 70% then the others in the state need to follow suit otherwise those athletes at the stricter school are at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>We are in the second largest public school system in the same state as Packmom and our grading scale is the same as she stated. Exactly the same. DS' school is also large 2400+ and way overcrowded, built for 1300.</p>
<p>Yes, the system works when the whole state works using the same rules. </p>
<p>I'm sure you can see how it wouldn't work if one district used one set of rules (such as 76 = D) and the district next door used another set of (easier) rules (such as 69 = D). The athletes in the stricter district would be pi**ed & so would their parents.</p>
<p>In our state grading system is also 94 & up A, etc.<br>
To the original post, our high school used to have a very gifted chemistry teacher who was the stereotypic "absent minded professor". My oldest learned to keep copies of all assignments before he handed in--just scanned them on the computer and saved when they were printed worksheets and so forth. He also kept a list of when work turned in, when it came back and what the grade was. It was a real hassle and he certainly wouldn't have done this for every class, but after a bad first grading period due to "missing" assignments it was the lesser of the evils.</p>
<p>Our school converted to a online system where parents and students can check thier grades online. Has been really nice, you hear kids come in and say "I checked my I-Parent and it said i was missing this". Also very nice for parents, they can track the progress in all of their classes even tells you if they skipped school or where late.</p>
<p>My expierence is that some teachers won't do anything, but if you go to the principal of schoolboard and get them on the teacher's back something might happen. But you have to act quickly.</p>
<p>Of course, the catch is that teachers can always run, make up grades, lose papers if they never returned them in the first place. Such in the story of my 9th grade year in English. Since I never got any papers back, and the teacher said she lost my graded papers, all the school could do was assume the grades in the book were right--despite how inconsistent they were with all my other work.</p>
<p>(For example, I got a 76 on PSAT Writing and a 75 on Reading [best in my rural, southern school] and a 99% in AP English 2 years later [best in the class], but still get a B in English while other students that would go on to have failing grades and drop out got As.)</p>
<p>Thus, the moral of the story, as my guidance counselor said, is to be aggressive and be pragmatic. Make sure teachers give back papers, make sure teachers update you on your grade every couple weeks, and make sure they don't retailiate for such "hounding."</p>
<p>And if all else fails just accept your bad grade and more on. No one will care in college, nor after college, nor on your death bed, nor anywhere else.</p>
<p>This has been a persistent problem for us with our younger son, now a HS junior. One teacher in particular is very disorganized. She doesn't always collect the work sheets, just looks at them in class and checks it off in her grade book. She doesn't put any mark the paper itself indicating she entered it, so the student can't document that it was received. My son has mild ADD, and his organizational skills are challenged. Finding homework papers weeks later is not his strength. He is trying to improve, and has, but the thing that galls me is that the school is constantly saying that the STUDENTS must learn responsibility and be accountable. Here is a teenage boy with a diagnosed problem in this area, who still does the homework 100% of the time, and finds the homework the teacher loses track of more than 90% of the time. He is being way more accountable and responsible than the teacher who loses or mis-records the work a good 25% of the time, and is able to push the consequences of her disorganization onto the student.</p>
<p>We have a bit of that prob ourselves. When we have to "find" a graded paper, our s has to go thru a mtn of papers (even tho he has a file for them.)</p>
<p>Honestly, I haven't really had this problem much, so I am lucky. Once in a while, a teacher would miss a small assignment or miss a quiz grade by a few points (seeing a 96 as a 90), etc. In that case, I simply asked them to confirm the grade they had, and then showed them the work if I had it. If I didn't, well, I didn't and that's my fault usually. If I did, they just put it in the computer again and that was that. Well, once it hurt me in Jr. High when my religion teacher lost my final and my grade plummeted, but that was an isolated case and I couldn't do anything since she never handed them back.</p>
<p>Of course, the new online system really helps that.</p>