I would have my child contact the teacher, ask if there’s anything missing assignments, or anything can be submitted additionally or retake to help with the poor grade before quarter end.

Do the teachers give out a syllabus at the beginning of the year? Our middle school teachers do. I never look at them unless there is an issue, but usually it was either emailed to me or it is in my kid’s folder or Google classroom for that class.

Between that and talking to your son, it will probably be easy to figure out.

Sounds like you are talking about an either a music class, PE, or maybe art. At our middle school, at least, something would generally be seriously wrong if a kid was “almost failing” any of those. Likely a behavioral issue of some kind - talking and not paying attention in class, total lack of effort, lack of bringing correct supplies, forgetting instrument or correct clothing or shoes, not attending required music concert with no valid excuse. Stuff like that. Especially if your son is otherwise a good student.

Have you spoken with your child to find out what is happening? Reading through the thread I don’t see any mention of your child providing feedback on the grade. You need to ask your child first and then talk to the Teacher. And don’t be surprised when the Teacher presents different information from what your kid presents.

Your kid scored low because they performed poorly on assessments. It’s as simple as that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

What did you do when first quarter grades came and this class was magically missing a grade?

This. What was his first quarter grade?

OP here.

The school where my kid attends only has a semester grading system and is not located in the DMV.

You didn't answer any questions about marks on in class work, etc. What did he DO all semester?

I would not have expected the teacher to have reached out to you. I do think it’s fine to contact the teacher.

I also think that middle school is where kids start to learn to advocate for themselves so I would not expect a middle schooler to be able to effectively talk to the teacher. And you wouldn’t be satisfied with the information you got if you went this route. So you shouldn’t set your kid up to fail by expecting them to handle it. It’s too big of an issue.

One thing I will say is that I don’t know what you’ll hear from the teacher and it may not match what your child has told you. So be prepared for that. What you said doesn’t make a lot of sense and it seems like there are missing pieces of information.

Last thing. When you contact the teacher be sure you know what your goal is. Do you want a do over? - unlikely to happen. Do you want to understand what went wrong - both with the learning and with the fact that both you and your child were seemingly woefully ignorant of problems? May be helpful but you can’t change the past so it’s usefulness might be limited. Do you want to know how to get back on track and be successful for next semester - to me this would be most important and I’d want to know how to get interim glimpses of proficiency throughout the rest of the year so you know if you need to assist your child with securing interventions if necessary.

Personally I would contact the teacher to figure out how to be successful moving forward, but with full knowledge that I might not have gotten the whole story from my kids.

Anonymous wrote:Does your kid have a phone? Maybe they spent the classes playing on their phone. Teachers shouldn’t be obligated to give good grades in that case, even if the class is usually easy to do well in.

+1

Tell your kid to come clean before you go running to the teacher. Then ask the teacher what needs to be done and work with your kid on it.

Kid probably slacked off cause it was an easy class and teacher took notice.

I mean who cares? It's an elective in .middle school that will not affect his future in any way. Talk to your kid and get the truth. It's almost assuredly a kid issue, not a teacher issue.

What is the class? Some electives will have a large “behavioral” or “effort” component (art, PE etc) so that could be a factor.

Sometimes doing poorly on 1-2 projects over the semester could easily tank a grade, even at this age. Or sometimes kids miss some smaller ongoing task & it adds up (this happened to my DS in a class with some “weekly journal updates” type assignments even though he did well on tests).

At this age, your kid almost certainly knows the answer to this - what does he say? Start from there.

Does your kid have a phone? Maybe they spent the classes playing on their phone. Teachers shouldn’t be obligated to give good grades in that case, even if the class is usually easy to do well in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

What did you do when first quarter grades came and this class was magically missing a grade?

This. What was his first quarter grade?

OP here.

The school where my kid attends only has a semester grading system and is not located in the DMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

What did you do when first quarter grades came and this class was magically missing a grade?

Great question.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

What did you do when first quarter grades came and this class was magically missing a grade?

This. What was his first quarter grade?

Anonymous wrote:Now that your child knows their grade, what do they say? Presumably, they knew how they were doing on each assignment and whether they were putting effort into the class.

Yes, OP.

There had to be something tangible done during the semester. What does your child say about in class work? Did dc complete assignments and turn things in?

I doubt there was no feedback all semester.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is in middle school and should be checking their grades online. Furthermore, it is 2025 parents also have 24/7 access to their kid's grades.

OP here.

There are no grades for this class except the final grade. In all my kid’s various classes the teacher will post what was done in class for that day. The only teacher who hasn’t posted anything throughout the semester is the elective’s teacher.

This doesn’t make sense. So…what is being graded? How does the teacher come up with the “final grade” Have you seen the syllabus? There had to something input that calculates their final grade, whether that’s daily participation points, class work grades, discussion points, small group assignments, etc. There is no way this class has zero grades other than one final test.

You need to ask to see the syllabus, find out how your child’s grade was calculated, and what their deficiencies have been. No, I don’t expect middle school teachers to contact parents if their child is struggling. It’s up the the parents to be monitoring their grade and progress. But to do that, the teacher needs to be updating points and grade throughout the semester. If the teacher didn’t do that, then yes, I’d ask if that could be done regularly for next quarter (because they are supposed to do this)

Exactly! That’s why I’m upset.

For every other class the teachers have OCD with the information that’s provided to the students and parents/guardians. I even get msgs when my kid wins in Kahoot or any other minor achievement.

What did you do when first quarter grades came and this class was magically missing a grade?