Science Department Concerns about Redesign

Science Department Concerns for the Redesign Team to Address

(discussed by the Science department on March 10, 2011)

Compiled by Paula Nottingham – Co-chair

Students Dropping Classes after 2-weeks into the course.  I, Ms. Nottingham, have had 2 seniors dropped from my Anatomy and Physiology course in the past month because they did NOT want to do the work & "my class was hurting their GPA."  Other failing students have been shuffled from one teacher to another.  What does that say about the teacher's class who the student was switched into?  Plus, it seems as though the lower level courses (which were already overflowing at the beginning of the school year) become too full to move as the year progresses or there are NO seats for the “new” students to sit in. 

We know that we want to get more students to graduate, but are we not setting them up for failure by allowing them to drop?  In college, students with Federal, State, and/or Scholarship may have to REPAY their grants/scholarships if they drop below the minimum number of required full-time credits.  They may also be ineligible for these funds the following year.  The students need to know that if they decide to take a class, that there will be NO schedule changes, especially because they simply do not want to do the required work or because of their EXCESSIVE absences.

Back in the day when most of us were in high school, were you allowed to drop a class because you just didn't want to do the work?  Would your parents let you drop?  Were you allowed to quit something you started because of laziness or absenteeism?  Enough said.

This DISTRICT needs to address the policy for Athletes

We understand that sports keep troublesome students off the street and out of other problems, but begging 2+ teachers to change grades (because the student is failing 4 or more classes) to allow a student to play a sport is UNACCEPTABLE!  For us, it is always the same issue, the student is MORE than capable of doing the work, they simply just don’t try, they are too lazy, or they simply do not come to the class. 

Back in the day when most of us were in high school, were you allowed to play sports if you did not hold a C+ average (75% or 2.5 GPA)?  Enough said.

The Mandatory 50s Policy

All of us in the department would be happy seeing this policy removed.  However, we are willing to compromise on ONE marking period.  Plus, we would like the discretion to use the 50 policy for any marking period that a student has a major crisis (e.g. parent/sibling dying, etc.).  We would like this policy to only occur for students who do NOT have more than 5 absences in the "50" marking period.

Back in the day when most of us were in high school, do you remember getting points/grades for doing nothing?  …for being absent everyday?  Enough said.

What if 20+% of the students are FAILING every teacher?  Are you going to terminate everyone?

When we have a student who is failing with a grade much less than 50%, the student is typically failing everything.  We call the parents numerous times and get the same excuses (yes - excuses).  We almost NEVER see a change in the child's attitude/work performance and somehow that's our fault.  We know other teachers have the same issues.  There is 20-30% of the student population who we are NEVER going to see improvement because their parents care more about them having cell phones and I-pods visible than they care about their child doing work in our classes.  You really need to think about the termination policy or else there might be NO core teachers available to teach.