Teachers - do you get to pick some of your students?
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Anonymous
| I've noticed a pattern in our school of teachers who move up a grade level that end up having a lot of kids from their previous class in their class the following year, or of teachers getting the siblings of their favorite students or not getting the siblings of troublemakers, or experienced teachers getting the better behaved kids. Is this a thing? Do you have a choice or are they assigned at random? |
Anonymous
| In APS they can request students. |
Anonymous
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Nope, but the principal tries to honor requests from teachers and parents that make sense. So if I say "This kid was in your office 34 times over the last year and I was not able to connect with him in a way that allowed for educating" they will decide perhaps someone else will have better luck teaching that kid.
If a parent says "My Bella is best friends with Sara but in the same class last year Bella wasn't able to resist the urge to chat with Sara even when physically separated to the point that Bella often missed crucial instructions and deadlines. Please separate her from Sara." Then the principal might do it. |
Anonymous
| They are not assigned at random. Our classes are created for the following year at a faculty or CT meeting in June. The current year teachers meet and create classes they think will gel the following year. Then admin makes some tweaks for various reasons. Sometimes if a teacher moves up a grade level, they will loop with their class, but parents can request for that not to happen. |
Anonymous
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Secondary school teacher here. NO, I DO NOT get to pick my classes.
Even when I requested NOT to have a student who had bullied my own child-- suggesting on multiple occasions that she kill herself-- the school said they could not honor that request. |
Anonymous
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In the spring we meet to put together classes for the next grade level, but in 30 years I have never chosen students from the grade level below.
ES Teacher |
Anonymous
| No, they do not allow us to have any input. |
Anonymous
If you could would you pick the cool kids? or the quite kids or the just okay kids? |
Anonymous
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What about middle school?
Our school has leveled math and seems to have leveled ELA as well but I don’t know anything else |
Anonymous
What the F is a “cool kid” in elementary. You understand we the teachers don’t think that way about kids right? they’re kids, they’re not cool to us. |
Anonymous
| I’ve been teaching nearly 20 years and have never been able to select my students. |
Anonymous
Just because there are different levels (small group, regular, honors, AA) doesn't mean teachers are choosing their students. There are probably 3-5 teachers who all teach the same level of each subject. They don't know if they'll get Student X or Student Z because there is only a 20-33% chance. |
Anonymous
Same. We do balance the classes so not all of the behavior kids go to one class. We balance girls and boys, ELLs, and special ed students too. Sometimes parents request the same teacher for younger siblings but I don’t approve that. |
Anonymous
| Does FCPS do cohorting? In my district ELL and gifted students are in cohorts so it would make sense if a teacher had some of the same students if they moved up |
Anonymous
| I had a principal --long ago--that really wanted to try this moving up with a class. I told him "not with this class!" |