Math 7 Honors Teacher refusing to allow retakes becuase it’s the “end of the quarter.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Title says it all. Test was taken Monday this week. The teacher preemptively told the class on that day there will be no retakes because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. We use a rolling gradebook. This is not true and against county policy. How do we handle?

When you say "retake" - do you mean retaking the same test with the same questions, or retaking a new test with new questions about the same material?

I assume the latter - retaking the same test with the same questions would be fraud.

I have no idea - apparently it’s up the individual teacher on how to handle retakes.

This whole retake thing is idiotic.

+1. It’s 7th grade math. Why would the child need a retake? What difference would it make?

To learn the material better? Sorry you don’t see value in that.

That’s easily fine by correcting mistakes and handing it in as a homework grade. Kids need to also learn that they won’t be given retakes in college.

It has been stated in many, many threads before that

a) High school (and certainly middle school!) are not college. It's okay if the rules are different.

b) More and more colleges are adopting retakes, dropping the lowest score, letting the final replace a test grade, allowing an alternate assignment to count instead of a poor test.

Retakes are here to stay. If you don't agree with them, tell your kid they can't do them.

Good colleges are not doing that.

My kid's at UVA and has 4 exams this quarter in one class, the highest 3 count.

She just had a group project that went terribly in a different class and was offered an individual supplement to replace the group grade if desired.

You can argue UVA isn't a good school, but I am fairly certain most people believe it is.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter what colleges are doing.

This is middle school. The policy for all middle school (and high school) classes is that summatives must have retakes. The teacher is blatantly ignoring that. That isn't okay.

If you want to fight retakes, go talk to gatehouse people. Once they decide retakes must be offered, teachers must offer retakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

Yes, I would assume this is what the teacher meant. That the grade stands for q1, no time to retake, but there will be a retake after. Confirm that -7th graders are dramatic and many could just be flipping out that their parents will see a bad q1 report card.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

It is now, but as OP stated, the class was initially told that there would be no retakes since it was the end of the quarter. However, yesterday the students received an email detailing the extensive parameters they must meet in order to retake the test, which will be administered after school hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

It is now, but as OP stated, the class was initially told that there would be no retakes since it was the end of the quarter. However, yesterday the students received an email detailing the extensive parameters they must meet in order to retake the test, which will be administered after school hours.

+1 why is it after school? That’s not fair to kids who have after school commitments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

This teacher also constantly does unannounced quizzes on performance matters after the unit test. They aren’t necessarily on the current topic of study, and aren’t available to review to see what they got wrong. This teacher seems to have a “gotcha” mentality. She also grades every single thing they do, so there is no time to just practice without fear of making mistakes. This teacher had a total of 15 formative assignments this quarter which is insane. Also, she turned mathspace assigbemnts (which had questions way over the scope of what they did in class) into summatives. She also grades every mathspace based on 100% accuracy. You only get full credit if you get everything correct. It is absolutely ridiculous. My child hates math now as a result of this teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't matter what colleges are doing.

This is middle school. The policy for all middle school (and high school) classes is that summatives must have retakes. The teacher is blatantly ignoring that. That isn't okay.

If you want to fight retakes, go talk to gatehouse people. Once they decide retakes must be offered, teachers must offer retakes.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

Yes, I would assume this is what the teacher meant. That the grade stands for q1, no time to retake, but there will be a retake after. Confirm that -7th graders are dramatic and many could just be flipping out that their parents will see a bad q1 report card.

That is certainly possible, but not what all the kids were saying or what they understood from the teacher (we checked with multiple kids). In addition, the teacher made this big announcement right before the unit test (on Monday) in order to scare them. As if that would help then do better. That’s just not nice. She also repeated this to them on Wednesday after the grades were posted. But suddenly, about 2 hours after school we got a Talking Points explaining when the retake. Of course she is making it more difficult than it has to be. Setting a date after school, and their retake isn’t even a full retake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

It is now, but as OP stated, the class was initially told that there would be no retakes since it was the end of the quarter. However, yesterday the students received an email detailing the extensive parameters they must meet in order to retake the test, which will be administered after school hours.

+1 why is it after school? That’s not fair to kids who have after school commitments.

I’m all for allowing retakes and schools provide after school buses. If school isn’t a priority for your kid, they don’t need to retake. If they have some super specific issue like caring for younger sibling, they should talk with the teacher. I don’t think missing soccer of karate is an appropriate excuse.

I’m honestly floored that you would ask this. Your kid didn’t get it the first (no judgment, my kids have been there multiple times) and then get a chance to improve and now you’re complaining about that? It should be slightly inconvenient IMO or why wouldn’t everyone just retake everything and plan for that?

[Anonymous]

For one of the performance matter quizzes, my child didn’t do well and out of nowhere the teacher decided to double the score so it ended up counting more in the formative grades section. There were a total of 12 questions on the pop quiz and she renormed it to be out of 20 points instead on SIS. This was the only one that she did this with. Wtf?

[Anonymous]

SYUDY NEXT TIME. IS 7TH GRADE NO ONE WILL CARE THAT HE GOT B AND NOT A for the 1st quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

It is now, but as OP stated, the class was initially told that there would be no retakes since it was the end of the quarter. However, yesterday the students received an email detailing the extensive parameters they must meet in order to retake the test, which will be administered after school hours.

+1 why is it after school? That’s not fair to kids who have after school commitments.

I’m all for allowing retakes and schools provide after school buses. If school isn’t a priority for your kid, they don’t need to retake. If they have some super specific issue like caring for younger sibling, they should talk with the teacher. I don’t think missing soccer of karate is an appropriate excuse.

I’m honestly floored that you would ask this. Your kid didn’t get it the first (no judgment, my kids have been there multiple times) and then get a chance to improve and now you’re complaining about that? It should be slightly inconvenient IMO or why wouldn’t everyone just retake everything and plan for that?

Kids should be allowed to retake during their advisory time. Not be made to stay after school. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay! Let’s teach our kids to not prepare for tests so we can take them again. Let’s also teach them that emails from mommy get stuff done. It’s no wonder nobody wants to teach.

Yes emails from parents work. I highly recommend them!

That’s okay. My kid studies for tests the first time and doesn’t need mommy to email his teachers.

When a teacher blatantly disregards a country policy, yes an adult needs to step in. In fact, this teacher was doubling down during math class saying no retakes but did a complete turnaround 2 hours after school. This teacher creates a culture of fear and kids are scared to approach her.

DP, but our DCs apparently have the same teacher. I’m glad someone spoke up. One of the reasons I liked this teacher so much was because they made the test retake policy explicitly clear at BTSN. And like it or not, it’s FCPS policy. You can’t just flippantly change it because you suddenly don’t agree with it. I mean, imagine if we lived in a country where you could just change laws on a whim because you don’t agree with them. What kind of message does this send to the kids?

Yes, but if it is a rolling grade book, can’t the retest occur next quarter?

It is now, but as OP stated, the class was initially told that there would be no retakes since it was the end of the quarter. However, yesterday the students received an email detailing the extensive parameters they must meet in order to retake the test, which will be administered after school hours.

+1 why is it after school? That’s not fair to kids who have after school commitments.

I don’t know. Is that not standard practice to schedule retakes after school?