Just pass them anyway

I was the gen ed teacher for an ARD (IEP meeting) today where the student had gotten 90s in all his classes. Except mine, where he had a 28 (5th social studies). I have no idea how he’s getting such high grades, the kid reads at a 1st grade level and his writing is completely illegible. He doesn’t understand basic ELA concepts.

Why a 28? Because he waits until the last minute to complete assignments, doesn’t watch the lesson, and guesses on the quizzes (I use a lot of Google Forms because of the ease of importing grades).

I was told privately by an admin that I should give my SPED students at least a 70 because the paperwork and processes for dealing with a failing student is more than I need to worry about. I’m seeing red about this. It is doing these kids a disservice to just pass them along because you don’t want to deal with fucking paperwork. They’re not learning anything by it, and they’re not going to get a pass on the 8th grade STAAR when they don’t know the material.

If teachers did this with my kid, I’d be livid. My own 8th grader (also a SPED student) is currently failing several classes because he doesn’t do his work. Ya know what I do? I get on his case and make him do it. I know my kid is smart and capable of the work, he chooses not to do it, and gets graded accordingly. Then he loses privileges until he gets his grade up because that’s how he learns to do his work.

Stop coddling these kids because it’s too much work to do right by them. And for sure as hell don’t reprimand the one teacher who is trying to teach them responsibility.

Submitted April 07, 2022 at 09:13PM by SquishySpark https://ift.tt/RQTifLZ