Last year I posted about my D's struggle to get a better curriculum/11th grade English class situation. This is a kid with SAT Critical Reading 800/Writing 800/SAT II Literature 800 scores. Sitting in an undifferentiated English class with a teacher focused on the "lowest common denominator" in the class. Kids who are not sure what a noun is... D actually does need to work on her writing skills, and wanted more focus on that than she was getting. And she was just going crazy with boredom.
D went to the teacher and asked if she could take on some more challenging assignments. For example, essays instead of short answer worksheets. The teacher refused to make any changes or adaptions. So we went to the head of school (principal) and asked if she could take an outside, online AP English course via Northwestern's gifted & talented programs. He said, "no, we don't accept outside credits". Even got Davidson involved to talk with him about acceleration, but he would not budge. I finally leaned hard and at least got him to change her into the other section of English (better teacher). She had to drop her 2nd semester of French and switch math sections to do this. We set up tutoring twice a week with the French teacher (paid for it), and D studied French (her worst subject) on her own during a free period so she could keep up and be ready for AP French this year.
It was a lot of change... but I am back to report that it was successful beyond all of our expectations. The other English teacher "got" D, and challenged her a ton second semester. Her writing improved, and she loved English class. Also, by switching math sections, she encountered the school calculus teacher, who now loves D. She has written her a great college recommendation, and also recommended her for a scholarship. Finally, D is getting a good grade in AP French this semester (best French grade she has had in quite a while). That was my biggest worry, that the independent study would not work out. But last year's French teacher (new to the school) was not so good anyway (several kids dropped French at the end of the year because she was so punative, and had really made them hate the language). D missed a second semester of that by moving to independent study, and is doing just fine in AP this year.
So... I will say that it was VERY stressful while struggling through getting her what she needed. And honestly, it lowered my estimation of the school (private). Probably lowered their estimation of me as well! But it turned out to be the best thing we could have done. I think the message in this story is to stick to your guns for what you and your student think is needed!
Last edited by intparent; 12/06/12 08:32 AM.
