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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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.

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