Did the contract specifically state that the students must attend these after school sessions and complete the test or they will get a zero? And everybody signed it at the time without question?
As I mentioned - my daughter would stay and take the tests, but knowing her she would speak to the dept head.
@twogirls The other students remember a mention of study sessions, but not counting as test grades. That would be a huge red flag. Everyone had to sign or couldn’t take the AP course. The school has prerequisites in place before you can take the class, which my S fulfilled. This is not mentioned as a course prerequisite in the school handbook. I guess we should have questioned it way back when, but there are always papers to sign in the beginning of the school year. My S knew he would be taking the study sessions at that point because that isn’t the issue. The mandatory/ test grade is the problem. Also, the other AP teachers had no such contract. I hope the Dept head I emailed Friday gets back to me on Monday.
AP: Abusing Power
What about students that ride the bus or carpool with kids that leave after school? Is the teacher providing transportation for these kids? I’d fight it.
I didn’t understand that he had signed a form agreeing in advance to the afterschool sessions. If they are mandatory, then it makes sense there would be a penalty for missing them. If there were no consequences for missing them, then they would have been described as optional. I change my response about the importance of making a complaint. When your son signs up for a college course with a required Friday morning discussion section, will he then complain about being penalized for missing that, too?
I would not want him to drop the class. I would have him attend all of the study sessions and take the mandatory tests. The policy is not fair because there are students who babysit etc after school, but this should have been discussed at the beginning of the year when the contracts were handed out. At this point it is March already…
If the contract specifically stated that there are mandatory tests after school and if you don’t participate you get a zero, then the students should not have signed on the dotted line before voicing their valid concerns. They could have gone as a group to the dept head back in September.
^ I apologize if I came across as rude… That was not my intention 
It sounds like the teacher suddenly decided well after the contract was signed that she would make the after school sessions mandatory and very impactful on the grade. She’s making sure everyone’s grade is higher to make herself look better.
If the principal is actually on the teacher’s side, someone should make sure that he understands her “study session” consists of a “worksheet” that could easily be done at home. It sounds like the teacher is in over her head.
I think your son has good reason to question the practice - hopefully the department head or the school admin will come through.
I would lodge my complaint…but until resolved…my kids would have attended the after school sessions. I mean really…what if the complaint is resolved in the teacher’s favor? The kid will have a bunch of zeros to deal with.
Sorry …not worth the worry.
File the complaint…but don’t shoot yourself in the foot by NOT going to the after school sessions.
@Run4life99 You said you signed an agreement agreeing to study sessions. That was the time to complain if you weren’t on board with it. You said that students receive 0 for failing to attend and 100% for attendance and are free to leave once they complete their worksheet. You said counting this as a test grade could have students failing quickly. It’s not as if the worksheet is being graded so it is, basically, an attendance grade for the student attending the sessions in line with the agreement you signed. I am not sure I follow the harm caused by these being counted as test grades. I am very surprised there were no parents that argued this at the beginning of the year because knowing this would interfere with track meets, I would have made alternate arrangements for my son to complete the study session work during a free period, when we signed this because I know in August that my son is on the track team since he has been on it for the past 7 years.
I realize you are saying you are fighting the principle of the issue and I would agree with you if this were sprung on you but agreeing to it at the beginning of the year is where this paints a different picture for me.
As parents of 18 year old children, or close to 18 years old, it’s important that we teach our kids the importance of reading what they/we are signing and think through the terms of the agreement. This is a life lesson because once these legal adults start signing documents, they are going to be legally bound by them.
Why the teacher is behind and other issues that may reflect on her teaching are all legitimate concerns but those are a separate issue that the parents should have been addressing separate and aside from the after school sessions.
@twogirls They don’t get a test. OP is saying they get a worksheet which is counting as a test grade. Different from a test in that even if all the answers are incorrect on the worksheet, the student still gets 100%.
@Run4life99 When did these study sessions start? It must have dawned on some parents that the sessions had not started and someone would have asked? Or does the agreement state they would begin in the spring as prep for the AP exam? You said you don’t have a copy of the agreement but you are certainly entitled to it so just ask the teacher to give it to you. It may not say anything about grades being assessed but you want to look for language that states attendance is mandatory which, since the 0 or 100 are being assessed based on attendance, basically has the same result. As a requirement of the course, not attending when this is a mandatory part of the class that parents agreed, is fair game as part of the students’ grade.
Similar… it different issue. The sum,re between 7th and 8th grade, one of our kids was assigned several large projects…one for each major course…math, science, social studies, English. Parents had to sign. An agreement to complete these during the summer…and turns in the first week of school. Projects were going to be graded and would,be part of the student grades.
We objected immediately, and filed a complaint with the school principal. It ended up going to the Board of Education level, where it was deemed…a no go.
Our contention was that if these summer projects were part of the student subject grades, then the teachers should be available for assistance, questions,etc.
BUT while this was churning through the complaint process in the school district, we had our kid working on his projects…just in case it didn’t go our way.
We also never signed an agreement!
So…cover your KID’S bases. Have him attend those sessions…just in case.
Ok so I agree this is basically used for attendance. So the students come in after school, complete the worksheet and then leave. There is no discussion about anything. Ok…
I know his fight could go bad because of what he signed. He knows that. There was no mention of what the repercussions would be for not attending. I am going to ask for a copy of the contract. A learning experience definitely in watching what you sign. I think because other teachers have not done this in the past it is a bit confusing. He was willing to do mandatory study sessions if that is what the contract stated at the beginning. But the failing grade for the class was not mentioned if you didn’t go. We shall see. All after school sessions are counted as a test grade, as he found out last week. Well, wondering how a teacher can override school policy.
@twogirls you are correct. The teacher sits out in the hall, the students do their work, then they get to leave. (didn’t think anything was rude, happy for the input)
So a student could have a C or D in the class and bring it up to maybe a B simply by showing up every week. Now we know why some have low AP scores.
That’s not the worst of it. This teacher lets you do test corrections. So whatever you get wrong, you can go back and change your answer. Plus she was having after school sessions for help, not Mandatory, but giving out study sheets for upcoming tests, with answers. So if you had a good memory you would ace the test even though you wouldn’t have to because you could do test corrections. So almost everyone has a 100% in the class without trying or learning anything. That’s why last years class mostly bombed the AP test except the ones that studied on their own. She didn’t have mandatory study sessions last year. That’s something we have learned since we signed in Sept. Also why my son wants to study on his own.
Sounds like your son will have to teach himself AP chemistry.
I just realized that in almost every school most kids often stay for after school activities like theater, band, sports etc for many many hours and arrange their transport. In that regard, staying for AP Chemistry isn’t that unacceptable. In our school, you don’t get A in choir, orchestra or theater etc classes if you don’t attend after school rehearsals and practice.
However, in your case, they are just doing a worksheet so it doesn’t make sense, she can find other ways to make them review material. She is making it inconvenient for no reason.
@Run4life99 If your son does not have any after school conflicts, I think I would appreciate the teachers effort.
If he can get a 5 on AP Chem, it is a lot of valuable knowledge and will probably allow him to skip a semester of Chem in college.
I understand it is annoying, but I would weigh the benefit of an important AP. I would only feel that way about Calculus, English, Physics or Chem APs. If it were a fluff AP, I would just be annoyed.
@Run4life99 Post #35 is a separate issue. Believe me I know the frustration of a poor math teacher. My son had one and I met with the teacher, dept chair and headmaster. My son missed a few weeks of school when his medical condition was not in remission, a snow storms hit causing school cancellations multiple times over a 2.5 week period, followed by a 2 week school break. It was a brutual Jan/Feb for us. I contacted the teacher and told her I wanted to have a tutor work with my son over break so he could catch up and asked where in the curriculum was a good place to start. Her response was ‘day 1’. It was February. I was furious. She said she didn’t have time to get him to master all of the concepts and he should start at the beginning.
When I receive the “day 1” reply, I requested a meeting to discuss with the teacher and dept chair. I told them they couldn’t have it both ways and tell me “day 1” and he has a B+ in the class. The teacher said she offered to assist him but he was not a serious student reflected by his high number of absences. His only absences for the year were in January, the result of a medical situation and the school was very much aware of this. Other teachers were supportive and sent emails cheering him on and applauding his courage and strength. She said she forgot.
She said that she’d offered to help him many times and that he had rejected all of her offers of assistance. I asked my son if she had offered to assist him and he politely said “I’m sorry, Mrs. x, but you never offered me any assistance. I requested assistance many times and you repeatedly said you could not meet with me.” The dept chair said that because she has many classes he would have had to be willing to come before school, after school or office hours. My son said he offered to stay after school and she said she had to pick up her children. He offered to come before school and she said she couldn’t because she had to drop off her children. He offered to go during office hours, even arranging with another teacher to miss the other class to have time to speak to this teacher during her office hours and she said she was busy grading homework and tests because she didn’t have time to do this at home. The dept chair looked confused. I asked the dept chair if his look of confusion was because he had heard a different version of the story. He said he would not discuss it with me and had full confidence in his teacher. I pulled a stack of emails out and left them on the table. I told the teacher that as a parent, I hope that she would never be sitting on my side of the table with a child that knew their teacher had just lied at the expense of a student and to have a child sit in the classroom of a teacher who has so little passion for what she is doing that her students feel they are just a bother to her.
I immediately hired a math specialist and told him I wanted to have him work with my son on the material covered from the beginning of the school year to figure out where the holes were. He assessed my son’s ability and within hours told me that my son’s understanding of the concepts was on point and that I had nothing to worry about. This was reassuring because I didn’t want my son to have holes in his education because of a bad teacher. Best money ever spent because it helped rebuild my son’s confidence in his math ability.
End result is the teacher resigned at the end of the year. My son’s advisor told me that when she announced her resignation she said she came to the realization that she was not being the teacher the students deserved because she never envisioned becoming a teacher and did so to be able to balance a family and be able to work and not because of any passion for teaching.
It’s almost the end of the year for your child @Runforlife99 but if this teacher is not getting through the course material and the students are not learning the material, this is worth fighting the school on. On the after school sessions come up with a compromise, such as student’s completing the work sheet as additional homework. Keep kids after school is not as big a deal as having a bad teacher when our kids education is at stake.