Comments | madmiko: Ah! Perseverance Pays Off!

madmiko

Ah! Perseverance Pays Off!

Feb 20, 2009 09:52

The sweet, sweet feel of victory. I am still riding high on my cloud of smugness this morning. Yesterday, I finally ran my prey to ground at the Parent-Teacher Conferences. Long story is long.

( Parent versus Teacher )

grade, exam, teacher, parent

Comments 15

knittingknots February 20 2009, 17:50:47 UTC

Yay!

I had a college class where the teacher had graded the test with an incorrect key. Took us a while to convince him, but everybody's grades were affected, and we got it done.

But we were adults.

Shame on the teacher, though, for getting on a high horse, and good for you for pursuing it.

madmiko February 20 2009, 18:12:00 UTC

Good for you, too! Even as an adult, it can be difficult to stand up to an authority figure.

blueutopiah February 20 2009, 19:11:34 UTC

I think you need to meet with the principal about this and report this teacher. Also, if some of the other parents go with you this woman will get an earful. I have family and friends in the school system and from what I hear, if enough people complain about her she can't be fired but they will make her life difficult.

I'm so glad you persisted with this. It's nice to see parents who actually believe in their kids.

madmiko February 21 2009, 05:19:11 UTC

I have been wondering if any other parents will ever find out about the possibility that this woman screwed their kid. So, I am definitely planning to put a bug in the ear of the other parents I know.

And I am really glad I managed to do something that made a difference for once. Fighting the schools is freaking hard. And NOW the old man will be backing me up more instead of me having to drag his butt there to show it's not just some whiny Mom who thinks her kid is the shit.

I know my kids better than anyone, and if Flynn felt like he did well, then I thought there was a definite possibility the teacher had screwed up somewhere.

drjmaxwell February 20 2009, 19:58:31 UTC

That's...wow ( ... )

madmiko February 21 2009, 05:26:33 UTC

Obviously, you are a much better teacher than this woman. ^_~

I have to say, I am wondering if the reverse is also true, and there is a significant amount of students who had those questions counted RIGHT when they were actually WRONG. I feel quite positive she will not be making those changes. And when we're talking grades in high school honors courses, we're talking potential money. These are the kids who will be competing for valedictorian and salutatorian and all the scholarship monies that go with them.

drjmaxwell February 21 2009, 17:16:07 UTC

I wouldn't worry about it.

Let p be the proportion of students who knew the right answer, and (1-p) be the proportion of students who just had to guess. Let n be the number of choices for each question. The odds of students who just had to guess getting the right answer is 1/n, so the number of students who got it right when they shouldn't have is (1-p)/n.

If each multiple choice question had 4 options and 70% of the kids knew the right answer, then only 7.5% of students guessed and marked the correct wrong answer. If 80% knew it and there were 5 options, then only 4% guessed and marked the correct wrong answer.

Not exactly a crisis. I probably wouldn't go back and check on that, either.

madmiko February 21 2009, 17:33:53 UTC

Heh heh! My own, much less mathematically correct, way of thinking of it was that of the kids who didn't choose the correct answer, they had a 1 in 3 chance of hitting the jackpot for the wrong answer. So, no, I'm not really worried about it and definitely won't waste my time checking on it.

caitriona695 February 20 2009, 20:52:41 UTC

Did she fill out the scantron key wrong? Good lord. If my whole class missed 10 in a row...duh!

Huzzah for you!

madmiko February 21 2009, 05:47:12 UTC

Thank you! It felt really good to be able to champion my son like that. She sure didn't make it easy because she seemed to think I was wasting her time. But she found out differently.

And yes! If I saw something like that going on with the grades, I would have looked into it. I'm wondering, though, if that means the kids who got the answer wrong had it counted right? It really seems like it would have resulted in the lower half of the class doing much better and the better half of the class looking like they screwed up. Which should be a tip-off to a teacher who pays attention to her students and gives half a damn.

patty530 February 21 2009, 13:51:02 UTC

My Hero! I don't have a teaching degree but like you pointed out, we know our kids better than anyone. I have had to fight the school more than once. Problem there is Weed is a small school system and the teachers tend to stay around for a long time. Some that I had to "fight", I had as teachers when I was in school. I think they take you less serious when that happens ( ... )

madmiko February 21 2009, 15:47:22 UTC

Heh heh! Not at all! I love to see someone else passionate about their kids and about doing what's best for them.

It sounds like you have a wonderful option there with the Charter School. I would LOVE to send my kids to a a school like that.