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    #218490 06/17/15 07:26 PM
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    I received word today that DS will be allowed to remain in his program on a "probationary" status next year. I *thought* he had managed to pull off the grade requirement of all Cs or better but it turns out he didn't. He had a D+ in one class.

    I am okay with the all Cs requirement (bc he can do this, if all hands are on deck, without much difficulty) but am frustrated because:
    --one of his 504 requirements is that teachers respond to weekly email re: his performance
    --I am supposed to monitor grades via online gradebook.
    --he is supposed to take photos of assignments written on board

    Teachers:
    --did not respond consistently
    --did not check to see the planner photos were taken
    --did not keep grade book up to date

    On the last day of school, he had a 75-ish percent in the class in question. The day after students were out, the teacher in question added several assignments and his grades, and he fell below 70. Weeks worth of assignments.

    The plan is (and I agreed to it) that if DS has even one quarter grade below 70 he is immediately removed from program and has to "go back to regular middle school."

    I don't know how to address this via 504 language. If the grade
    book is not accurate until after the quarter is over, how will I know what is going on?

    This sounds incredibly stressful, like a big gauntlet hanging over our heads all the time. I am all for holding DS accountable, and monitoring his planner, assignments, grades, etc. but what do we do about failure to communicate and keep effective records?

    I need language. Can anyone help? I haven't ever seen a 504 accommodation about the teachers' grading and record-keeping. This doesn't seem fair to me.

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    Teachers need to update parents with current grades on a weekly basis. (You would think they could do this just by keeping their gradebooks up to date...).

    If student is in danger of falling below a x grade, parents should be notified within x days, or at least x weeks from the end of the marking period. (Gives you time to make-up work.)

    Weekly formal progress reports from all academic teachers, sent on x day of the week. (Another way of forcing them to record grades promptly.) 504 liaison will collect weekly progress reports, and forward to parents.

    It can help if you make the 504 liaison the clearinghouse for the information that is supposed to go home to you, because then someone specific has to be responsible. Plus, you have a point person who hears all the concerns both directions.


    ...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...
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    Originally Posted by aeh
    Teachers need to update parents with current grades on a weekly basis. (You would think they could do this just by keeping their gradebooks up to date...).

    If student is in danger of falling below a x grade, parents should be notified within x days, or at least x weeks from the end of the marking period. (Gives you time to make-up work.)

    Weekly formal progress reports from all academic teachers, sent on x day of the week. (Another way of forcing them to record grades promptly.) 504 liaison will collect weekly progress reports, and forward to parents.

    It can help if you make the 504 liaison the clearinghouse for the information that is supposed to go home to you, because then someone specific has to be responsible. Plus, you have a point person who hears all the concerns both directions.
    Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been agonizing about this since I received the phone call.

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    I didn't think "Student with ADHD will not be expected to be more organized than adult teacher with master's degree" would fly.

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    I'm glad to hear he can remain in the program.
    Originally Posted by eco21268
    Teachers:
    --did not respond consistently
    --did not check to see the planner photos were taken
    --did not keep grade book up to date

    On the last day of school, he had a 75-ish percent in the class in question. The day after students were out, the teacher in question added several assignments and his grades, and he fell below 70. Weeks worth of assignments.

    The plan is (and I agreed to it) that if DS has even one quarter grade below 70 he is immediately removed from program and has to "go back to regular middle school."

    I don't know how to address this via 504 language. If the grade
    book is not accurate until after the quarter is over, how will I know what is going on?

    This sounds incredibly stressful, like a big gauntlet hanging over our heads all the time. I am all for holding DS accountable, and monitoring his planner, assignments, grades, etc. but what do we do about failure to communicate and keep effective records?

    I need language. Can anyone help? I haven't ever seen a 504 accommodation about the teachers' grading and record-keeping. This doesn't seem fair to me.
    I don't have any good suggestions but I'm commiserating. We are there with one of DS's teahcers. He isn't getting a D but he was in that situation with this teacher last fall. Final is tomorrow (it's his last) teacher is still updating grades for homework/labs from a months ago and she is giving DS bad grades and we have no idea why. (They were completed) How are the students every supposed to do better if they don't get them back from the last day of class. One of DS's friends had this teacher last year and thought he was doing fine and only when report cards came out did he realize he got a D.

    In this case the school KNOWS this teacher has this problem, but there doesn't seem to be much they can do about it. Not much to put into a 504 to make a ineffective teacher do the right thing. Arggg.. Last fall when DS grade was a D we put into his 504 that he do a 'contract' with the teacher every week. This did help because it made the teacher accountable. Unfortunately that was only enforced when his grade was below a C.

    Good Luck, I hope DS gets better teachers next year.

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    Originally Posted by aeh
    Teachers need to update parents with current grades on a weekly basis. (You would think they could do this just by keeping their gradebooks up to date...).

    If student is in danger of falling below a x grade, parents should be notified within x days, or at least x weeks from the end of the marking period. (Gives you time to make-up work.)

    Weekly formal progress reports from all academic teachers, sent on x day of the week. (Another way of forcing them to record grades promptly.) 504 liaison will collect weekly progress reports, and forward to parents.

    It can help if you make the 504 liaison the clearinghouse for the information that is supposed to go home to you, because then someone specific has to be responsible. Plus, you have a point person who hears all the concerns both directions.

    This liaison idea is helpful to my family as well. Better than depending on 8 different middle school teachers.

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    Originally Posted by bluemagic
    I'm glad to hear he can remain in the program.
    How are the students every supposed to do better if they don't get them back from the last day of class.
    TBH: I don't even really want him there any more but he is absolutely convinced this is what he needs/wants. Totally agree--how is it even teaching if there is no feedback? This one was the worst--others were much more timely/efficient. At least she was nice. smirk

    We don't have an actual 504 liaison but a district coordinator. There is a program coordinator on site and she eventually had teachers cc her on weekly responses to my weekly check-in. That helped but not completely (it was still spotty).

    Advocate essentially tells me I will have to call out non-compliance whenever I notice it. Sounds like a really awful way to run a child's education/life. Dread.


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    My theory is "no teacher shall set a second assignment before the first one has been marked and returned". It is no good giving feedback when you have made the same mistake another 5 times. And it is not teaching. Unfortunately, University is the only time I had that happen.

    Here a D would require repeating the year though so I take it that it is a pass there?

    Last edited by puffin; 06/17/15 09:31 PM.
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    Originally Posted by puffin
    My theory is "no teacher shall set a second assignment before the first one has been marked and returned". It is no good giving feedback when you have made the same mistake another 5 times. And it is not teaching. Unfortunately, University is the only time I had that happen.

    Here a D would require repeating the year though so I take it that it is a pass there?
    A D is technically a pass but is not allowed in the program. I agree with the standard, generally. It's just hard to know how to address all the organizational issues--a lot to manage, DS is quite spacey.

    For me, the umbrella issue is that no matter where he goes to middle school, he'll be expected to actually turn in assignments and pay attention--gifted program or not. And he seems to have a lot of trouble with stimulant meds and depression. Not sure if it's two separate problems or related--he is becoming more depressive in puberty. Has always had mood issues (low energy, unmotivated).

    I think the program people see this as a "poor fit" (too much for DS) and they may be right. But it's not the actual content--it's his inability to manage himself and his things. So wherever he ends up, *we* still have the problem. Not sure having him do regular MS curriculum helps anything. He needs challenging ideas and assignments--I feel kind of defeated. I think part of the issue is he never had to try at anything until this last year, conceptually. School was easy street before all this.


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