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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
Teacher here and you should absolutely contact the teacher and principal or assistant principal. Be polite and respectful but you can be assertive. Do not apologize that your child has ADHD or a 504. Do not act like you are asking for a favor or preferential treatment, you are not. You are standing up for a child with a disability.

If the child has a 504 or IEP that requires direction and instruction clarification. This accommodation was not given and the kids subsequently got a D then the teacher needs to either correct the grade based on whether his answers met the substantive mastery of what she was testing OR give him a new test and clarify the instructions.

There is a reason why IEP and 504 are protected by federal laws. The whole point of a 504 or IEP is to a level the playing field so a child with a learning disability can access the education and b to provide consistency so the parent/child does not need to constantly re-negotiate or explain the LD. As a teacher you can be a complete asshole and hate kids with LDS or accommodations but guess what- your job is to teach them and failing to follow the 504/IEP is an actionable offense.

The reality is that there are good teachers and bad teachers. There is an inherent imbalance of power between a student and teacher. Long ago when I was an intern I saw kids with LDs and 504/IEP come up to a teacher and ask for help only to be batted away. Sadly for that teacher the ONLY kids who has their plans followed were the ones for whom their parents complained to the AP.

OP -you are not asking for any favors by insisting that the teacher follow the 504. a 504 is not a special favor, it is a legal right for someone with a disability.

This is a great suggestion. But let's be clear - is issue here is that the teacher didn't follow the 504. The issue is NOT that the teacher is nit picky or that the teacher should have given credit despite not following directions. That the kid has a 504 and it wasn't followed. Period. If a different kid had done the same with without any accommodations required, the teacher's actions would have been 100% right. 
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The 504 makes it an open and shut situation. If there was no 504 or IEP and it was a normal kid, then the teacher is not following best practices.

Based on the OP's description that the child fully translated each sentence correctly showing the level of mastery and understanding that the quiz was intended to ascertain then it was wrong for a teacher to give no credit because he did not follow the directions. The purpose of the course and quiz is to develop and demonstrate mastery. A more appropriate penalty would have been to take several points off for not following directions. The student should be acknowledged for studying and learning the material to the level that was required for this assessment.

In teaching you encounter a wide variety of learners with different skills and ability. At some point you have to decide why you are there. Are you there to teach and help all your students learn or are you there to get through the day and focus on just some students. If you still believe that you are there to teach and help all students learn then you incorporate flexibility into your routine choosing the path that yields the highest learning outcomes.

A good example is the issue of retakes. I know some teachers who hate retakes. Its more work and why the hell should they have do more work because a kid screwed up. Well the reality is that offering a retake opens the door for a student who did not develop mastery to do it. Trust me no kid -high or low performing is going to go back and rewrite a paper or essay for fun if they can't resubmit it. The kids who really do not care do not bother to resubmit. The ones who do care put a lot of effort into the retake and end up learning more than the kids that got an A the first time. Its a huge confidence boost to a low to mid performer and a relief to a high performer. As a teacher you end up with an additional student who has mastered the content and have positively contributed to the mental health of your students. Win win situation.

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A retake is a great idea. As is an extra project or similar. And we have no idea if this teacher would entertain those ideas. But rewarding kids who do not follow the directions with false merit points helps no one. Much better that they get the low grade and then do extra work to show that they not only understand the material, but that they understand why they got the low grade in the first place.[/quote]

OP here. She is only allowing kids who scored below 45 to do a retake. We've emailed our son's counselor about the 504 plan and how she's not been following it and I wonder if that will have any effect.[/quote]

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