New Parent In GDS 9th: The Lack of Transparency Alarms Me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grades thing is as it should be. Students not getting help when going to the teacher is not good, however.

I agree. It's literally their job.

How many times have I heard that private is better because students get personal attention and support and don’t fall through the cracks? We get teacher writing feedback and help in history for free over here in public. They also communicate the grades in real time to parents and students.

GDS does give a ton of personal attention—suspect the kid is saying how do I get a better grade or what should I write, etc. Teachers will lead them but not tell them exactly what to do. This is the same in our experience at another HS as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grades thing is as it should be. Students not getting help when going to the teacher is not good, however.

I agree. It's literally their job.

Helping kids learn to use all the resources available to them, and not to be dependent on adults is literally their job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grades thing is as it should be. Students not getting help when going to the teacher is not good, however.

I agree. It's literally their job.

Helping kids learn to use all the resources available to them, and not to be dependent on adults is literally their job.

The teachers are a resource and should be meeting with their students esp in ninth.

[Anonymous]

We don't get my 9th grader's grades, but we've gotten more communication from teachers than I expected. Two teachers have taken the time to send positive student updates that gave specific examples of things my child is doing well. The written feedback on my child's first English paper was the best feedback he's ever received -- specific, positive and places to grow, focused on ideas.

[Anonymous]

This is probably about what was asked and how. They didn’t go up to a teacher and ask in an appropriate context for “advice on their writing” and get that response about copy editing. There are specifics missing here. That sounds more like they asked a teacher to go over an assignment before it was due, maybe, and the teacher felt the student was outsourcing more than they were asking for help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you expect? Your kid is in high school. You don’t need to see his grades in real time. DC is at another big 3 and there is no way for the parents to see grades in real time. It’s the norm at a lot of schools. As for the copy editing comment, what exactly did your kid ask? If he wants somebody to go through line by line, that is not the norm either. Kids at these schools are not spoonfed information where all they have to do is regurgitate what they memorized. Is this your first year at a private school in general?

NCS grad and English teacher here. They should not copy edit his paper. But they absolutely should be going through his paper line by line and giving feedback. That's one of the reason to pay for private - high quality feedback on writing so you develop better writing skills.

Are you switching from public, OP? My kids are in public and I understand the need to have access to their grades in high school because kids fall thru the cracks and teachers often don't let you know if your kid is flailing. But in private they *should* notice and follow up with the kid and eventually the parents if the kid is not turning stuff in.

Also, unless he's a legacy or something, if your kid got into gds at ninth, he's probably a pretty good student. He will probably be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you expect? Your kid is in high school. You don’t need to see his grades in real time. DC is at another big 3 and there is no way for the parents to see grades in real time. It’s the norm at a lot of schools. As for the copy editing comment, what exactly did your kid ask? If he wants somebody to go through line by line, that is not the norm either. Kids at these schools are not spoonfed information where all they have to do is regurgitate what they memorized. Is this your first year at a private school in general?

NCS grad and English teacher here. They should not copy edit his paper. But they absolutely should be going through his paper line by line and giving feedback. That's one of the reason to pay for private - high quality feedback on writing so you develop better writing skills.

Are you switching from public, OP? My kids are in public and I understand the need to have access to their grades in high school because kids fall thru the cracks and teachers often don't let you know if your kid is flailing. But in private they *should* notice and follow up with the kid and eventually the parents if the kid is not turning stuff in.

Also, unless he's a legacy or something, if your kid got into gds at ninth, he's probably a pretty good student. He will probably be ok.

After it's handed in, absolutely. But unless teachers offer to look at drafts, that's an unreasonable expectation for before the paper is handed in for a grade.

[Anonymous]

If you haven't had an "interim report" email hit your inbox, then your kid is fine in all clssses. A C on an assessment usually triggers an interim from the teacher, who usually are very ready to do follow up( andlikely are already giving extra support to your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't had an "interim report" email hit your inbox, then your kid is fine in all clssses. A C on an assessment usually triggers an interim from the teacher, who usually are very ready to do follow up( andlikely are already giving extra support to your child.

Is an interim report the same as a student update email?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is newly enrolled in GDS, and while we generally like the school so far, I am alarmed by the lack of transparency from the administration and teachers. I'm trying to keep up with his grades, and they give me the runaround. They don't have an online portal such as "PowerSchool" to let parents see their kids grade in real-time. They also keep telling me "Grades aren't important. Worry about your child's learning and growth as a person."

When he asked for advice on his writing, the instructor told him "we aren't gong to copyedit your work for you." When he asked for help in his history class, the teacher told him "I'm not going to walk you through this."

Teachers seem to place a heavy emphasis on self-teaching, which is frustrating to me.

As for grades, this is HS. You need to be talking to your son if you want real-time information about his grades. If it makes you feel any better, there's no parent portal with real-time reporting of grades in GDS MS, either (and maybe that's for the better, as MS has this ridiculous standards-based grading system that most kids simply converted into letter grades). If anyone in the admin told you that grades in HS aren't important, they are lying. But at this point in the school year, it probably does make more sense to focus on whether your kid is transitioning well to his new school, and it's only 9th grade.

A pretty common complaint is that GDS MS doesn't do a great job preparing kids for GDS HS. I don't necessarily agree with that, but at least for the teachers our kid had in 9th, the expectations were pretty high from the start, and there isn't a lot of hand-holding. Students are expected to be organized, focused, and self-directed, but I don't think that's unique to GDS. So the transition to GDS HS can be a bit jarring, and from speaking with other parents (and our own experience), it can take a while. Our kid found their teachers generally to be accessible and helpful, but they aren't there to be tutors outside of class.

If your son (or you) have concerns, speak with his advisor, if you haven't already. They should be able to point you to resources within the school that can help with the transition, and also give you a realistic answer to what support teachers are able to provide outside of class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is newly enrolled in GDS, and while we generally like the school so far, I am alarmed by the lack of transparency from the administration and teachers. I'm trying to keep up with his grades, and they give me the runaround. They don't have an online portal such as "PowerSchool" to let parents see their kids grade in real-time. They also keep telling me "Grades aren't important. Worry about your child's learning and growth as a person."

When he asked for advice on his writing, the instructor told him "we aren't gong to copyedit your work for you." When he asked for help in his history class, the teacher told him "I'm not going to walk you through this."

Teachers seem to place a heavy emphasis on self-teaching, which is frustrating to me.

It's really had to say from this post what kinds of help DS is asking for from his teachers. Teachers are not tutors; they ought not, for example, walk through an assigned text line-by-line with him so that he can understand what it is about. And as a parent of a high schooler, you should not expect to see individual grades for each and every assignment. (This does not even happen at the GDS MS.) Also, it does seem that the teachers are taking the time to meet with your DS, it's just that they are not spoon-feeding him.
And while I disagree that grades "aren't important" (they obviously are for college transcripts and some colleges do count freshman grades), I can see why a teacher would be frustrated with a student (and parent) who appears to be more concerned about a grade than about improving their understanding of the material. This is a very, very good lesson to learn before college.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here and I require students to come to office hours with specific questions about their work. For students who show up asking me to "go over my essay" or proofread it, I tell them I will not. Does your son exchange essays with his classmates before he submits them to do a kind of workshop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here and I require students to come to office hours with specific questions about their work. For students who show up asking me to "go over my essay" or proofread it, I tell them I will not. Does your son exchange essays with his classmates before he submits them to do a kind of workshop?

I would be careful about this if the kids are using a similar prompt. The temptation to copy ideas and phrasing could lead to problems for both students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grades thing is as it should be. Students not getting help when going to the teacher is not good, however.

I agree. It's literally their job.

How many times have I heard that private is better because students get personal attention and support and don’t fall through the cracks? We get teacher writing feedback and help in history for free over here in public. They also communicate the grades in real time to parents and students.

WHOever claims that teachers are not available to help students 1:1 when the student asks is not being truthful, at Sidwell STA NCS and GDS. maybe other independent schools too. But certainly these 4.

Yes, that is in fact what we pay for. OP needs to loosen the apron strings a little

[Anonymous]

Remember that before 9th grade, students at GDS don't have any grades at all (just progressing/etc), so checking on grades is not part of the culture and students and parents don't expect real-time grade reports. I can imagine coming from a school system where there were grades, this may feel foreign. The emphasis is really on learning rather than grades, per se, before 9th grade. The culture is that kids are expected to be accountable, and parents don't really micro manage their kids, as I have experienced GDS, and that this is a real positive. If you have concerns, I would reach out to your kids advisor. Students at GDS are expected to be able to teach themselves content at a certain point, and to be able to be their own advocate; at the same time, if a student is falling behind here are plenty of resources on student free period. Good luck!