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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is very strange . Teacher pp here. Are you saying teacher is putting in a zero the night before an assignment is due?! And then not accepting it? If so, go to admin. But this story is strange [/quote]

OP here. The couple of Zs that were entered in Edline right before deadlines were always removed, but I added that in my follow-up to explain that this teacher works bizarrely, and that we've had to obsessively check Edline to make sure nothing slips past. Or perhaps Edline does it automatically because some settings are off? I don't know. We have not had such issues with his other classes.
[b]The policy is written on the class Edline page: students have until the deadline during the class period to hand in their homework sheets. There is no electronic submission in that class.

[/b]My son does not have a phone, otherwise I would ask him to take a pic!

Sigh. I will email the teacher and do as the Principal PP suggests. Thank you![/quote]

OP, see bolded above from your reply.

I would ensure that the teacher and principal both see that policy in writing. Bring it with you, printed out for them and hightlighted, when you see them, or copy it and highlight it if you are communicating by e-mail (though I'd say that in person is better). I would just show them the policy, then say that Zs get posted on Edline BEFORE the "deadline during the class period" and that you are asking if Edline possibly is set to default to Z at a certain time (say, midnight Sundays). The school should be able to get Edline reset so that the teacher must proactively ENTER a grade rather than the system automatically defaulting to a Z--I would hope. (I am not in MCPS so not familiar with Edline.)

Two other things:

First, approach the teacher and principal as non-confrontationally as you possibly can. Speak in terms of, "We need to understand whether DS is misinterpreting what teacher is telling him and needs to be set straight, or if Edline itself is an issue here, or a combination of both." Make it all about fixing the issue, whether that issue turns out to be the system itself or your son's organization skills. It sounds as if you believe him when he say he turned this paper in and I believe in your trust, so stick to that--he's sure he did it, you know he always is truthful about his work, so if something is really lost after being done, what happens next?

And ask, "How does he remediate a grade like this?" Remediate here will not mean a full do-over, probably, but a chance to make some points back for turning it in late or whatever.

If the teacher never allows that, ask WHY. If other teachers in the school do  allow it, ask why her policy is so different--and really listen. It may be that her entire department works the way she works; if he's in middle school, be aware, departments matter more in MS and HS, in terms of there being "English department policy on test retakes" or "math department policy on missed homework" etc. She may actually be doing what every other teacher in her subject does, just not what DS's other teachers in other subjects do. So she may not have any freedom to let him make things up. But you need to know either way, for sure.

Second, it is wonderful that your son has done so terrifically especially with challenges. But it's time for both you and him to get past all-As being his standard for every class, every grading period. Those Zs or Bs do hurt, I know -- my own DD was straight-As all the way through MS, but as things have gotten tougher in HS, we've had to adjust how we react to individual assignments and tests when the grades aren't good. It's good that with this one Z you are going to find out the issues at play and work on them (which might mean getting an Edline flub fixed, or might mean instead telling your DS that this is just a lesson learned and lost work is lost and can't be remediated). But there will be other fair and unfair grades in the years to come. He'll learn from them too.

[/quote]

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