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When the letter arrived we were elated.
That probably sounds ridiculous, but it's true. We were elated. Next year, in 8th grade, Christopher will take two high school courses: Earth Science and Math A (algebra 1 & part of h.s. geometry).
Yes, he'd probably be doing more advanced work at Hackley or Horace Mann or wherever, but still: this isn't bad.
Not bad at all.
I was happy, too, because I've been "working on" the Earth science situation for over a year .... "working on" meaning taking every opportunity that came my way to push for two reforms:
- transparent placement process
- offering the course to all comers
The first of these happened; the second didn't.
However, the first - the creation of a (reasonably)* transparent placement process - is a significant change. I didn't know how significant until I asked "Thinking Out Loud," the school board attorney I'm hoping will find time to write some posts.
Here's what Thinking Out Loud had to say:
You are in an area called "student assignment," to assist you in your research. Typically, student assignment is wholly up to the school administration, and there is NO recourse beyond the central office/superintendent level if you are dissatisfed. This makes sense, if you back up and think about it objectively: professional educators have the knowledge and background and the objectivity to make decisions about where to place students--and this is NOT something appropriate in which to involve the school board. In our state, schools can retain students over the objections of the parent. In some cases, I have had calls from parents who wanted children with perfectly decent grades--Bs and Cs--retained, and the school refused, knowing full well that the motive was athletic! So, as a general rule, the decisions at the building level are final. Central office has a strongly vested interest in not overturning the building level decisions, or a long line would form for appeals from parents who didn't get the answer they like.
When I asked whether the issue of student assignment in the abstract was a policy issue, Thinking Out Loud replied that:
It absolutely IS a policy issue to discuss placement, but in truth, these policies are deliberately kept vague even when there is a good policy in place to avoid problems and potential litigation--the idea is to preserve maximum discretion for administrators, who mostly want to do the right thing, in my experience.
This was a revelation.
I had been assuming that the extreme vagueness of Irvington placement and tracking procedures was a bad situation that had evolved over the years, not a perfectly normal, intentional school practice.
This is one of the obstacles to working on school reform; parents have no idea why educators do the things they do.
If, as Thinking Out Loud says, student assignment practices are everywhere shrouded in mystery as a matter of course, this is a major reform for a school to institute in one year's time. (It's possible I should increase the number of years to 3 or 4; the middle school has been offering a high school science course to roughly 1/3 of the 8th grade class for 4 years now, I believe. NOT FACT CHECKED I assume that a handful of parents have been complaining about the placement process for all 4 years - although I was led to believe that none has asked that the course be opened up to all students who wish to take it.)
I'm not quite sure whom to thank, though I believe the new head of the science department is responsible.
Good for her.
news from nowhere part 14
news from nowhere part 16
news from nowhere part 17
news from nowhere part 20
tracking in "high-performing" schools
Earth Science reform
email to the guidance counselor, 2007 edition
email from the guidance counselor
Earth Science
* I say "reasonably" because I assume some parents would say that the department could take things further than they did this year. I don't think any parents would say that the selection process isn't radically more transparent than it has been.
4 comments:
Student assignment is a mistery not only for parents, but for teachers as well.
At least you have some transparency in it - you have received a letter! The students placed in Delta classes for next year (regents in math and living environment) will not find out about it untill they meet me in September. (At least 2 classes I didn't teach as 7th graders). If I want to notify parents, I have to write and mail 90 letters myself, and still possibly have problems with admins because nobody knows what the classes and teachers assignments are going to be for sure till September.
My Regents class is not advertized, most teachers and admins don't even know what the regents are! (Well, they schedulled a senior field day on the day of the Living Environment Regents, so many shortsighted eightgraders were upset that they miss the field day!)
Argh! I am still angree...
While teachers and administrators make most class placement decisions here, we have a formal Board policy that allows parents the final say in overriding administrator decisions on whether to retain or promote. (We don't get any say in which teachers or classes they get).
It seems to work well this way -- very few kids are retained and your child has really got to be struggling for a retention recommendation to be made.
But I think parents know their kid better than anyone.
I am speaking from hard earned experience on this one.
When my now 15-year-old son was in 1st grade, he struggled with maturity issues. He was having a disastrous year. We had weekly (daily?) notes home from the teacher to tell us about all the behavior problems. Many days he'd cross his arms and tell the teacher, "You can't make me" when she gave him an assignment.
He was also very young, he was 4 starting kindergarten (the crazy Connecticut cutoff is 5 by Jan 1, so many kids start K as at 4 years.)
Anyway, we wanted him retained. The school wanted to promote him.
As best as we can understand, they knew that the class behind him was also very large and they didn't want yet another kid to join it.
We met with the principal repeatedly over the summer. Finally, 2 weeks before the school year began, we sent a formal written request to have him retained.
You can not imagine how difficult it was. Having the principal call me every week to try to convince us to promote him made us really question if it was the right thing to do.
But he had a fantastic 2nd go at 1st grade. And he has been a terrific student ever since. (BTW, he doesn't play sports, so that had nothing to do with it. He's a real cute nerd, if you will).
The power to retain or promote is very important to me.
Lynn - Can I post this on the front page?
I agree absolutely that the parent should have an override.
I'd like to see Irvington either pilot or adopt the "La Salle" plan.
In that plan placement decisions were transparent; criteria seem to be reasonably objective & understood by all; placement assessments are made at the end of each semester, not just each year; and parents have an override.
If parents override the recommendation of the school a notation to that effect is placed in the student's file.
I think this systems is terrific.
It's filled with checks and balances; it's transparent so people no what's going on; it respects the separate expertise of educators and parents; it shares power and builds trust.
The assessment procedures at the end of each semester strike me as a particularly savvy policy. A parent pushing for a too-high placement for his child is going to be far more likely to agree to the lower-down placement if it's only for one semester.
The whole thing strikes me as open, flexible, & focused on achievement and on individual students.
If there's such a thing as a transparent process, then ours is mud.
Only by probing during the school year were hubby and I even told we would "get a letter in June."
Turns out that really means the end of June, after school is over.
When I called the office to politely ask, I was told, "Well we need multiple indicators. You do want us to use multiple indicators, don't you?"
Still I tried to connect with some mom humor--"Oh that's fine. I'm just being an anxious mom. I'm just hoping she's in seventh grade Algebra so she can be with kids that reallly love math."
The reply: "All children love math."
Then, out of nervousness or something, she confessed, "I think your daughter will be doing Algebra next year."
I said, "Well I really appreciate your taking the time to call me personally."
The reply, "Oh, I call EVERYONE personally."
Yikes.
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