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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I have an undermotivated son who just finished his freshman year at a W school. I sympathize with you a lot. My son is a wonderful kid, fairly mature with a good group of friends who are on the geeky side of the social spectrum. He has been told for several years that he has to take ownership of his education if he is going to have options for college and beyond, but he just doesn't like school and he struggles with getting his work done. He doesn't have any diagnosis or accommodations.

I can only tell you what has worked for us: intense parental oversight and engagement. My husband monitors MyMCPS like it's his heartrate. We found tutors for 2 subjects, one of whom will review his overall workload. We also do a weekly meeting with DS, sometimes twice weekly near the end of a quarter, to go over what tests or other big assignments are coming up, including going through his binder for forgotten assignments etc. We'll drill him for tests or give him feedback on a big essay. We've had to encourage DS to learn to advocate for himself - ask about a bad or missing grade, which on his own he would never do. Electronics are the downfall here, but we've resorted to taking them away when grades are rocky. It hasn't had to happen much.

It's not a perfect system, and it takes a ton of effort. We both work and have younger kids, and sometimes it feels like a big pain that I have to have room in my head to remind my kid to study for an upcoming 9th grade biology test. And there are some teachers who wait till the end of the quarter to post grades which makes it tough to monitor. But there's no doubt in my mind that this oversight helped our DS keep a solid GPA in honors classes. And we see modest signs of progress, that he's more invested in doing well now that he sees he's capable of it and that he's doing a mildly better job of managing his workload on his own. He hates our monitoring etc but over this year he went along with it more easily and by the end would willingly do homework or study on the weekends, something that used to be impossible. Hopefully he'll continue to inch forward over the next 3 years.

I don't know if this kind of intervention would have avoided such a tough outcome for your son. But I notice your post seems to lay the blame at the feet of the teachers and the school, and since you mention that you're not from here I wanted to point out that in any big MCPS HS (even a "good" one like a W) the classes are large, many kids are highly self-motivated, and it's easy for a slacker to fall between the cracks. Your complaint that "there's no support or accountability" in the school is understandable, but it's not entirely fair - if you or your son were pushing for help, you'd get it. But unfortunately given the size etc teachers aren't tracking down the parents of every HS freshman who is goofing off. You have the tools to follow his assignments and submitted work via the parent portal -- use them! I wish it weren't the case, but the upside is that if you get and stay involved, you may be able avoid a repeat of this year's problems. [/quote]

Thanks for the advice and we have tried some of the things that have worked for you but they did not work for us. Our DS would not sit with us and go through a review of his grades. He gets angry whenever we bring up the subject of grades or missing assignment. We reviewed myMCPS often and questioned him about missing assignments and we would get lies about the status. He refuses to accept any help we have offered to help review homework or study for tests. I'm glad it is working for you but did not work for us.[/quote]

If this is the case regular private schools will be a waste of money. Even boarding schools for LD kids may not have the patience for this behavior. Have you considered something like military school? A friends kid had a good experience at Valley Forge. [/quote]

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