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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.  Thank you for all of the input, especially from the teachers early on.  He actually is getting help from someone in the family who literally used to teach this class until 2 years ago and even he said some of the questions on the last test my kid got were pretty intense and hard for him to interpret what exactly the question was asking for.  I think another problem with these tests is that they have bizarre numbers of problems (17 or 14), so it doesn't take much to tank the grade.  I am definitely looking into getting a tutor and he's been going to after school help sessions.  I think its odd how many people are very dismissive of the the students.  "Oh well, too bad, you better catch up!"  Certainly there were some kids who just cheated in middle school and don't care, but there are also many kids who are suffering from the instruction during online learning, and who really WANT to do well.  They're kids, that were just working with what they were given, through no fault of their own.  This also happened with language.  Last year, my kid went into second year language and discovered that his 8th grade teacher had taught him practically nothing, so yes, he had to learn enough to catch up.  He worked very hard and was able to do it, but that certainly shouldn't have been ON HIM to make up for was never taught to him.[/quote]

Some of this might also have to do with schools no longer using textbooks, instead having teachers come up with their own material.

If you have a mediocre teacher, especially in math, the lack of textbooks can really be detrimental to student learning.[/quote]

Completely agree.  The positive about textbooks and standard tests is that the questions and explanations have been reviewed and vetted generally both internally and through actual teachers and students.  If there are issues there is feedback and correction.  Individual or very small groups of teachers creating their own content generally leads to lower quality ambiguous questions and explanations - you are a little blind to your own confusing content and there is not much review and feedback.  Often without textbooks and standard material, the individual teachers are just adding a layer of confusion.  The basic math subject material for Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry etc have not changed in a long, long time - there is little need for teachers to be rolling their own.[/quote]

Agree with many PPs but am also a parent similar to OP whose kid did not cheat but did do Algebra 1 via distance learning. My kid is doing what she can with the teacher provided content but now need to push her to correlate what is in the 'slides' that the teacher reviews during class and during after school review with what is in the textbook so that she can learn on her own and do more problems. The content and minimal homework doesn't seem to cover what is expected for the test(s). I don't expect teachers to redo teaching Algebra 1 but maybe at least pointing to what they are teaching to where they can do similar with the textbook would be helpful. I can say that with the first unit, we did go and try to find better examples in the textbook to line up with the teacher material references and it was not an easy task to figure out which types of problems to focus on. Maybe I will eat my words when I go and hunt for the same in the textbook on this latest unit where kid scored a 79 when DC thought they knew the material based on teacher provided content.

Just asking that teachers don't go off saying all the kids cheated during DL and anyone who isn't getting an A therefore cheated (that is what the first page of posts pretty much said). Also, I don't expect teachers to turn themselves inside out. Just at minimum, point to correlating chapters and additional problems for motivated students to do on their own, especially when the students ask for it vs say its all in the slides they covered during class and only reviewing those exact same slides and problems when kids come for more help in the provided hours. We're looking into Tutoring and doing the same with Khan Academy. Willing to do the work if there can at least be a reference to map that help vs saying drop out if you don't get it.[/quote]

OP here, ^ This exactly!  I mean, I think this poster nailed it.  The slides and teacher content with no correlation to other problems or text book examples, along with minimal homework to reinforce what they're doing is contributing greatly to this issue.  My child felt comfortable going into the last test with reviewing the slides and after school work with the teacher, but seemed to get blindsided by things on the test.  Just need the teacher to provide resources to practice and point the kid in the right direction.  He will definitely do the work needed.[/quote]

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