Was a line crossed by admin?

[Anonymous]

8th grade DS has a 504 for dyscalculia. They also have an awful math teacher (who is in 1st year at school/district and relatively new to the profession, my guess is under 3 years total). Limited instruction in class, obvious mistakes on things given to my DC/other students, poor organization, no response to emails (even really basic questions).

The school has a counselor and assistant principal for each grade who stay with students from 6th-8th. The counselor is the 504 contact and we have a really good relationship with her. AP is okay, but generally less approachable and often hear negative (from kids, other parents).

A few weeks ago I reached out directly to the counselor to talk about math and ways to help DS--trying to come up with a plan. When I first requested the meeting she suggested bringing in the AP AND the teacher but we requested it just with her since math has been such a struggle this year that it is actually cascading into his overall school experience. It was a productive call at the end she said that the next step for any changes etc would be an in-persoen meeting with her and the AP. We were fine with that approach. A few days later the AP sends the meeting request and also says "I added the teacher."

This seems wrong and that a line was crossed...and brings us no closer to helping our kid with math this year.

[Anonymous]

APs are busy. They don't know or care about the back story. Their goal is to move things along so the problem can be solved. Inviting a teacher along to a meeting about how to improve student outcomes in that teacher's class would seem reasonable and natural to any AP.

What was productive about your call with the counselor? What did you expect to happen at the meeting with the AP?

As a parent, you can't wade into teacher evaluation territory. I'm not saying that there aren't teachers who don't remotely meet professional standards. I'm not saying that SN kids don't need more, and better. But conversations that highlight teacher inadequacies are non-starters.

[Anonymous]

It seems like the only rational approach here would be to include the teacher and what you really want is a private meeting to complain about her behind her back. You can do that in an email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APs are busy. They don't know or care about the back story. Their goal is to move things along so the problem can be solved. Inviting a teacher along to a meeting about how to improve student outcomes in that teacher's class would seem reasonable and natural to any AP.

What was productive about your call with the counselor? What did you expect to happen at the meeting with the AP?

As a parent, you can't wade into teacher evaluation territory. I'm not saying that there aren't teachers who don't remotely meet professional standards. I'm not saying that SN kids don't need more, and better. But conversations that highlight teacher inadequacies are non-starters.

+1 You want your kid's experience to improve in Teacher X's class. You already had a discussion about teacher X with the counselor. Now the only thing that can be done is to bring in Teacher X to document concrete actions. Obviously they're not going to fire the teacher mid-year, so not sure why you see this action as surprising.

[Anonymous]

It's not crossing a line. It's just not what you wanted or expected. But they're not going to keep this kind of thing a secret from the teachers unless it's like, an actual crime they're investigating. They're always going to share it. They might not tell you they're going to share it, but they do.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all, appreciate the feedback (and understand that my feelings were not realistic). We are at that point where we feel like there is nothing productive that can come from DS being with this teacher for the remainder of the year; it's that serious. In any other subject we would just shrug and move on but the foundational nature of math makes it hard to take that approach. Tutoring 1-2x a week doesn't seem good enough. We didn't want the meeting with the AP, but it was suggested by the counselor.

[Anonymous]

I think the admin would be wrong to have this discussion without the teacher.

[Anonymous]

What line? I do not understand. How do you expect this to be remedied?

[Anonymous]

There are two possible solutions to your issue:
-get your child to switch teachers next semester (they really don’t want to do this and probably won’t consider the request but it is periodically allowed)
-have a productive discussion with everyone, including the teacher, to come up with solutions to the issues you are having

You probably hoped for the former, but they are trying to move forward with the latter. I don’t see how the teacher can adjust without knowing what is not working. Seems like it’s better to discuss this rather than play a game of telephone via the counselor and AP.

Honestly it’s an unfortunate situation that is only likely to improve a little. These things are very upsetting while you are going through them but getting through it and realizing you survived a difficult teacher issue does help kids build resilience and gain an understanding of how to advocate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, appreciate the feedback (and understand that my feelings were not realistic). We are at that point where we feel like there is nothing productive that can come from DS being with this teacher for the remainder of the year; it's that serious. In any other subject we would just shrug and move on but the foundational nature of math makes it hard to take that approach. Tutoring 1-2x a week doesn't seem good enough. We didn't want the meeting with the AP, but it was suggested by the counselor.

If tutoring twice a week isn’t helping, this problem seems bigger than just a single teacher.

[Anonymous]

You can't help your kid without including the teacher. Hello?

If you want to complain about the teacher or ask for a new one, just email the AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, appreciate the feedback (and understand that my feelings were not realistic). We are at that point where we feel like there is nothing productive that can come from DS being with this teacher for the remainder of the year; it's that serious. In any other subject we would just shrug and move on but the foundational nature of math makes it hard to take that approach. Tutoring 1-2x a week doesn't seem good enough. We didn't want the meeting with the AP, but it was suggested by the counselor.

If tutoring twice a week isn’t helping, this problem seems bigger than just a single teacher.

It's mainly been 1x a week, took awhile to find a good tutor with availability. The problem is the teacher literally is not teaching/providing zero instruction most days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, appreciate the feedback (and understand that my feelings were not realistic). We are at that point where we feel like there is nothing productive that can come from DS being with this teacher for the remainder of the year; it's that serious. In any other subject we would just shrug and move on but the foundational nature of math makes it hard to take that approach. Tutoring 1-2x a week doesn't seem good enough. We didn't want the meeting with the AP, but it was suggested by the counselor.

If tutoring twice a week isn’t helping, this problem seems bigger than just a single teacher.

It's mainly been 1x a week, took awhile to find a good tutor with availability. The problem is the teacher literally is not teaching/providing zero instruction most days.

Unless you're advocating to move your child into another equivalent class that the school has with a different teacher, I don't know how you would expect the school to resolve this issue without bringing in the teacher to this discussion.

[Anonymous]

If he's struggling that much, it may appropriate to ask that he be evaluated for an IEP and placed with a special ed teacher for math. Not an immediate fix, but if tutoring isn't helping, this may be a long term problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, appreciate the feedback (and understand that my feelings were not realistic). We are at that point where we feel like there is nothing productive that can come from DS being with this teacher for the remainder of the year; it's that serious. In any other subject we would just shrug and move on but the foundational nature of math makes it hard to take that approach. Tutoring 1-2x a week doesn't seem good enough. We didn't want the meeting with the AP, but it was suggested by the counselor.

If tutoring twice a week isn’t helping, this problem seems bigger than just a single teacher.

It's mainly been 1x a week, took awhile to find a good tutor with availability. The problem is the teacher literally is not teaching/providing zero instruction most days.

That is a very odd claim about a teacher and does not ring true at all.