Kid’s Medicore Grades at Deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be very worried..sounds like needs assistance with executive functioning. No way 10-20 minutes a night is sufficient for homework. Drill him every night about his assignments and what he has on the horizon. That will enforce the importance and help him start to manage his time. Not working hard is a non starter and that tone needs to be set now before high school.

I totally disagree. My son’s grades are all high 90% and he usually finishes homework on the bus or in the morning before school starts. Deal’s homework isn’t time consuming.

I also disagree. Seems to be that you child just need to do work (missed assignments). Deal grades pretty much everything that a child is asked to do including stupid stuff like completing a survey. Any missed grade is assigned a zero and as you know a zero can devastate an average. Also, the school has really clamped down on the ability to make-up work so missed assignments are really starting to matter. Check his assignments on Aspen and I met you will see that most of the zeros or low grades will be in the "Homework" category. If they are however in the "Summatives" then you should worry and get help. For kids with a "work ethic" issue, Aspen is a god send - use it! and make sure your kid uses it too.

DCPS in general clamped down because at DEAL teachers made sure students did not fail, now they have to play by the rules like all the other schools! Yes, check in with your child's teacher and yes students can earn grades for absolutely anything such as filling out a survey Even summations, they've already taken the assessment or done the work about 4 times before they get that grade...it all looks great in Aspen though and few parents are going to complain!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be very worried..sounds like needs assistance with executive functioning. No way 10-20 minutes a night is sufficient for homework. Drill him every night about his assignments and what he has on the horizon. That will enforce the importance and help him start to manage his time. Not working hard is a non starter and that tone needs to be set now before high school.

I totally disagree. My son’s grades are all high 90% and he usually finishes homework on the bus or in the morning before school starts. Deal’s homework isn’t time consuming.

I also disagree. Seems to be that you child just need to do work (missed assignments). Deal grades pretty much everything that a child is asked to do including stupid stuff like completing a survey. Any missed grade is assigned a zero and as you know a zero can devastate an average. Also, the school has really clamped down on the ability to make-up work so missed assignments are really starting to matter. Check his assignments on Aspen and I met you will see that most of the zeros or low grades will be in the "Homework" category. If they are however in the "Summatives" then you should worry and get help. For kids with a "work ethic" issue, Aspen is a god send - use it! and make sure your kid uses it too.

DCPS in general clamped down because at DEAL teachers made sure students did not fail, now they have to play by the rules like all the other schools! Yes, check in with your child's teacher and yes students can earn grades for absolutely anything such as filling out a survey Even summations, they've already taken the assessment or done the work about 4 times before they get that grade...it all looks great in Aspen though and few parents are going to complain!

I read things like this and it really makes me scratch my head, like our kids go to totally different schools. Nothing you just wrote resembles the last 4 years that I have had kids at Deal. The three times my kids needed a retake, they were told the grade wasn't bad enough and they could not do one. I think the retake thing must be an urban legend, because I have never seen it actually done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:average kids who are average students at average schools get average grades. Don't be daft and try to inject some narrative that makes it more complicated than it needs to be. Get him involved with electronic maintenance/military things. If he is advanced at math electronic theory might come easy to him and if you can fix electronics then education isn't always necessary for a good job.

Great idea. Let's base future job on middle school grades! Brilliant!!!

PP isn’t even proposing to use middle school grades, just one quarter. Terrible advice.

[Anonymous]

Middle school is the time for kids who aren’t naturally organized to learn it. Teach those skills. Help him come up with systems so there aren’t missed assignments. Don’t be hands off or let him fail - he won’t magically learn how to organize himself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be very worried..sounds like needs assistance with executive functioning. No way 10-20 minutes a night is sufficient for homework. Drill him every night about his assignments and what he has on the horizon. That will enforce the importance and help him start to manage his time. Not working hard is a non starter and that tone needs to be set now before high school.

I totally disagree. My son’s grades are all high 90% and he usually finishes homework on the bus or in the morning before school starts. Deal’s homework isn’t time consuming.

I also disagree. Seems to be that you child just need to do work (missed assignments). Deal grades pretty much everything that a child is asked to do including stupid stuff like completing a survey. Any missed grade is assigned a zero and as you know a zero can devastate an average. Also, the school has really clamped down on the ability to make-up work so missed assignments are really starting to matter. Check his assignments on Aspen and I met you will see that most of the zeros or low grades will be in the "Homework" category. If they are however in the "Summatives" then you should worry and get help. For kids with a "work ethic" issue, Aspen is a god send - use it! and make sure your kid uses it too.

DCPS in general clamped down because at DEAL teachers made sure students did not fail, now they have to play by the rules like all the other schools! Yes, check in with your child's teacher and yes students can earn grades for absolutely anything such as filling out a survey Even summations, they've already taken the assessment or done the work about 4 times before they get that grade...it all looks great in Aspen though and few parents are going to complain!

I read things like this and it really makes me scratch my head, like our kids go to totally different schools. Nothing you just wrote resembles the last 4 years that I have had kids at Deal. The three times my kids needed a retake, they were told the grade wasn't bad enough and they could not do one. I think the retake thing must be an urban legend, because I have never seen it actually done.

Retakes are limited to certain types of assignments—formatives but not summatives (or vice versa), and I believe they’re available only if a grade is 5 or lower. So if your kid wanted to retake a 6 or 7 to get an 8, that might be why.

I think they’re great as a way of ensuring that kids actually learn and understand the material, while also making grading feel less high-stakes.

[Anonymous]

On the Aspen front, I don't know if this would help your son, but I set up Aspen to notify my daughter of ALL her grades via email (threshold set for anything under 100%). Getting the regular visual reminders helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7th grade boy not applying himself or putting forth much effort is age appropriate behavior. Frustrating to say the least. Look for him to kick it into gear Sophomore year.

Agree! Make sure he reads and focus on what he is interested in learning independently. My son's grades were atrocious in 7th and 8th grade, at a HPC. 9th was okay; he is motivated in 10th and doing much better, As and Bs in Honors and AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the Aspen front, I don't know if this would help your son, but I set up Aspen to notify my daughter of ALL her grades via email (threshold set for anything under 100%). Getting the regular visual reminders helps.

Not OP, but this has helped me tremendously. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the Aspen front, I don't know if this would help your son, but I set up Aspen to notify my daughter of ALL her grades via email (threshold set for anything under 100%). Getting the regular visual reminders helps.

Not OP, but this has helped me tremendously. Thanks.

Be careful with this because it can cause a lot of stress for students. I teach high school and some kids check Aspen five times a day and it becomes really stressful when their grades change even a little bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the Aspen front, I don't know if this would help your son, but I set up Aspen to notify my daughter of ALL her grades via email (threshold set for anything under 100%). Getting the regular visual reminders helps.

Not OP, but this has helped me tremendously. Thanks.

Be careful with this because it can cause a lot of stress for students. I teach high school and some kids check Aspen five times a day and it becomes really stressful when their grades change even a little bit.

No worries, my kids never check and could not care less about their grades. I'd love mine to develop an ounce of the stress some kids have. When teachers tell the class not to stress and worry about grades, I know they are targeting those stressed out kids and that is an important message for those kids to get, but that message really backfires with my kids, who already don't care enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school is the time for kids who aren’t naturally organized to learn it. Teach those skills. Help him come up with systems so there aren’t missed assignments. Don’t be hands off or let him fail - he won’t magically learn how to organize himself.

Educator here. It’s frustrating to see bright kids who fail because they aren’t organized, miss homework assignments, forget their notes at home etc. Help your kid learn basic organizing skills and then invest 5-10 min a day checking in on what he’s accomplished and what’s due at school. Do it now. It will truly pay off during high school.