Concerns Over Grade Child Received

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You don’t advocate your kid does

If your kid doesn’t have proof they did better than that grade your kid is the issue

OP here.

The issue that I have is that I would expect a teacher to contact a parent if a child is struggling in a class.

Does this school have an online grade book that is updated throughout the quarter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You don’t advocate your kid does

If your kid doesn’t have proof they did better than that grade your kid is the issue

OP here.

The issue that I have is that I would expect a teacher to contact a parent if a child is struggling in a class.

Does this school have an online grade book that is updated throughout the quarter?

The school does have an online grade book, but for this specific class there were no grades or graded projects throughout the semester. Only the final grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By 2nd year of middle school, you cannot expect the teacher to contact you with concerns. That will not happen.

The teacher should make some information available to the student as they are going, like grades on in-class assignments. If the student was truly blindsided, they (not you) need to contact the teacher to set up a time to meet. They need to ask what they missed, and how they can track their progress going forward.

Every public middle school around here has a way to track grades online, although admittedly not all teachers are great about keeping it updated.

With every other class I know exactly what is going on with my kid in terms of homework, test scores and upcoming projects. The only teacher that hasn’t posted anything in the system during the whole semester is the elective’s teacher.

[Anonymous]

How are other kids in the class doing? My kid has definitely had a situation where a teacher gave virtually everyone low grades. In her case, it was a long-term sub that was brought in for a teacher who left for medical reasons. He didn't really understand how to use Canvas, so no grades were ever posted and all the kids who used to get As got progressively lower grades. She ended up with a C+ for 3rd quarter and a D her final quarter. I watched her submit assignments online that he subsequently marked as missing and gave her a zero for. Since it didn't count as a high school grade and I knew from talking to other parents that this was a widespread problem I just let it go. I had no faith that the school would do anything about it either and I knew it wasn't actually a performance problem on her part.

Short version--can you figure out if this is a kid problem or a teacher problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are other kids in the class doing? My kid has definitely had a situation where a teacher gave virtually everyone low grades. In her case, it was a long-term sub that was brought in for a teacher who left for medical reasons. He didn't really understand how to use Canvas, so no grades were ever posted and all the kids who used to get As got progressively lower grades. She ended up with a C+ for 3rd quarter and a D her final quarter. I watched her submit assignments online that he subsequently marked as missing and gave her a zero for. Since it didn't count as a high school grade and I knew from talking to other parents that this was a widespread problem I just let it go. I had no faith that the school would do anything about it either and I knew it wasn't actually a performance problem on her part.

Short version--can you figure out if this is a kid problem or a teacher problem?

Good idea. I’ll have my kid ask what others received in the class as none of their friends have the same teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

[Anonymous]

Did your kid miss due dates and skip assignments? Did they do the major assessment timely? There is a reason, Op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

That is overkill and I don’t know any teachers that do that, nor would I expect a teacher to personally contact me about an elective class bad grade. But what I would expect would be the teacher inputting grades into the online grade book at regular intervals so that parents (and students) can track progress.

[Anonymous]

You need to find out what happened. Did your child not do the work? Or was each assignment poor quality? Or... I would ask my child first. If it seems like they are obfuscating, go to the teacher.

[Anonymous]

1. In MS, kids need to start learning how to advocate for themselves- don't write/send an email, discuss with your kid and then help edit their email to the teacher appropriately

2. Your emphasis on the grade received, rather than the grade earned, says a lot. Make sure your child isn't so accusatory in their email

[Anonymous]

It’s unfortunate that they’re were not regular updates in the online grade book- I really rely on those. The teachers at our school are fairly good about updating regularly (some more than others).

I wouldn’t really expect the teacher to reach out at this age. Some might, but I would not expect it.

My DS had a similar issue this semester (in PE of all things) and indeed- the teacher is a harsh grader relative to other PE teachers. Have not discussed with the PE teacher as I don’t see much point (DS did not fail) and low PE grade is not any issue going forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s unfortunate that they’re were not regular updates in the online grade book- I really rely on those. The teachers at our school are fairly good about updating regularly (some more than others).

I wouldn’t really expect the teacher to reach out at this age. Some might, but I would not expect it.

My DS had a similar issue this semester (in PE of all things) and indeed- the teacher is a harsh grader relative to other PE teachers. Have not discussed with the PE teacher as I don’t see much point (DS did not fail) and low PE grade is not any issue going forward.

Sorry for typo

[Anonymous]

You need to name the school district because what you are describing -- only one graded work item for the whole semester -- is not legal in DMV.