<p>M kid is in an 8th grade accelerated HS bio class(grades will be on transcript for this course).
Has a bio teacher who slaps up transparencies on an overhead, (notes) that are from another teacher(one I wish my kid had gotten). Tells the kids to copy them. Thats it class is over. Never explains the information, ever. Teacher spends the class discussing choice of take out for lunch with an adjoining teacher as kids are copying the notes.
Now the state exam for this course is not a very difficult exam, kid is doing fine in the class just because we have all the old exams which happen to be basically the same just worded differently, so studies off those. Also being an accelerated course, the kids will do well regardless of teachers efforts, but I don't think they will do as well as they could with proper teaching. When exams are given, it takes 3-4 weeks to get an exam result back, no correct answers are given, just the grade, so the kid never knows what they got wrong. </p>
<p>My biggest issue with this, is this really fair to these kids? Teacher is of course tenured, my other child had this teacher before being tenured, and taught the class properly. </p>
<p>As a parent, can one ask the school what a particular teachers passing rate is? And are the teachers ever held accountable for kids that do poorly?</p>
<p>Is this a public school? I’m not sure what tenured means for high school. That does not compute in this geographical area.</p>
<p>If what your son is telling you is true (not that he would lie, but sometimes perspectives are skewed), then he does indeed have a pretty bad teacher.</p>
<p>In the public schools around here, the protocol for dealing with this sort of thing is ALWAYS go to the teacher first. Yes, it’s awkward and uncomfortable. But there may be some simple misunderstandings that can be ironed out with a simple conversation. I’ve personally seen this work. Also, if the teacher is in fact as out of line as your son describes, the teacher may step up the plate and do his/her job once he/she knows the word is out amongst the parents that he’s/she’s slacking off!</p>
<p>Then, if not satisfied with the results of your conversation with the teacher, make an appointment with the principal. Around here, the principal does not want to hear from parents who haven’t tried step one – talking to the teacher in good faith. </p>
<p>If still not satisfied, there’s always the district. Let’s hope you don’t have to go there with the problem.</p>
<p>At any rate, if you’re still unsatisfied with this teacher’s performance at the end of the school year, I’d be sure to kindly, unemotionally let your son’s guidance counselor know how you and your son feel about his/her teaching. Take your son with you and let him do some of the talking, but try to stick to the facts, no “drama.” (Not that your post sounds like you’d resort to drama anyway. You sound very reasonable.)</p>
<p>tenured usually means that the teacher has fulfilled some requirement (usually teaching three years and approved by the school) and now under the union contract cannot be easily fired/let go. It is really too bad that this teacher used to be a good teacher and now is just going through the motions. And since this teacher seems to have high seniority, he gets the choice assignments like the honors bio class.</p>
<p>tenured meaning, that here after 3 years, unless the teacher does something outrageous, performance doesn’t seem to matter. So by mentioning that, if the teacher isn’t explaining the material, he doesn’t have to produce a product of value, just put the transparencies up never explain the material and still be allowed to teach. No I am not going down that road.: </p>
<p>I was curious is there information available in regards to passing rates of exams for evaluating the strength of a teachers performance, and do schools track that information. Again this particular group of kids would do well regardless, just because their own drive, not the effort of the teacher, but feel they would do better if he taught the class.
As far as actually speaking to the teacher, I know one parent did last year, but it was specific to her child, put it this way, the teacher made sure the kid knew about it. Just in a sneaky way. For example, calling all the other kids by their first name, however, now addressed this child as Ms. insert last name.</p>
<p>samiamy, you said, “but feel they would do better if he taught the class.” Of course they would! And, it’s not only that (as if that weren’t enough), but also that the teacher is being paid to teach. Your student is sitting in class, doing his part, to learn. It’s the teacher’s responsibility to teach. The people the teacher works for THINK he’s/she’s teaching!</p>
<p>I do understand what you’re saying about the teacher doing snarky things to the kid after the parent has a conversation with the teacher. But (1)our schools don’t care – they still feel it is the parents’ responsibility to clue the teacher in to their dissatisfaction before going above the teacher’s head (and I tend to agree), and (2)there are very delicate, friendly ways to talk to a teacher you’re currently angry or disappointed with – I’ve done it. When I’ve had to do this on a small handful of occasions over 12 years and a few kids, it did help things to improve, without resultant snarkiness to my kids. You just have to be polite, courteous, and expressive of the <em>teacher’s</em> perspective while still firmly maintaining your own concerns. And you have to emphasize that you’re here to work as a team with the teacher. What can you do to help, you ask. It’s coy, I know. But you want results.</p>
<p>This teacher sounds AWFUL! I would be very upset.</p>
<p>If you can just get through the initial conversation with the teacher (document your experience), and then give a few weeks for improvement, THEN you can legitimately go above the teacher’s head and complain with hope for results.</p>
<p>In regards to your question about passing rates of exams and evaluating the teacher’s performance: I don’t know. I’ve never asked that question. I think it would raise the hair on the back of teacher’s heads. Don’t know if that matters to you. But when I’m trying to “get my way,” I try my hardest to keep down other people’s defenses. At our public schools, you would direct a question of that nature to, first, the school guidance counselor, and second, the district.</p>
<p>Wishing you the best! I would not be a happy parent in your situation!</p>
<p>One more thought before I head off to work…</p>
<p>You see, the problem with the question you want to ask (teacher’s performance, passing rates, etc.) is that merely by asking it, you are (to the listener) somehow insinutating that just about everybody associated with the teacher is not doing their job … and maybe that you think it’s your responsibility to do it for them. I’m not saying THAT’s what you’re DOING … but that’s how it will likely be perceived if you ever go down that road with school personnel. If you get the info from another source, outside of school personnel, then you still can’t do anything with it, unless you take it to school personnel. The fact that you’re pursuing it at all will sound (to them) like you think it’s your job to follow up on this teacher – like you think the teacher isn’t doing his/her job correctly, and like you think the staff responsible for monitoring the teacher’s performance isn’t doing their job correctly, and like you think the staff responsible for hiring and firing the teacher isn’t doing their job correctly. AND that you can do it better. That’s how that sort of thing comes off a lot of times. And it will work at cross-purposes with your ultimate goal … which is to get your son the education he deserves.</p>
<p>I would just stick to what can you do for your son, in particular. I wouldn’t raise any hackles with anybody on the way to fulfilling your deserved agenda – a good education for your son.</p>
<p>yeah I know that is how it looks, Im a data nerd, so I tend to look at numbers thats why I was curious, not interested in playing police man or teacher stalker.
I will speak to my kid about it, and probably fork over money for tutoring in the end. Im really not up for stirring pots if teacher doesn;t know what his responsibilities are, who am I to tell him what they are. Thanks</p>
<p>Data is the wrong way to go here. If your school system is like many, everyone will fight tooth and nail against the suggestion that teachers should be disciplined based on their comparative test results. If you even try to use test data, you will walk into that buzz saw.</p>
<p>On the other hand, data is irrelevant here. If you are describing the teacher’s behavior accurately (you are probably exaggerating a teensy bit), it’s a complete dereliction of duty. No one – not a principal, not a union official, not a school board member – would defend it as appropriate. Even if the test scores of his accelerated class were BETTER than anyone else’s.</p>
<p>How could you wait until almost April to complain about this? Is it a one-semester course?</p>
<p>I backed off when my kids got to high school, and had them take the lead on teacher issues. (Last year, D’s English teacher was worthless…D and a friend in class had several meetings with the asst principal, telling what was and wasn’t happening in class. I kept my mouth shut, although the biting of my tongue got a bit painful).</p>
<p>However, middle school was an entirely different subject. I talked with teachers, principals, guidance counselors, and gifted teachers, when I felt that things weren’t going well. I believe they tended to listen to me because I wasn’t whiny, but just presented info. Also, my kids were ‘A’ students, which helped significantly…my issues couldn’t be blamed just on that I felt my kid was being wronged.</p>
<p>My older D was a math/science geek since she was little. In 8th grade, she had an AWFUL science teacher; she was incredibly bored, and decided that she HATED science. I was furious that the administration could let this occur, and it was the time that I got most involved in the situation. If she was hating the class, what about everybody else? (the kids who didn’t do well didn’t care whether or not they were being taught or not). It turned out to be an OK situation. While she’d always say that was her most worthless science class, through intervention with the gifted teacher, and the principal making it clear to the teacher that he was being closely monitored, luckily her science dreams weren’t dashed back then (haha, note my screenname). </p>
<p>In both middle school and high school, I did not hesitate to write letters to the principal (and in a couple of cases to the district superintendent) to commend excellent teachers who went out of their way, giving specific examples, etc. In middle school, I think this helped when I had concerns to raise.</p>
<p>My kid isn’t a complainer, gets in the 90’s, it is more of the “You know what teachers name did today”, so when quizzed deeper, I asked has it always been like this,kid has said yeah more or less. when I started to hear the stories now and again it wasn’t till January, now I ask every day what happened today, it is pretty frequent.
Before it seemed the only issue was just taking 4 weeks to get exams back which I thought was not fair to the kids, but not explaining the material, is something else. So if this particular year he decides to check out of his duties I was curious to know does the school itself look at that from one year to the next, or does he do this all the time. He did not do this with my other kid, but that was over 4 years ago, and he was 2nd years teaching.</p>
<p>I could swear you were at my son’s school! Both took bio in 8th grade, state tests, tenure, older son had the great teacher, younger son had the jerk. I might talk to the teacher, but honestly I think it would backfire. I’d probably go directly over his head to whoever his immediate supervisor is. Good luck.</p>
<p>In my district, unsatisfactory teachers used to be taken out of classrooms and reassigned to administrative positions in the DoE. This made for a really top-heavy administration. We got a new head of the Teachers’ Union who worked with the Superintendent to get rid of the reassigned teachers (he’s been great!).
I once got a teacher re-assigned. she was a multi-year veteran, but when school started, I heard commiserating noises about my S having her as a teacher. Midway through school, I realized that she was not teaching at the appropriate level though she was very nice. I told my S’s GC of my concern, was encouraged to write a letter to the principal and did so. Within one week, she was re-assigned to a class where her personality and her pace of teaching was a better fit. Apparently, the school was waiting for a formal complaint from a parent to act, rather than just listening to whispered gossips.</p>
<p>I hate to say this, but I think if it’s too late to switch your kid out of the class, it’s too late to do anything. You won’t get any satisfaction, because the school won’t do anything. Your child risks being labeled as having troublesome parents.</p>
<p>Son had an awful 8th grade science teacher who had been there forever. A lot of watching of Bill Nye videos took place. I had a few tense conferences with him but towards the end of the year he told me he used to be a much better more passionate teacher but the increase of testing, and teaching towards test results had become so onerous and oppressive to him that it killed the joy of teaching for him and made him less of a teacher. I think he was being honest in that conversation.</p>
<p>I would write the teacher a letter about a specific (and fixable) issue such as the tests not being returned and not being corrected. Send copies to the department head and to the assistant principal and principal. Cite your facts and figures.This should put him on notice; I would not expect any great changes with only 1/4 of the year remaining.</p>
<p>Also, prepare for the inevitable contact call - you should have some other parents lined up who share your problem and are willing to speak up. The school’s response can help you gauge whether your other concerns will be taken seriously.</p>
<p>First thing you’re likely to hear from the principal: “I haven’t heard this before.”
Second thing you’re likely to hear from the principal: “We’ll look into it.”
Third thing you’re not likely to hear from the principal: “But we won’t look very hard, and even if we find something we won’t get back to you because it is a personnel issue. Besides, under the union rules, I’m not allowed to conduct an observation of the class without giving thirty days notice of the specific day and time I want to observe, setting up a pre-meeting with the teacher to plan the observation, a follow-up meeting to discuss what I observed, and then writing up formal observation notes, which the teacher can protest. Given that the teacher is tenured and that anything short of physically hitting a kid or sexually hitting on a kid is unlikely to result in the teacher being fired, is this worth my time?”</p>
<p>D had a hs teacher four years ago who explained to the class how to smoke heroin, and where to buy pot in the adjacent city. He’s still there.</p>
<p>today they graded the tests, they actually graded each others exams. two exams no less, I thought it was 1 month behind apparently not. Today was supposed to be lab day, they graded exams instead.
Oh, we also found out we have more chapters to cover than time to finish. Lovely.</p>
