D-8: Exempt from EOCs and Finals

Exempt from EOCs

Right now, students in Texas need to pass 5 end of course (EOC) tests to graduate: biology, algebra I, English 1, English 2, and U.S. History.  The current senior class - the class of 2015 - was the first class I taught as sophomores in the 2012-2013 school year.  It is also the first class to graduate entirely on the new standardized testing requirements.  The year I started teaching, they changed the requirements from 15 (!) to 5 tests.  Despite offering remedial tutoring, test prep classes during the school day, multiple retest opportunities, and lots of encouragement (and a little bribery...pizza, mostly), we still have seniors getting ready to graduate who have passed all their classes but have failed one or more EOCs.  

There are a LOT of students statewide for whom this applies...and parents are understandably upset.  Lawsuit-upset.  So this past week Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill allowing these students the opportunity to earn their diploma without passing one or two EOCs.  On the school end, we must form a committee to discuss with the student and his or her family whether or not we will allow him or her to graduate without passing the tests, and under what circumstances.  

We are hampered by the fact that we will not receive scores from this spring's tests until June - well after graduation.  Do we stop the students from walking and then later find out they passed and should have walked? Of course not.  But for many of our students, walking across the stage is the important part...actually getting the diploma is less so.

Next week, I, along with many other teachers, will sit down with an administrator, the student, his parents, and other teachers in my subject and decide if he gets the option to graduate.  The state requires they do something - a portfolio, project, extra remedial work, etc - to "prove" their desire to graduate. Unfortunately, several of our students who were unable to pass dropped out, believing they wouldn't get a diploma.  

When our committee considers whether or not to give them another opportunity for a diploma, we consider their attendance, attitude (Did they come to the summer retest days? Did they hide in the bathroom when we tried to pull them from class for tutoring?), and class work (apparently AP classes can be taken into account, though rarely are these AP students).  While most students will get the green light to walk - and complete other requirements in order to obtain the actual diploma - it's still a scary thing to have the weight of graduation in our hands. 

Exempt from Finals

Last year our school offered final exam exemptions for good attendance to our seniors, and attendance went up significantly.  This year, administration decided to allow exemptions for all grades. Starting on a given day (in this case it was March 2, after flu season was basically over), students were allowed two absences for the remainder of the year.  If they were absent no more than two times, they had the option to exempt two of their final exams.  They still have to come that day, but they can sit and read a book quietly and skip the test.

One of my fellow teachers shared with me a conversation she overheard in one of her pre-AP classes. One student was assuring another that being "exempt" meant you got a free 100 on your final.  The teacher stepped in, and explained two things: that "exempt" means there's no score entered, so the three grading period grades averaged together is their semester grade, and that they could only claim an exemption if they were passing that class.  She told me one student looked horrified; the girl said the only reason she was coming to school was for the exemptions, but apparently is not passing the classes for which she intended to use them.  I suppose if I had a 60% average, I'd welcome a free 100% on my final to bump my exam grade...but obviously an exemption is a reward, not a cop-out.  Silly students.

Unexcused Absences

Speaking of attendance, a father's letter to his children's principal has been making the viral rounds this week.  He took his kids to Boston for several days to see him run in the Boston Marathon and walk the Freedom Trail, among other activities.  The family received a letter from the school district notifying them of the recorded absences. The principal's letter included this passage which offended him:

"I want you to be aware that the Abington School District does not recognize family trips as an excused absence, regardless of the activities involved in the trip...The dates that the children were absent were recorded as unexcused." (SOURCE)

The father wrote a letter back explaining the educational value of the trip, and parenting blogs and social media went nuts defending him.  While I do not begrudge him and his family a wonderful trip (I love Boston, and can't wait to take my children there), I hate the flak the school district is getting for upholding their policy - and for a viral response to what is most likely a form letter sent to every parent whose student has X number of absences.  

While obviously I don't know the policies of Abingdon School District, I know our school's policies, and I've heard my kids moan about what constitutes "unexcused" when it comes to spring exemptions.  School events (games, academic competitions, stock shows) do NOT count against exemptions. The first absence with a doctor's note does not count against exemptions. But the second and third one do count against exemptions, even if they are technically "excused."

The whole point of exemptions, from the school's end, is to keep kids in school. Our funding is tied to the percentage of students we have present that day.  Higher attendance = more money. More money = more resources. More resources = better school for your kids. Bonus, kids in school tend to get better grades than kids with attendance problems. I know in the past we've tried incentives for attendance - giving away iPods, for example, or gift cards to Walmart or the local diner.

How Average Daily Attendance is calculated in Texas for funding purposes.

SOURCE

When students miss a certain number of periods, they are assigned "clock hours," to be served with teachers before or after school in tutorials, or on Saturday mornings.  They pay for their clock hours too - up to $50 total.  Without the clock hours, they do not get credit for the class and have to make it up in summer school or as an extra online class the following term.  Right now, we have nearly 15% of the school with some number of clock hours assigned, and several haven't served any of them; they are often already failing the class and will have to make it up anyway, so they don't see any point in coming to school more than they have to.  Do students learn as much in clock hours as they would if they were actually in class? Of course not.  But the message gets across: be in school.  

While I understand that the father wants the principal to know that the family trip was valuable, parents should also know that the school is only doing its job by trying to ensure kids are in school as much as possible.  Letters like the Abingdon principal sent home are not designed for the parents who take their kids on Great American tours; they're for parents whose kids get off the bus at school and into a friend's car to smoke weed in the Dairy Queen parking lot (true story), or for the kid who doesn't get up early enough to catch the bus because he closes at work (true story), or for the kid who fudges his age to work extra hours to earn money to buy food for his siblings (true story).  But an overworked administrator cannot - and should not - have to decide which absence qualifies as "educational" and therefore should be "excused."  The principal was just doing her job; I hate that she's getting ripped apart by the better-knowing internet community. While the father found the language of the letter "hostile," he has to remember that it's not really written to him...instead I think the "hostile" language shows how serious the school is about keeping their students in school.

If you want to go on another rant, read this article about giving your children an unfair advantage by reading to them. Obviously this is the problem the Abingdon father is having - he's given his children too much advantage over their non-educational-family-vakay peers!  [She said sarcastically - it blows my mind people think like this!] Actual professors think this: 

“I don’t think parents reading their children bedtime stories should constantly have in their minds the way that they are unfairly disadvantaging other people’s children, but I think they should have that thought occasionally."

Happy Friday, y'all.