I did not read all the comments so forgive me if this has been gone over.
Think about this purely from how it affects your son. From what I have read, he will have to stay a while after school, complete a worksheet, and gain the bonus (I will explain in a moment) of a 100 for doing so. For other people’s children this may be an issue, but I have not seen you post a reason your son can’t but rather he doesn’t want to and the policy that he technically did agree to when signing up is unfair to others. I know that it probably wasn’t spelled out in that initial paperwork what those study sessions would entail.
The benefit to your son - If he doesn’t have a perfect test average, he will be boosting his test average by all these bonus 100’s that he will be receiving. Just say he has a four tests with 90% test average and has five 100’s from his after school sessions, his test average will rise by approximately 5 points, which could raise his class average by approximately 2 points - just for attending and doing a worksheet that nothing is actually preventing him from doing. Not to mention the reinforcement your son will get from doing the worksheets, and possibly realize that their is a a topic he didn’t quite get and might need a little more work. I know you said your son is in the top of his class, but is their any potential that it might help?
How complaining could hurt your son - when you do things that get a person in authority over you fussed at, even embarrassed by having to go back on what they said, they don’t like it, and honestly, they usually take it out on you even if it is subconscious. Every time the teacher grades your son’s work, any time she might have given your son leeway like forgiving or giving partial credit for something like left off units or forgetting to carry the one might just disappear. It might change her opinion of your son which will make the rest of his year in her class more difficult.
Is suddenly making study sessions as approaching the exam unheard of? Absolutely not. Is making them mandatory or a 0 for a test grade unfair? Yes. But, I would leave that to the ones who it actually hurts to fight. I am not saying don’t support their fight, just don’t be the one to start it.
By the way, when I took AP Chem, I was required to attend school on teacher work days and snow days for study sessions. I don’t know what they did about those with lack of transportation or who were snowed in.
In our district this could be a contract violation. Teachers are contractually limited to a certain number of hours, a specific amount of students, and a set number of courses. Perhaps that’s why she sits outside the classroom.
This is a time waster for students who are doing well in the class, and isn’t a help to those who are struggling. I’d add up the hours the students are spending so you can see the cumulative cost. Find the school’s policies. They should be on their website. I’d read the teachers’ contract too. Then I’d write a letter to the principal and copy the school board. Required after school class sessions that are graded mean this woman is adding to her class time. It’s not fair to the children and is likely in violation of her contract. The other teachers should be concerned about the precedent she’s setting.
Students should be taught critical evaluation. The teachers should be encouraging it, not teaching them to keep their heads down and blindly follow along.
@austinmshauri Many teachers are supporting the students who are fighting this. And for some people on here, they think my S just doesn’t want to study. No, he wants to study in a way that is beneficial to doing well on his AP exam. He goes to his other AP study sessions, Calc, physics, Psychology. They are very helpful. The students and teachers help each other with problems and how to solve them. He appreciates the teachers help. But Chem is another story. He wants the option to study on his own through ap chem review books. If he feels that this one class is not providing beneficial study sessions, why can’t he have the option to spend those 2 hours a week studying in a way that helps him? Yes he could just sit through them and get an easy boost to his grade. But why? What work ethic is that teaching? He needs to work hard and earn the best grade he can. Earn it, not just be given it by showing up.
Since we are engaging in critical thinking, what makes everyone so certain the one student’s assertion of the study sessions is accurate? According to the OP, there are 97 other students in the class, and most aren’t complaining. Perhaps some students are finding it useful. Perhaps the teacher is helping students one-one-one when she sits outside of the classroom. We have one student’s account of the experience; one point of data, only. I think the OP is going about it the right way in a respectful manner asking if the sessions are appropriate with the division head, and then the principal. Escalating things to the school board are almost never a good idea.
If the teacher is violating school policy and the principal is aware of it and permitting it, then it needs to be reported. The school board is responsible for making sure policies are followed. They’re elected to work for you, but they can’t if you don’t communicate with them.
The student who has a 0 for attending a track meet must surely object. But it doesn’t matter how many of the 98 students agree or disagree. If the teacher and principal are violating school policy, someone needs to speak up. It doesn’t necessarily mean the study sessions have to end. Attendance may just become voluntary.
The problem is that the teacher is saying “0” for not attending, no excuses, no way to do the work not in the study session. In our district, teachers cannot force kids to attend outside of school hour classes or activities. They can offer and encourage, but not penalize kids who don’t attend. They may be able to offer extra credit, but probably not too much. Yes, school comes before ECs but this policy would mean that a kid would not be able to do a spring sport, be in the musical, have a job, or participate in other activities without a big hit on their grade. It is not fair to have such a blanket policy. Our AP Chem had labs that ran into the after-school hours, but the kids with commitments to sports or drama were allowed to miss on those days they had a game or during “tech week” or other critical rehearsal.
I don’t think anyone here has said the teacher is wrong to offer study sessions, just that kids who cannot attend or even those that choose not to attend, should be penalized. It is certainly appropriate to question the mandatory aspect of this policy.
I think it’s wrong for a teacher to inflate the grades by attendance rather than mastery of the material. I do know there is plenty of pressure on teachers to give out A’s.
I cannot imagine any school would find it acceptable for a teacher to sit outside the classroom and not provide direct supervision. If an altercation between students or an accident would occur there would be a lot explaining to do to satisfy most parents.
Fair enough. Then it is appropriate to question the mandatory attendance required at games, tech week, or other critical rehearsals. Everybody has things to do, and other activities in which they could be engaged at that time-many students are not benefiting from their attendance at those either; perhaps only the musical stars really need more practice, or the trombone section, or certain sprinters or whatever. But we accept mandatory attendance for those things with much less fuss. I think of the weeks before the AP exam as “tech week” for those tests, which were, after all, elective courses the student chose to take. We accept that the lowly villager needs to be at tech week practice because even if he doesn’t care at all about the quality of his performance as it presumably affects the overall production quality. Just as this student’s attendance may affect the overall class performance on the AP exam.
Students know up front they must attend practice or rehearsals before they join an EC. At my kid’s high school, you can’t be in the spring musical and also play a spring sport (with few exceptions). You typically can’t really play an outside club sport and be in theater as there are too many conflicts. You typically can’t have a job (unless it is very flexible) and participate in a high school sport. Of course kids have to make choices, but IMHO kids that are willing to challenge themselves with an AP class should not be precluded from doing ANY EC due to mandatory AFTER school study sessions. The teacher should be able to teach the material in class and offer appropriate homework and tests to prepare the students to pass the AP test, without requiring extra classes.
Our district does not schedule much right before the AP tests - the theater productions are over, and a kid could miss a practice for a study session the week before APs. But that is different than starting the first week in March and have twice a week mandatory study sessions until the test date in May.
In my mind the English, math, and science teachers are the heart of any high school. Their success in getting students to learn the material in those three subjects will largely determine the students, and consequently the schools, success or failure. However, in our culture, there is much more autonomy given to football coach or the basketball coach. No one dares challenge the athletic autocracy (football uber alles) or they will be shunned by everyone.
In high school sports the only thing the community seems to care about is results. Is there even one school in the country where parents demand a meeting with the school to review and discuss the results of all English, math and science APs and the ACT or SAT, demand to know why more students are not doing well, and are asking what can be done better to improve results? Maybe somewhere, but I have never seen it.
Note: This is not meant as a comment on the OPs specific situation, but a broader comment about what we really value in our culture.
@Run4life99 - Not sure if this is an issue at your school, but in our economically depressed area, lots of kids depend on the school bus, sometimes riding up to an hour each way. They couldn’t stay after school no matter what a teacher dictates. What about them?
OP hasn’t cited any actual conflict or problem in the student attending, he just doesn’t want to. The million dollar question is what did he agree to as a condition of his acceptance in the course? OP recollects signing some document mentioning study sessions, but not much else. Perhaps few other students are complaining because they’ve always known about the study sessions and planned accordingly. and yes, @Much2learn, I am too depressed about our culture’s priorities. Parents will move heaven and earth to accommodate an athletic coach but not a science teacher. The results show our priorities.
An issue that can also arise from the mandatory sessions is the disparity between the classes with the teachers. I know that in my school, teachers are not allowed to give more test grades than other teachers as it is unfair to students in another class.
There was also an issue last year in APUSH when my teacher had study sessions after school for students to ask questions about the topics on the test. A parent of a student who had another teacher complained and the teacher was forced to end the sessions.
I am surprised at the number of parents who are ok with teachers abusing the authority they have. Students are people. Like most people students have multiple things going on in their lives. Most students know that they have to be committed to being in class during school hours.
Teachers should not be able to dictate where students need to be after school hours (with a few exceptions).
There are some classes that require a student’s presence outside of class. Musical ensembles are some that come to mind. Most of the time those classes do not require a student’s presence twice a week for over 2 months.
Requiring a student’s presence twice a week for over two months, which is what this teacher is doing requires a student to completely give up anything else they are doing for those two months.
Our school has lacrosse games twice a week. Last season we had 3 players taking AP Chem. All of them were starters. One was the team’s only goalie (my son), one was the face off guy and the other was a starting defender. The lacrosse team should not have to lose every single game on account of ONE TEACHER.
I also find it unethical that grades are so heavily affected by attendance at these after school sessions. When reviewing a transcript the grade should reflect what the student learned, not whether they jumped through the right hoops. Attendance at after school study sessions should not affect a student’s grade in any way, positive or negative. The students should get what they earned in the class.
I am surprised at the number of parents who don’t recognize that teachers are people, too, with other obligations outside of the classroom. If the teacher and school notified the students ahead of time that outside class time was required for enrollment in the class, then the students need to stick to their part of the bargain as well. If 97 students are somehow making this work, then there must be more going on than at first glance. Perhaps they’ve made arrangements to practice before school, or a group weekend practice, or whatever.
Results are in. The teacher was going against school policy. Study sessions are continuing on a voluntary basis and there will be no grade impact. And when I spoke to the head of the science department, I did let her know that my son does like his teacher and hopes this is not held against her. They assured me it will not be. Come to find out also, there were many other complaints.
Just had a meeting this morning with an administration and GCs regarding after school/Saturday tutoring for AP/Regents/ SAT prep. Principal is a new principal who needs to raise her numbers (AP/AT Scores and Regents grades are part of her college readiness metrics that she is being evaluated on). The school already knows that you can’t get everything that needs to be done during the class time.
The school already knows that there is going to be push back. They are reaching out to all parents in writing and electronically. In addition they are documenting that we have reached out and parents/students who have opted out or don’t want to attend for what ever reason. This way, should something go to the left, the school has their documentation that the student was offered an opportunity and and did not do something.
I would not worry about whether or not the teacher is being compensated. If she is suppose to be compensated, trust and believe that if she is part of a union, her chapter leader is not going to let her violate the contract. In addition, if she is working, she is covered in the event she should have an in the line of duty injury.
In addition, as I stated earlier, this is not a unilateral decision on the part of the teacher, it is probably pushed by the administration, who is being pushed by the district/superintendency/school board. It may come down to pick your poison, if the results are not there school/school district is not going to want to spend the money on AP. Then the parents will be upset because AP is not being offered (vicious circle). AP classes are getting harder to recruit teachers for because some people feel it is not worth the aggravation.
If this is a new teacher, what happened to the previous teacher? Did they retire? Were they replaced because they have a low pass/scholarship rate? in NYS ~40% of your performance appraisal is based solely on how students do on the test. My hats off to a new teacher willing to take this on. I personally do not know any new/untenured teachers willing to teach AP because the stakes are too high with a risk of getting an unsatisfactory rating.
There are no unilateral policies that work done after school cannot be part of classroom instruction and count toward credit. As with everything YMMV depending on what goes on in your school district.
As far as conducting sessions for class after school. I will state the guidelines we follow based on the NYC DOE Academic Policy (most which feeds from NYSED)
IME as you cannot fail a student solely on the basis of attendance. In NYC OP’s son will not receive a lower grade because he does not attend. However, his grade may be compromised because me missed the work that was taking place during the class (class participation, due now, exit slips, etc.)
I think that challenge is (and if this is the hill you want to die on) if you want to complain about the work that is being done during these study periods. You can express your concern about the level of rigor and how students are getting worksheets and there is no actual reviewing of the material (this will take you farther than your child not attending because he can do the worksheets at home). If every one else is attending, then your son is basically on an island by himself . The other students most likely have something that they would rather be doing but they show up to the class, because that was the agreement that they signed at the beginning of the class.
“Truly, I know of no other profession in which teens are encouraged by their parents to doubt the professional’s expertise/authority. Perhaps it is justified in some cases, but it certainly isn’t going to encourage others to enter that profession.”
Are you kidding? I have always taught my kids that they are to critically think about whatever service they are provided. IF the doctor says something that feel wrong, they need to ask and question, not blindly follow.
I also told the doctor when we interviewed them (kids were young) that there would be no calling them Dr. Smith, they would use their first name, just as the doctor did with them. Children need, in my view to have a different more equal relationship with their healthcare provided than any other adult, whom I expected my kids to call by the adults’ preferred name.
Our pediatricians LOVED this and told me they ended up encouraging many of their patients to call them by their first name.