Just received an official notice that my junior is at jeopardy of failing due to her unlawful absences the quarter. Absence #1 school sponsored field trip. Absence #2 AP exam, Absence #3 Doctors appointment, write a note, school called to confirm it, absences was marked for the day before. I am allowed to appeal using some form I can apparently find on line. I will not take the time to do that. Not being able to accurately track attendance is just as much of a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

I think there is real tension in high school with all of this

I'll say this again most colleges don't care if you show up to class so why are we trying to micromanage high schoolers.

excuses - so ridiculous

No clue which colleges you're referring to - But this isn't the case with my friend's kids. (Mine are still in HS.) One prof wouldn't allow my friend's daughter to make up a quiz she missed when she was sick.

And to the first PP - why would you encourage a kid to run from a problem? Do you skip work b/c you have tension with a colleague or an administrator?

absolutely incredible! And you're the adult/role model? lol

Reading comprehension.

I haven't read the full discussion, but I wanted to offer my story in for context.

I graduated from Wootton about 10-15 years ago. For the majority of high school, I deliberately skipped about 20% of school. I tried not to miss more than 20%, because (at the time) you could only excuse 20% of absences with a parent's note. Sometimes, I would miss even more school and started accumulating unexcused absences. If you received more than 5 unexcused absences, you would "lose credit (LC)" for the course. There was a process for appealing the LC, which I always did successfully.

My parents knew that I was skipping school, but didn't see how accumulating unexcused absences helped me. So they either signed the notes or let me write notes on their behalf. Ultimately, my poor attendance turned out to be no big deal. After high school, I went to Montgomery College for a year. I then transferred to University of Maryland. I had an awesome college experience. I got a great job after graduating which developed that into an awesome career that I continue to love.

I don't regret skipping class because I remember how unhappy attending high school made me. If anything, I wish that I had gone less.

Anonymous wrote:sounds like more Type A freaks on here

There is a big difference if kids don't know the material and are failing, but if kids are passing the tests and making up homework who cares if they are actually in class excused or not

Do you mean if they are passing the tests and making up homework on their own, or that someone with the school system is having to reteach what was missed?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Einstein 66.5
Northwood 62.5
Gaithersburg 62.1
Quince Orchard 60.2
Kennedy 59
Watkins Mill 58
Magruder 57

For the lowest schools that score under 70% I say that principals are only paid the % of their salary that matches their attendance numbers.

What is also interesting is that the MD report card number doesn't seem to match the data that was leaked to WaPo. So either the problem is getting worse and the MD report is one year behind or there is a little cooking the books going on at a few of the schools mentioned in the article when they submit their numbers to the state.

Might be time for the state or even feds to do some investigating at a few of our local schools. I believe that some funding grants are tied to attendance numbers.

Do you honestly think the principals are the root of the problem?

Not the PP, but yes. But like other principals, they will just be moved into administration

Anonymous wrote:Because an MCPS diploma is supposed to mean something: rigorous studies, not correspondence school.

Do you really believe any regular HS diploma would much nowadays? It may mean something for applications to colleges, nothing else.

As for college applications, they look at much more than the diploma too. So for someone who is completely not qualified, having a MCPS HS diploma is not going to help much.

Because an MCPS diploma is supposed to mean something: rigorous studies, not correspondence school.

sounds like more Type A freaks on here

There is a big difference if kids don't know the material and are failing, but if kids are passing the tests and making up homework who cares if they are actually in class excused or not

Anonymous wrote:

excuses - so ridiculous

No clue which colleges you're referring to - But this isn't the case with my friend's kids. (Mine are still in HS.) One prof wouldn't allow my friend's daughter to make up a quiz she missed when she was sick.

And to the first PP - why would you encourage a kid to run from a problem? Do you skip work b/c you have tension with a colleague or an administrator?

absolutely incredible! And you're the adult/role model? lol

High school is high school. Analogies to paid employment are inapt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

I think there is real tension in high school with all of this

I'll say this again most colleges don't care if you show up to class so why are we trying to micromanage high schoolers.

excuses - so ridiculous

No clue which colleges you're referring to - But this isn't the case with my friend's kids. (Mine are still in HS.) One prof wouldn't allow my friend's daughter to make up a quiz she missed when she was sick.

And to the first PP - why would you encourage a kid to run from a problem? Do you skip work b/c you have tension with a colleague or an administrator?

absolutely incredible! And you're the adult/role model? lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

I think there is real tension in high school with all of this

I'll say this again most colleges don't care if you show up to class so why are we trying to micromanage high schoolers.

That is not correct. It is mostly up to the professors, not the colleges. I don't think the college would have a problem if a professor takes attendance into consideration or not when the final grade is calculated.
Many professors do care, yet many do not.


Also, you have to understand, you pay for your college education. Either side can choose to end that contract.
HS education is different.

Anonymous wrote:Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

I think there is real tension in high school with all of this

I'll say this again most colleges don't care if you show up to class so why are we trying to micromanage high schoolers.

Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Einstein 66.5
Northwood 62.5
Gaithersburg 62.1
Quince Orchard 60.2
Kennedy 59
Watkins Mill 58
Magruder 57

For the lowest schools that score under 70% I say that principals are only paid the % of their salary that matches their attendance numbers.

What is also interesting is that the MD report card number doesn't seem to match the data that was leaked to WaPo. So either the problem is getting worse and the MD report is one year behind or there is a little cooking the books going on at a few of the schools mentioned in the article when they submit their numbers to the state.

Might be time for the state or even feds to do some investigating at a few of our local schools. I believe that some funding grants are tied to attendance numbers.

Do you honestly think the principals are the root of the problem?

Many exacerbate the problem. I get that the sh*t trickles down. Once discipline eroded, attendance followed. These are federal guidelines the states had to push. And then each county tweaked them to fit their culture. So some of the smaller counties, where schools have more autonomy, don't feel the pressure.

Many of these principals are so brainwashed that they don't know their heads from their a**es. They aim to please b/c they like their salaries and pensions. Who doesn't? But the teachers are the ones who are willing to come forward, NOT the administrators.

GOOD leaders worth their paychecks work FOR their subordinates. You are a leader b/c the masses trusted you to do right by them. Or so they thought . . . This hasn't been the case for a very long time now. Leaders lead in fear and promote fear among the teachers. So many either push back as hard as they can (We admire them.) or they leave (We envy them.).

sad state of affairs

Anonymous wrote:

Einstein 66.5
Northwood 62.5
Gaithersburg 62.1
Quince Orchard 60.2
Kennedy 59
Watkins Mill 58
Magruder 57

For the lowest schools that score under 70% I say that principals are only paid the % of their salary that matches their attendance numbers.

What is also interesting is that the MD report card number doesn't seem to match the data that was leaked to WaPo. So either the problem is getting worse and the MD report is one year behind or there is a little cooking the books going on at a few of the schools mentioned in the article when they submit their numbers to the state.

Might be time for the state or even feds to do some investigating at a few of our local schools. I believe that some funding grants are tied to attendance numbers.

Do you honestly think the principals are the root of the problem?