Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Noticed that teacher changed previous grades???

Yes, I do have actual report cards sent by school.

HowlerKarma - in our school district, teacher's can initiate an exit process for a student (to kick a student out of the program). Given our teacher's comments, I am a little worried she is getting into something like this. that's why I seem to be sensitive about it. Her grade giving has been in the down trend, quarter after quarter without much feedback/explanation.

Leyla, I'd ask the teacher what the 1-4 scale is being measured against. In our schools, the score always was *supposed* to be reflective of end-of-grade skill mastery, so a drop to a 2 would be a true drop in skills, which would seem highly unlikely - but I would first check to be sure the scale measured against was the same for each quarter - it's possible your school is measuring against a scale that increases in level each semester or quarter.

If you find out that the measurement standard *didn't* change, then ask for specifics of why your dd's score dropped. It's possible it could be as simple as a *mistake* in reporting. If it's not that, it's going to be good to hear the teachers' explanation and then go from there - wherever it leads.

To be honest, I didn't put any worry or weight into those early elementary "1-4" "grades". They were mostly there to show "progress" on the part of the school - and had very little to do with my children's abilities or performance in school. When I questioned why my ds' scores weren't higher once when I had clear evidence (both in classroom work and teacher's comments) that ds was way ahead of grade level in that particular category - the teacher said (with a straight face) "I have to mark him lower than a 4 now because the number isn't supposed to be 4 until the end of the year." That's when I decided to just ignore the whole thing - it was all about having a good school report card, not about having meaningful data on any one student, and ultimately it didn't really make a difference for my kids in terms of what they were taught in the classroom or where they were placed in school. Performance in school *did* start to matter re placement once our kids were in upper elementary... and oddly enough... that's when our schools started using real grading systems to - that actually reflected student performance.

Sorry - I kinda rambled OT there. FWIW, I'd ask the teacher why there was a drop and if she tries to say it's a real drop in skill level, I'd ask why, and I'd ask what is being done to remediate for it in the classroom

polarbear

That how I would approach it as well - like 'most likely there was an innocent mistake, a typo...' I'd bet money the school will say "oh my! yes of course there has been a mistake we will change them."

Howler's point that "It's not as though this is a transcript that colleges are going to look at" is true too, which is why I don't get hung up on grades (and the fact even when my son has mastered the curriculum is grades are always "middle of the road" in the beginning.) However, the reading levels in our school are cumulative and they like to keep the students all in the same range, which is where such a grade could hurt It could be used as a reason not to instruct her on her true level it that level is "too high" ykwim? That's what they do on my son's school.

Ohhh, Yeah alert teacher and principal and ask why and to have a meeting to discuss.

Gotcha-- yeah, in that case I'd say something. Bring in your proof to your meeting.

Have written an email (pending my husband's review) and scheduled a meeting with the principal. The meeting is on Friday.

If there wasn't this exit process in place, I really wouldn't worry about these grades at all. I see a tremendous progress at my DD8 in reading and math and that's what matters at the end of the day.

We had this happen, well not the same thing.

When my ds was in 3rd and pulled out for 5th grade math. He had a homework assignment that had 2 full pages front and back. He scored a 50% on the work. He only turned in one page so I thought. I told him to check with the teacher but never got an answer so I emailed her. So at the last minute the teacher says she put the homework assignment in the test section. She said it was a very big homework assignment. She said my ds could do a written report on a math function or person to make up his grade. He picked Pascal. He was mad, he felt he was being singled out to do more work then the rest of the kids and really struggling with it. I told him suck it up and do your best, it will help your final grade and it could be fun. He ended up getting a 91% on the report.

Later I find out the grade had changed to 100% for the said homework/Test and it came home in his folder, all of it. I ask Where did this come from? She must have found it he said. How do you explain that to a 3rd grade kid.

So I guess this stuff does happen.
I do not know that I would make a big deal out of it for reasons stated above.

I'm sorry, I didn't see this reply before I posted my reply above. This happened in our school district's gifted program too - the exit process - I know a few parents who's children were asked to leave the program. If this seems to be happening, your best route to advocating successfully against it is to gather as much evidence as you can that your child belongs there. Round up all the test scores you have, as well as homework samples etc - you don't have to fling them out at the beginning of this next meeting - go to this meeting to ask your questions about grades and see what the school is saying. Then if they suggest your dd isn't performing at the level you feel she is, show your proof. If they seem adamant about exiting your child, you can also ask that they give your dd another round of the testing required for entrance into the program - there's a potential that might not work out well if she doesn't score as highly the second time, but if she did, I would argue that she needs the gifted program and what really should be happening if she's not achieving at the level she's expected to - why not? What is happening in the classroom or teaching method etc that isn't working for her? Ask that the issue be addressed in the classroom before exiting her from the program.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - I looked back at your previous post about dd and her report card scores being lower than expected - you mentioned there that the teacher had concerns about focus and that had impacted her scores. You might find that this is something you'll need to address when talking with the principal and teacher, and should try to do it without assuming they are simply hoping to exit your dd from the program. They might *be* hoping to exit her, but the real key here is listening to their concerns - if they feel she has a challenge with focus, I'd request an IEP eligibility evaluation - and also suggest that she not be exited from the program until that process is complete.

Thanks polarbear, I will bring it up on Friday.

She had a focus problem that teacher has been complaining about through the year, but DD8 has been trying so much in the last 1-2 months. She has been getting some compliments during the day from the teacher lately. DD8 is also very motivated lately as she is returning her homework earlier for extra credit or asking her teacher to do extra homework etc. Even though all these progress came later in the school year, I hope it makes a difference if they started any exit process of some sort. Fingers crossed.

It might be better to hold on to your evidence of score tampering, and save it for when it might have to most impact.