Hi all, long time no complain! Things haven't been great with the middle school, but we've been just living with it and waiting for it to end. Same old, same old with the school not following the IEP, not implementing accommodations and not providing 1:1 support. DS is in 8th grade, diagnosed gifted, ADHD, ASD, Tourettes, and anxiety.
My main reason for stopping in today is the PSAT. The school gave the test to every 8th grader (which I was happy with until I learned when results came back they gave my son the PSAT 8/9, which is not the test they said they were giving). So honestly the scores aren't actually useful at all other than practice and predictive value I guess.
Anyway, when requesting accommodations they convinced me to ask for time and a half rather than 2x time, the reasoning being that the student is apparently not able to leave the room until the 2 hours are up or do anything else after the test is complete (such as doodling on scrap paper) and I was very worried DS would not handle just sitting for potentially a long time after completing the test.
First off, is this actually true? If so, is it some sort of odd punishment for requesting too much extra time?
Second, DS was fine for time on the verbal sections, finishing with 5 and 10 minutes remaining respectively, but he ran out of time on both math sections. He had only 1 questions left on each. He guessed on the multiple choice question, but the written answer question he had to leave blank. Based on not quite being able to finish, would that be a reason to request 2x time on math for next year? Do kids usually have enough time to finish all the questions?
Finally, he scored as expected, 700 in math, 590 verbal, in line with all previous testing. But in school he continues to struggle with any written/verbal responses. He says the words go away or he forgets what he's saying in the middle of the sentence. His working memory is dual 19 level, so I just can't figure out what's going on. The school says he's not trying, he insists he is. He is so stressed about every subject but math because there is so much work to do and he can't even get the first word down in the time it takes other students to complete the assignment. I'm at a loss and at this point I'm usually angry with him because I just don't get it. How can you consistently score 96-98th%ile on verbal measures and be unable to produce written work while being fully able to verbally complain about said written work for hours on end? So frustrating. He's getting poor grades in English, science, and social studies for incomplete assignments. He gets A's, often 100's on tests. Last year he was distinguished honor roll all 3 trimesters, now he says he doesn't care about his grades because the work is too hard and he's given up.
After years of saying he doesn't want to homeschool, he has now changed his mind. But he's going to HS, so now is when I feel least qualified to teach him! How can I compete against honors/AP classes, science labs, or 3D printers? I told him he has to at least try next year and we will reevaluate after a couple of months. I'm also hopeful they will do better with the IEP there. The elementary school was overall great for him, the middle school was overall terrible, especially 6th and 8th where he had the same special ed teacher who is honestly awful. She's not mean or ill intentioned, she's just completely inept and never actually does anything she says she will do. She does not seem to care if the teachers follow the IEP and tells DS useful things like that getting As isn't important and that he's not A student material. Thanks lady.
So yeah, I guess this is a transition to high school post, a PSAT/SAT post, and a bit of complaining. We are doing course selection for next year right now and he was recommended for general ed science, so I have to sign a waiver to request he go into chemistry. His MAPS test last year for science put him well above the 99th%ile nationally and he got the top PSAT math score out of his class of nearly 500, but they based the placement on teacher recommendation!?! Said teacher (who is new to the school this year and started at the beginning of the second trimester, DS was doing great before her) refuses to follow the IEP and, according to my son, is mean to all of the special ed students in the class. Why does she get to determine these kids futures?
OK, that was more complaints. All done now, really
