Wow...DD's HS team seems to be struggling academically

[maksoftball]

This is a relatively new concept to me... Do I understand it correctly, now in school, you get to take a test, and if you're not satisfied with your grade, you have the option of retaking the test? This is how my DD and DS have explained it to me. WTF?! You get a redo? If this were around 40 years ago I'd have had NO problem with school.

IKR?! I think a lot of teachers agree with your sentiment, but it's the district policy to allow students to retake a failed test for a maximum grade of a 70 (although there are some tests that are an exception to this rule). So to a point, it is okay because they can't retake it to replace with an A...especially if they failed to study for the test the first time, and thus having more time to study later (procrastination being reinforced, right? Sigh) and make a very high grade. But yeah, I still don't agree with being allowed to retake it. Asking for extra credit work is the best route, IMO...this is something that teachers rarely give or allow. I don't get that either.

Oh and our district has something called "grade repair"...if you have a 70 or below in a class, you go to tutorials to get help. I don't know how that works (nor do I wish to...but unfortunately, I think I will learn when my son hits high school next year LOL). Somehow, this will help you "repair" your failing grade.

Bottom line is - you will end up doing extra work/wasting MORE time repairing your failing grade than you would if you actually did the work/study the first time around!! Who'd have thought of that?!

 

[maksoftball]

Mak - are these the same lazy, disinterested kids who refused to properly celebrate your dd's titanic homerun about a week ago??!!!

Yes...most of them. The rest are on JV.

 

[InsidePitch]

DD is only a sophomore but I have not heard of any being academically ineligible. The AD told me she has had a few parents wanting to pull kids from teams because of grades. She told me she doesn't let them quit but requires them to do homework during practice until the grade is pulled up. They can then resume practicing. They don't want kids quitting and getting that mindset.

 

[rdbass]

Originally Posted by 29dad
Mak - are these the same lazy, disinterested kids who refused to properly celebrate your dd's titanic homerun about a week ago??

Coach went ballistic on the team yesterday. 24 out of 28 players are "failing" by her standards ]

Maybe some of the players didn't know what a HR was.....

 

[JJsqueeze]

Good on the coach for ripping them a new one for academics. I don't know how pervasive this laziness is, each generation seems to think the next is a bunch of lazy good for nothing moochers. But look at what the baby boomers did with the technology boom in the 80s and 90s. And look at what Gen X did with the web.

That being said, this next generation truly is a lazy bunch and has had the world handed to them and will never amount to anything.

 

[riseball]

If you peruse the social media accounts of student-athletes with low grades more often you will find that their priorities are not aligned properly. As a TB coach I will accept "homework" as a valid reason for missing practice once maybe twice then you are done.

 

[NorthMS]

This is a relatively new concept to me... Do I understand it correctly, now in school, you take a test, and if you're not satisfied with your grade, you have the option of retaking the test? This is how my DD and DS have explained it to me. WTF?! You get a redo? If this were around 40 years ago I'd have had NO problem with school.

This is the 1st year in Common Core in our area. The math part is absolutely ridiculous. That's a whole different thread.

My DD1's school feels that if the whole class doesn't do well on a test, the teachers didn't teach it well. They acknowledge that the teachers are learning this new math as well. A couple times this semester, a "make up" test was given. This has only been in math.

 

[BobInMadison]

We need to be fair in our evaluations of the American public schools.

We read about the PISA tests, where Americans are supposedly doing worse than otehr developed nations. However, the American HS system is very different from other developed nations, as far as who goes to the HS instead of the Realschule or whatever.

I've seen results that adjusted the PISA tests by socio-economic factors, etc. The ADJUSTED results show the US with PISA scores that outdo just about anywhere in Europe, except for Finland. As a lark, someone decided to find a Finnish community in the US for comparison, and found some small town in UP Michigan, where the Finnish-American students actually outperformed the average Finn.

In late 2013 the company I worked for relocated its R&D to Germany. I was given the option of either moving to Germany, or else taking a severance check.

There were a LOT of Germans in that company. EVERY SINGLE ONE of them told me not to put my kids in the German schools. One German even took a demotion in the company in order to keep his kids in the Wisconsin schools, rather than put his German-speaking kids in German schools.

Not to mention, softball would be problematic, although the ptiching coach for the German National Junior Softball Team agreed to put DD #3 on her 16U team, and give DD #3 pitching lessons. (However, she would've had to travel as far as 630 km for league games. Wow.)

Yes, my career took a bit of a hit to stay in the US, and a lot of people complain about the Madison, WI school system, but I would rather have my kids in school in Wisconsin than in Germany.

 

[sbmom19]

We have PowerSchool here. I can check DD's grades anytime from any internet supported device. Not that I need to - she currently has a 3.9 GPA. Glad to see that the coach has high standards like ours does. State eligibility here is a 2.0 GPA which is crazy but our coach has his own requirement of no D's or F's.

 

[chinamigarden]

My dds softball team was an All State Academic team last year. I have to say the kids in our school who are in sports, tend to do well at the academics as well. The district has a very strict stance on academics and if your class average slips you are not eligible to play until it is back up. When I was in school it was only looked at at the card markings, now its every week.