Modified grades

Depends on whether the test is measuring the performance or not.

It could very well be that despite good attendance and effort, that she is learning “D-” amount of material. How has she been preparing for these tests? (What grade is she in?)

If the test is not measuring her knowledge, then the tests would need to be modified differently. Howe are they modified now?

I guess I would be a whole lot more concerned about whether she was learning anything, as opposed to whether her test grades were good. If you change her test grades, that’ll be nice — she can be just one more shuffled-through-the-system kiddo who thinks that if things get hard, somebody will change the standards — because hey, it’s lnot like we expect her to *learn* anything. [Which translates into: that’s because I’m too stupid.]

If this is one of those deals where the teacher reads the text in class, and gives out the pre-packaged multiple guess tests, and they’re “modified” by, say, eliminating one of the wrong choices so the LD student just has better odds at getting a better grade — *no* change that has anything to do with better measuring what s/he knows, then I’d figure this is a stupid course that is a sentence to be served and yes, I’d ask for modifying the grades, too. I’d be just as tempted to take it out of her schedule and let her go be a library assistant or somethign wehre she could actually learn soemthing useful & feel like she was making a contribution instead of parking in a chair and probably believing (wrongly) that everybody else in there was learning something.

The student is in 9th grade. the IEP states: How does the disability affect progress in the cirriculum area(s). She has specific LD which impact all areas of academic learning. New concepts which require multiple layers or steps will be difficult for her to remember (science concepts) Therefors, she will need the continual development of compensatory strategies to internalize new information in an organized and efficient way.
What types of accomdations does the student need to mkae effective progress: graphic organizers,access to study guides,word banks for test when appropiate,aral responses and explanation to clarify learning,visuals,modified tests, including templates for essays, providing overviews of the big picutre.

I feel she is doing her best, but then again, she is 15 who thinks she is going on 20. Over all she feels she just can not keep up. I have put a call into the Learning Center teacher who she see’s for academic support, and I am wating to hear from her. I most certainly do not want her grade modified if she is learning nothing, I have always told her that as long is she is giving it her best shot, and grade is only a letter. Seeing that she is in high school, and would like to think about college, she is really feeling the effects of getting a low grade because she is failing taking the tests. I will hopefully have shed some light on this tomorrow when I speak with the L.C. teacher.

I was sorta hoping it was a grade when credits didn’t matter… but that’s why I asked.

Are they actually supplying and teaching her to use those graphic organizers and all that stuff? (Good thing I sit when I’m at the computer — if you say yes, it’ll be a bit of a shock.)

And the tests — do they relate to her strategies, etc? I just know that an awful lot of “science tests” are verbal swamps of tangled rhetoric that leave students with LDs in the lurch.

Unless they’ve got the resources & expertise to do the stuff in the IEP (as far as all those compensating strategies go), which very few schools do, then you’ve got a really good case for getting the grades modified ‘cause she shouldn’t be penalized for their lack of resoruces. If they *do* have teachers making that extra stuff, then see if they can make an extra test, too; one that tests the concepts in a way that she can show what she knows.

WHat is she looking towards for college? HOw does she do in her other courses, and are they “college prep?” I work at a college — people who really want that college education can usually get it. (If you’re in ILlinois, come on by :-))

I look at that list of modifications and have that old sinking feeling.

Half of these are things that should be *standard* in the classroom: oral explanations (hey, it’s called teaching), graphic organizers where appropriate (more teaching), visuals (an absolute necessity in science), the big picture (for Heaven’s sake, that’s what science is all about!!)

Then there are the practicalities of teaching a high school class; teachers are expected to be doing five different and self-contradictory things at once already, and I often wish that people demanding that the teacher follow a complex IEP would come and work as a substitute in the school for a few days and then, once they know what the job entails, explain exactly where the thirty-hour day is supposed to come from.

A lot of teachers in a lot of high schools have given up teaching (oral discussion, visuals, hands-on, big picture) in favour of management (sit quietly and pass mountains of paper). This is counterproductive for learning, but keeps the neat quiet atmosphere and the legal paper trail desired by many administrators and a lot of parents. It is not always the teachers’ fault — they are doing what they have been trained and ordered to do — but it is an awful waste. No wonder kids are graduating with four years of credits and no knowledge whatever of what they were supposedly taught.

It would be nice if you could sit down with the teacher and see if together you can find ways these ideas could be integrated into the classroom, not as a separate full-time job teaching one student differently, but as general teaching tools that are good for everyone. The teacher might welcome a way out of the paper treadmill, you never know.

Well, the L.C. teacher left me a message on the answering machine. She said she spoke with my daughter about her concerns with her D-, and said that she will also be checking with the teacher to make sure that He is helping/giving her what the IEP askes for. Thank goodness she was diagonised with dyslexia at a young age, and thefore has had L.C. support all these years. She is in college prep 1 for all her classes, and is doing really good in those, A- english, B+ Math, and so forth, just Science that is giving her trouble, which it always has. Having an IEP all these years has made her aware of her learning style, and taught her how to advocate for herself. Like I said, grades are only a letter, and all I really care about is that she is learning something. Her comment to me was, I go to class everyday, do all my work plus all my homework, never cause any trouble, (he doesn’t allow extra credit), and kids that are disruptive, cut class, pass in everything late, get a C if not better. I told her,
” that is a reality of life”, and all you can do is roll with the punches, do the best you can, and in the end, you will truley be the winner.

Yea, it sounds like since she isn’t good at bulimic learning (stuff it in, regurgitate it back on the paper) that she gets to suffer the consequences.

I’d encourage her to **try** to keep an open mind about Science — a good teacher makes all the difference. (For me, it was History that I had to learn wasn’t nearly as awful as my teachers made it, for similar reasons.)