We have dealt with teachers like this a couple of times during my kid's high school years. Honestly... my opinion is that there is NO winning this battle during a given school year. Administration typically backs them even when they are awful/inconsisent/even vindictive. Does your kid need to take a whole year from him, or just one semester? Is there another section that she could transfer to at the semester break (that was our final solution last year for D2 in an awful, low-level English class with a teacher who was SURE she was insisting on college prep work when in fact they were actually wading thru molasses.) Making that change was one of the best things we have ever done for her even if it did juggle her schedule in some other less than ideal ways.

If I were you I would talk to the principal, and possibly write a letter if you have examples of the teacher's behavior that are out of line. For example, subjective grading that he admits he only applies to your child would be something. And requiring them to write to a level for someone who knows NOTHING about the topic would be another.

We wrote a letter (after meeting with no results) about a math teacher that D1 had problems with; it did not resolve most of the issues she had that year, BUT they let the teacher (who had been with the school 20 years, private, non-union) go about a year later. Thankfully, as I had no intention of letting D2 sit in his classroom, he was gone by the time she got there. Administrators always say you are the only parent complaining, it is your kid's problem, etc. But sometimes if you do have a valid complaint, they remember... even if they won't admit it at the time. And I think they just lie (honestly) about whether others have complained. So you can possibly make things better for someone else in the future.

That English teacher D2 had trouble with... is still there, but the teacher she transferred to let D2 know this year that they are looking at tracking (creating honors sections) for English next year (none now, a big snooze for GT kids). Again, too late for us, but did something good for those behind us.

Last edited by intparent; 10/26/12 01:48 PM.