Aspen - grades posted late and incorrectly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a kid in a (let's just say it) nonwhite DCPS and constantly wonder if the experience there with parent expectations of teachers and staff (i.e., these staff just objectively are not as professional as we are in our own jobs, not even close) makes me wonder (get angry) about what the experience must be like for lower-income/non-English-speaking families where they might not question how teachers and principals are doing their jobs. These families are likely not getting the level of service they deserve. They and their kids are being told that they are not succeeding/not supported/not given rigorous work/put in a vicious cycle of poor results and negative expectations and I wish somebody expected greater professionalism from the people who are effectively gatekeepers for their future success.

Sorry to be so negative.

Parents are the biggest gatekeepers and yet teachers wonder why parents aren't held more accountable, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a kid in a (let's just say it) nonwhite DCPS and constantly wonder if the experience there with parent expectations of teachers and staff (i.e., these staff just objectively are not as professional as we are in our own jobs, not even close) makes me wonder (get angry) about what the experience must be like for lower-income/non-English-speaking families where they might not question how teachers and principals are doing their jobs. These families are likely not getting the level of service they deserve. They and their kids are being told that they are not succeeding/not supported/not given rigorous work/put in a vicious cycle of poor results and negative expectations and I wish somebody expected greater professionalism from the people who are effectively gatekeepers for their future success.

Sorry to be so negative.

This made me chuckle. People and their noble ideas of teachers and teaching… it’s like we’re still watching 90s movies.

But laughing side, no, ma’am. Especially middle & high school. The secondary educator who sees your kid in a group of 25 kids for 80 mins every other day for 90 days of your kid’s life is not gatekeeping their future. Research proves time and time again that the education & income of a child’s parents are the greatest predictor of a child’s post-secondary future.

No doubt DCPS is dysfunctional, but that’s not on the rank & file teacher. Befriend a DCPS teacher (I’ve found wine helps), ask questions, and be prepared to be amazed at the shit they’ve seen. We’re lucky they show up most days. I wouldn’t.

[Anonymous]

So the job is hard thus professionalism is not required.

No.

I get that you might not fix the poorly parented. I do want you to input the damn grades into Aspen tho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the job is hard thus professionalism is not required.

No.

I get that you might not fix the poorly parented. I do want you to input the damn grades into Aspen tho.

You get what you pay for.

Grade entry is the last thing on DCPS’s mind, especially when the concerns come from white parents. I would move on to a private if this is a major concern for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the job is hard thus professionalism is not required.

No.

I get that you might not fix the poorly parented. I do want you to input the damn grades into Aspen tho.

Ooof. This smacks of elitism. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the job is hard thus professionalism is not required.

No.

I get that you might not fix the poorly parented. I do want you to input the damn grades into Aspen tho.

You get what you pay for.

Grade entry is the last thing on DCPS’s mind, especially when the concerns come from white parents. I would move on to a private if this is a major concern for you.

DCPS spends more per pupil than most jurisdictions.

Grade entry is a basic part of the job. Teachers for whom this is “the last thing on their mind” should find another line of work.

I’d argue that a huge part of the problem that DCPS has hiring teachers is the systemic tolerance for incompetence and slacking. Good people struggle to work in that environment.

In 4th grade, my kid had a teacher who didn’t provide any feedback for assignments — like zero graded work returned at all. The teacher explained that while he believed in assigning 4th graders a lot of homework, he didn’t have time to grade any of it or any class work or offer any feedback to the kids at all. This was a teacher who was teaching a class of 17 students a half day at a 50/50 immersion school. This was tolerated by the admin for years. This is the culture of DCPS.

[Anonymous]

What privates have online gradebooks? Ours certainly didn't and it wasn't cheap. That's the advantage of a school system-resourcers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With progress reports due out soon, my kid's teachers are posting a lot of last minute grades, including one teacher who posted two 50% percent grades that say "WS" (waiting submittal). The thing is, I know for a fact that my kid submitted these assignments.

Does anyone have any advice for how to minimize the stress involved with following up to get those grades changed, or even better, how to avoid them from being graded wrong in the first place?

I know that it is annoying and I have experienced this for the past three years with my 8th grader in one way or another, but try not to stress. These are only progress reports, not the report card. When this has happened, I monitor for the next couple of days to a week and then follow up with the teacher myself. If the teacher won't respond, I follow up with the Assistant Principal and so on. Hopefully it won't come to all that though.

You are NUTS.
You (the parent) are emailing teachers and then bothering the assistant principal? Why is your kid not asking the teacher and then following up by email?
I can see why the teachers are not responding: they are likely waiting for your 8TH GRADER to learn to self advocate.

This is exactly the attitude of so many at Deal. However, not all kids can do that themselves. Kids with ADHD, anxiety, and other neuro divergence are routinely overlooked in Deal. The school DOES NOT support these students with the types of interventions known to assist students and families to ensure the students can grow to take on these responsibilities. In fact, our kid (who also falls in this group) got almost no support in 6th grade (due to pandemic and no school all year) and in 7th grade there was NO COUNSELLOR for 7th grade for more than half the school year (so our kid got no where near the support required in their 504 plan). under these conditions, parents are left to support the only way they know how.

This is NOT insane- it is NOT hovering- it is NOT "NUTS". If your kiddo can do all of that work themselves and self-advocate, that is great. STFU about how others have to approach supporting their kids to get to the same spot. Understand this is a huge struggle for many of us and we are trying to encourage and help our kids navigate a huge school with poor parent communication and very little in the way of special education services/supports.

To the OP and PPs, I feel you. We have to do the same and encourage you to reach out to the counselling team if this is a constant issue for you. We were able to work with them to finally get teachers the right 504 plan (because Deal hadn't done that by themselves) and create a system for checking in about homework assignments/quizzes/etc. instead of waiting for progress reports to highlight all they were missing.

Good luck

THANK YOU!

One thing my kid is currently anxious about is there a lot of "ungraded" work from one teacher in Aspen and my kid has no idea where he stands in the class if all that work was to be graded. I guess we'll find out.

[Anonymous]

I think the WTU contract says teachers have two weeks to enter a grade after an assignment’s been given…? At least last I knew?

[Anonymous]

Is Aspen down? I wanted to check my child’s final report because it’s records day and I keep getting error messages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Aspen down? I wanted to check my child’s final report because it’s records day and I keep getting error messages.

Grades don't have to be entered by today. Teachers had half of today for record keeping. Grades are due Thursday of next week. ASPEN was also not "down" today from what I could tell. I checked it multiple times with no issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the WTU contract says teachers have two weeks to enter a grade after an assignment’s been given…? At least last I knew?

Yes, the DCPS secondary grading policy says https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/secondary-grading-and-reporting-policy that a teacher is supposed to input 2 grades for every five school days in which a class meets. However, this is managed at the school level. So if admin or whoever the grading manager is isn't checking this, it can go on, unchecked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the job is hard thus professionalism is not required.

No.

I get that you might not fix the poorly parented. I do want you to input the damn grades into Aspen tho.

You get what you pay for.

Grade entry is the last thing on DCPS’s mind, especially when the concerns come from white parents. I would move on to a private if this is a major concern for you.

DCPS spends more per pupil than most jurisdictions.

Grade entry is a basic part of the job. Teachers for whom this is “the last thing on their mind” should find another line of work.

I’d argue that a huge part of the problem that DCPS has hiring teachers is the systemic tolerance for incompetence and slacking. Good people struggle to work in that environment.

In 4th grade, my kid had a teacher who didn’t provide any feedback for assignments — like zero graded work returned at all. The teacher explained that while he believed in assigning 4th graders a lot of homework, he didn’t have time to grade any of it or any class work or offer any feedback to the kids at all. This was a teacher who was teaching a class of 17 students a half day at a 50/50 immersion school. This was tolerated by the admin for years. This is the culture of DCPS.

Grade entry is a BASIC part of the job. Period.

And yes, my child didn't get work graded back in elementary school and when I asked the teacher definitely acted like it was some MAJOR craziness that I asked. Like how dare I ask her for feedback. Ma'am.

[Anonymous]

My High schooler has all of 5 grades in her history class for the whole marking period? Can this possibly be correct? I emailed the teacher a week ago and no response. Daughter reached out to the teacher and the response was "I have been doing this a long time, you just have to trust me" (I think this response is utter nonsense, but thats a whole other issue)

[Anonymous]

My favorite form of “self advocacy” that my kid developed during HS was keeping files of all graded work (like an actual file drawer with carefully labeled folders for each class and assignments filed by date) so that when teachers recorded work that had been turned in, graded, and returned as “missing” they could provide the teacher a copy. They learned to provide a copy because more than once a teacher took the original back from them and then continued to claim that the work had never been done.

At the end of the advisory, they would typically provide at least 2 teachers with multiple copies of work marked as missing (like 5-7 assignments).