How am I suppose to know...

[hbridge]

How in the world am I suppose to know how my child is doing in school when NOTHING ever comes home? DC has math homework every night, but that is a separate teacher. Otherwise I have yet to see a test, quiz, or graded paper! This is the third year in a row that NOTHING is sent home! How are we suppose to work on study skills or even encourage studying at all when we have NO IDEA how the child is doing? Even the report cards are worthless with M,P,I system. I've met with the teacher and she essentially stated an M is equal to an A and a P represents anywhere from an A- to a C, and an I represents a D or F... So we have a report card with only P's (progressing) Um, okay so how is my child ACTUALLY doing? Every time I meet with the teacher she says she will send graded work home, but doesn't want to send it in the backpack because she is afraid DC will feel bad or a classmate will tease! So you don't send it home and we have no idea that DC has actually gotten every question wrong on three social study quizzes over 3 months! That is ALL I have actually received this entire year, three bombed social studies quizzes hand delivered during a conference! As we are struggling to find a study method that works...

I am so DONE with this school. Communication is horrible. They keep saying how "great DC is doing"! If these are grades indicative of work, DC is NOT doing well at all!

Okay, rant over! Now to try to calm done and enjoy my kids...

[anonomom]

Oh, that would make me nuts! We at least get some information home, though for some reason we never find out how DD does on tests.

[infocrazy]

We do get work home, but we have the same thing with numbers. They don't actually translate to letter grades but very difficult to get a true picture of how they are doing. DS1 has some attention/calculation issues on top of that so it makes it VERY frustrating. His teacher is a big stickler on following the process and a few other things. For example, in Math if he has the right answer but doesn't follow the method, it is wrong. Annoying. Also, he got a bad score in a writing exercise because he chose to write about the plane ride to FL instead of the FL trip. I get there is more to write about for the whole trip but...I don't know.

I think DS is doing a whole lot better than the last conference...but I expect to come out of the conference in a few weeks very down about his progress instead of up. Frustrating.

[KrisM]

We get a lot of feedback. It's great. However, I just talked to my neighbor who says it all changes in middle school. Everything is done on the computer and nothing comes home. Grades do, but she has no idea what questions her son is getting wrong or why. She can't help because she doesn't know what's going on at all. She says the teachers like it because they don't have to grade tests anymore because it's automatic on the computer. She hates it because of lack of any feedback. I am not looking forward to that.

[KpbS]

I've never heard of anything so crazy!! We get all of the week's papers on Friday afternoon (graded) and our teachers periodically update grades (electronically) with each specific assignment/test individually labeled and a number grade, with a corresponding letter grade. That would make me totally nuts. I've never heard of a grading system like M/P/I beyond Kindergarten or maybe 1st grade. I would definitely be looking for a different school.

[JBaxter]

We get a weekly communication folder and a email every monday. I agree thats crazy.

[hbridge]

I would definitely be looking for a different school.

Unfortunately, we don't have too many options for a "different school". Every year the teachers tells me that they will send everything home and then they don't! They seem amazed that I want to see the info... Thankfully, DC moves on at the end of this school year, but I feel like we have lost three years of study skills!

[hellokitty]

Wow, that's pretty bad! If this is the trend for all of the teachers of the school, quite honestly, I'd be making an appt with the principal and expressing my concern. I've had varying experiences with teacher communication with my kids, but it has been teacher-specific issues. It sounds as if this is a school issue, not just an individual teacher issue.

[hbridge]

I actually tried to get it put in DC's IEP that all tests and quizzes would come home for parent review (to be sent back if requested) and it was denied because I was told it wasn't possible for "everything" to come home. I met with DC's teacher before the school year started and asked for everything to be sent home and was essentially told it would not be a problem and still nothing. At this point, it's not worth fighting with the school since DC will be moving to a different school for the next grade. HOWEVER, if this continues, I will start making waves. Also, if I get any more frustrated I will go straight to the administration.

The saddest thing is when I told the teacher to let me know how DC did on a spelling test since we were trying a new study method and after four weeks she let me know that the new method wasn't working. So that was four spelling tests completely bombed simply because the teacher didn't answer my multiple requests for information. Of course, I assumed that all was well. I was actually livid since I had no way of knowing and even had a meeting with her during this time and she didn't have the spelling information to show me.

At our last meeting she seemed to finally understand what I was telling her, but nothing further has come home in the last three weeks so I am not hopeful...

[boolady]

I'm sorry, OP. I would not be okay with that, either. DD brings home her classwork and any quizzes from the day before every single night in her homework folder. Every Monday, she brings home her packet of tests from the previous week-- spelling and grammar test, math facts test, reading review, etc. We have to initial her test packet and send it back. I have been pleasantly surprised with how much work we get to see on a weekly/daily basis. While I think I would be fine if her teacher didn't send every single piece of work home, I wouldn't be okay with what you're dealing with. Somewhere in the middle is certainly reasonable, and if my DD was struggling with a subject and/or study habits, I would expect communication about that. You're not asking for the world, IMHO. I hope you can get this resolved.

[squimp]

Yes that is very frustrating! We have a weekly folder and I see all the tests and quizzes. Not a tom of substantive feedback form the teacher but I definitely know where DD stands.

[123LuckyMom]

This is terrible!!! I don't know if you're ever available during school hours, but if it were me and I had tried as you have to speak with the teacher and the administration, I'd start physically showing up at the school every Friday to collect the paperwork. If it wasn't available I'd say, "oh, okay. I'll come back on Monday morning to get it." Then on Monday I'd tell her I'd be back again every Friday and to please have a folder ready.