Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[Poohforyou]

The school refuses to read the test and apply any numerical value to it. The teacher might be willing to read the exam and verbally give us an opinion on it, but that's all.

They don't seem to upset that my DD failed the exam and I was told outright by the assistant principle who heads Advanced Learning at her school that the teachers do not teach the classes to the exams. Taking the AP exam is voluntary and many parents have complained in the past that too much time is spent teaching to the exam rather than teaching a class at a higher level to help prepare for college. I genuinely don't understand why a class titled "Advanced Placement ..." isn't taught, at least in part, to pass the AP exam and obtain that advanced placement credit in college. It's "Advanced PLACEMENT" not "Advanced PREPARATION". I dug up results from previous years and her high school's passing rate (3 or more on AP exams) is poor compared to 2 of the other 3 high schools in the district. My DD is taking 3 AP classes this year (AP Environmental Studies, AP French (5th year French) and AP Calculus AB) but I don't know how many exams she will take given the how much the school values the exams.

I know that the A will look good on her transcript and we're just going to be happy with that. Unfortunately, our school district does not weigh Honors or AP classes. Every "A" is the same.

Wow, that's all kinds of crazy. How are students supposed to be encouraged to push themselves to take more difficult classes if they aren't weighted more than regular classes?

I'd also be disturbed that the school isn't trying to prepare students better for the exams. College board does a really good job outlining the content that needs to be covered. There's a lot of room for building a class around that without exclusively teaching to the test.

 

[Aliceacc]

Just a quick suggestion from a mom of the Class of 2016:

If anyone's child is an international adoptee, please, right now, begin the process of getting him/her a passport or a Certificate of Citizenship. (Passport is much cheaper, but CC won't have to be renewed.)

We all know that our kids are citizens. But you'll need proof to fill out the FAFSA. And the ONLY proof the FAFSA will accept is either a CC or a passport.

 

[scottmel]

I've followed this thread on and off since last year. DD finished her college touring in August. We only visited around 8 over the past year. Her immediate must have is city urban and honestly they are hard to come by within a reasonable distance from home. She doesn't want to be more than 3 hours. We have stretched that time by a few hours on some....Pitt, Duquense, Ohio State, George Mason in Va, Case Western in Ohio and Fordham in NYC. On a few of them we waived FAFSA in hope of a quicker decision and a positive one at that....She wanted to be applied before school began so she didn't have to stress over it. Feels weird to be wrapped up! But so many schools kept preaching APPLY NOW so she did!

 

[laughinplace199]

I've followed this thread on and off since last year. DD finished her college touring in August. We only visited around 8 over the past year. Her immediate must have is city urban and honestly they are hard to come by within a reasonable distance from home. She doesn't want to be more than 3 hours. We have stretched that time by a few hours on some....Pitt, Duquense, Ohio State, George Mason in Va, Case Western in Ohio and Fordham in NYC. On a few of them we waived FAFSA in hope of a quicker decision and a positive one at that....She wanted to be applied before school began so she didn't have to stress over it. Feels weird to be wrapped up! But so many schools kept preaching APPLY NOW so she did!

Wow - that's great that you are done! We have visited a lot of schools with DD and have one more (local one) to go. I can't wait for all her applications to be in.

Did your DD do interviews with the schools she's applying to?

 

[scottmel]

Wow - that's great that you are done! We have visited a lot of schools with DD and have one more (local one) to go. I can't wait for all her applications to be in.

Did your DD do interviews with the schools she's applying to?

Whenever we made the original tour appointment she met with the head of the department in which she is interested in. Although they have nothing to do with admissions it helped her to identify which schools had a stronger program. She learned things she wouldn't have otherwise known. A few of the schools do a local interview here in our hometown that alumni conduct. Several schools due to size do not do admission interviews. Sort of depending on the school. But we took care of whatever we could during the initial tour.

 

[laughinplace199]

Whenever we made the original tour appointment she met with the head of the department in which she is interested in. Although they have nothing to do with admissions it helped her to identify which schools had a stronger program. She learned things she wouldn't have otherwise known. A few of the schools do a local interview here in our hometown that alumni conduct. Several schools due to size do not do admission interviews. Sort of depending on the school. But we took care of whatever we could during the initial tour.

That's great. You guys are really on top of things! DD didn't want to do any interviews until she had toured the schools and figured out of she wanted to apply or not. So now we are trying to pare down the list to 8-10 schools. She really needs to start figuring out if she wants to interview and where!

 

[scottmel]

That's great. You guys are really on top of things! DD didn't want to do any interviews until she had toured the schools and figured out of she wanted to apply or not. So now we are trying to pare down the list to 8-10 schools. She really needs to start figuring out if she wants to interview and where!

It was a little easier for us bc dd pretty set on where she wants to go. She is pretty shy so I strongly encouraged all those interviews just to get practice. She did much better as time progressed with them. She certainly didn't need to meet at every college a director but for her it gave confidence boost bc all soooo nice. Slow summer I guess for them . It's fun making that final list!! Ours only had 3 on it I had to push for few more

 

[Poohforyou]

Just a quick suggestion from a mom of the Class of 2016:

If anyone's child is an international adoptee, please, right now, begin the process of getting him/her a passport or a Certificate of Citizenship. (Passport is much cheaper, but CC won't have to be renewed.)

We all know that our kids are citizens. But you'll need proof to fill out the FAFSA. And the ONLY proof the FAFSA will accept is either a CC or a passport.

Thanks for your post. I remembered reading something about a passport for internationally adopted children. My dd is,adopted from China. We just renewed her passport so she's good for another 10 years.

 

[okeydokey]

I am gobsmacked.

I ordered my daughter's written portion of her failed Language and Composition AP exam and I requested that her teacher from last year score it for me. There is a website that helps you predict what your score will be on the exam when you enter scores from pretests and such. My plan was to have her teacher "score" her written exam and then I would enter that score into the website and then see what the minimum score from the multiple choice would be to score her a "3" on the AP. if that number is ridiculously low, I was going to pay for a hand rescore on the MC portion.

The head of the department just emailed me to tell me that they refuse to score her written exam. The assistant principal that heads Advanced Learning at the school was cc'd on the email so I assume she agrees with the decision.

I am waiting for my blood pressure to lower before I follow up with them. I will be so happy when my DD is done with that English department. That was the same department that penalized my daughter's grade Sophomore year for having her phone out in class. She went from an "A" to a "B" because the teacher added 100 points to the third quarter's gradebook for "participation" and gave my daughter a big fat 0. The same department head refused to do anything about the teacher penalizing my DD a full grade for a behaviour problem.

Did she know that she should not have had her phone out?

 

[punkin]

Niece is a strong creative writer, but writing about herself is so hard for her. Hard day today editing essays.

 

[3smithboys]

Niece is a strong creative writer, but writing about herself is so hard for her. Hard day today editing essays.

DS feels her pain! He was able to complete the essay for the common app and one other school... but he has to write essays for 3 schools that ask him to write about himself (and really they are all pretty much the same essay so he can recycle and change it around a bit) but he has such a hard time writing about himself!

He's sent out 5 applications so far.... these are the last ones. This process is crazy. We still have 2 new schools to visit (and decide if he wants to apply) and one school to revisit since we went the summer between 10th-11th grade. (It's Penn State and he's already applied but he wanted to go back and see it again.... they've updated the dorms since he went there for golf camp too, so he'd like to see them again... and I went there too so I don't mind going back for a visit!)

In the end, I think he's applying to 8 schools...

 

[AustinTink]

Niece is a strong creative writer, but writing about herself is so hard for her. Hard day today editing essays.

This is my son also. He is close to finishing his essays, but it has been a struggle all the way. He started his essays in July. We are all so ready for it to be done.

 

[robinb]

Did she know that she should not have had her phone out?

Yes. This was back in sophomore year. At the first semester parent/teacher conference the teacher made a comment to me that my DD had her cell phone out a lot. I talked to my DD about it and told her to keep her cell phone in her bag or I would take it away from her. I emailed the teacher and told *her* that I would take the phone away if she had it out and to please contact me if there was a problem.

I never heard a peep out of the teacher but apparently at the start of the 3rd quarter the teacher told the students there would be a grading consequence if they had their cell phones out. She never said she would drop them a full grade.

As I was watching the grades roll in on the 3rd quarter, things were really looking great. She had an "A" and I was happy. Then teacher added an "assignment" called "Cell Phone Use" to the calculations at the last minute (literally after the quarter ended and right before the end of the grading window) worth 100 points. So, the possible score for "summative score" went from about 550 to 650. Most of the students were given a bonus of 100 points while my DD received a 0. that came out to 15% of her total grade for the 3rd quarter. My DD's grade dropped a FULL GRADE from an "A" to a low "B" (almost a "C") for the quarter and even though she received an "A" her 4th quarter and stayed off her phone, her 3rd quarter was too low to bring her up to an "A" for the semester.

I know of one other child who was given 50 points instead of 100 but the teacher contacted her mother part way through the quarter and she straightened up and flew right and only lost half of the bonus. So, different kids doing the same thing were handled differently. I was never contacted by the teacher and given the same chance to correct my DD's behaviour.

FWIW, I did sympathize with the teacher ... cell phone use can be annoying and she did warn the kids. However, as a parent of a sophomore, I expected to be contacted if my DD had a behavioral problem. My DD was not off the hook for her part in all this. I did take her phone away from her, as promised, for an entire month.

I was peeved at my DD for using her phone in class when she knew she shouldn't have. I was peeved at the teacher for penalizing an otherwise good student so punitively (and yes, drop her GPA). I took it up to the head of the department but got nowhere. The exact same head of the department I contacted about the AP exam and got nowhere.

The "A" that was penalized down to a "B" is still biting my DD in the butt. She is ranked in the top 79th percent in her class, just 2 spots away from being in the top 20%. With that "A" on her GPA she would have been ranked higher in the top 20% which is a magic number for colleges.

 

[punkin]

This is my son also. He is close to finishing his essays, but it has been a struggle all the way. He started his essays in July. We are all so ready for it to be done.

The goal here is to have the applications mostly finished by the end of the month. I have a west coast college trip planned in November and there are still two local colleges we have to make time for, but she doesn't want to take that much time off school.

 

[AustinTink]

in the top 20% which is a magic number for colleges.

This whole ranking thing makes me angry. We are a non-ranking school, but we were still told our son's rank. We wont send it to colleges, but it would be easy for them to figure it out. He has just over 4.0 GPA which puts him in the top 22% of his class. I remember when a 4.0 used to be an amazing GPA. Apparently, there are at least 25 kids out of the 100 in his class that have 4.0 or better.

We thought a small, competitive school would be best for him four years ago. Now it has bitten him in the butt.

 

[Poohforyou]

This whole ranking thing makes me angry. We are a non-ranking school, but we were still told our son's rank. We wont send it to colleges, but it would be easy for them to figure it out. He has just over 4.0 GPA which puts him in the top 22% of his class. I remember when a 4.0 used to be an amazing GPA. Apparently, there are at least 25 kids out of the 100 in his class that have 4.0 or better.

We thought a small, competitive school would be best for him four years ago. Now it has bitten him in the butt.

Our school doesn't rank but that alone isn't going to make our break a kid. My daughter has a 3.93 weighted GPA. We come from a highly achieving district in a high achieving state. My daughter's GPA carries a lot more weight with colleges than a kid with the same GPA coming from a lower performing district/state.

Colleges have reports on how high schools rank throughout the country.

Don't discount your son's achievement compared to his classmates.

 

[okeydokey]

Yes. This was back in sophomore year. At the first semester parent/teacher conference the teacher made a comment to me that my DD had her cell phone out a lot. I talked to my DD about it and told her to keep her cell phone in her bag or I would take it away from her. I emailed the teacher and told *her* that I would take the phone away if she had it out and to please contact me if there was a problem.

I never heard a peep out of the teacher but apparently at the start of the 3rd quarter the teacher told the students there would be a grading consequence if they had their cell phones out. She never said she would drop them a full grade.

As I was watching the grades roll in on the 3rd quarter, things were really looking great. She had an "A" and I was happy. Then teacher added an "assignment" called "Cell Phone Use" to the calculations at the last minute (literally after the quarter ended and right before the end of the grading window) worth 100 points. So, the possible score for "summative score" went from about 550 to 650. Most of the students were given a bonus of 100 points while my DD received a 0. that came out to 15% of her total grade for the 3rd quarter. My DD's grade dropped a FULL GRADE from an "A" to a low "B" (almost a "C") for the quarter and even though she received an "A" her 4th quarter and stayed off her phone, her 3rd quarter was too low to bring her up to an "A" for the semester.

I know of one other child who was given 50 points instead of 100 but the teacher contacted her mother part way through the quarter and she straightened up and flew right and only lost half of the bonus. So, different kids doing the same thing were handled differently. I was never contacted by the teacher and given the same chance to correct my DD's behaviour.

FWIW, I did sympathize with the teacher ... cell phone use can be annoying and she did warn the kids. However, as a parent of a sophomore, I expected to be contacted if my DD had a behavioral problem. My DD was not off the hook for her part in all this. I did take her phone away from her, as promised, for an entire month.

I was peeved at my DD for using her phone in class when she knew she shouldn't have. I was peeved at the teacher for penalizing an otherwise good student so punitively (and yes, drop her GPA). I took it up to the head of the department but got nowhere. The exact same head of the department I contacted about the AP exam and got nowhere.

The "A" that was penalized down to a "B" is still biting my DD in the butt. She is ranked in the top 79th percent in her class, just 2 spots away from being in the top 20%. With that "A" on her GPA she would have been ranked higher in the top 20% which is a magic number for colleges.

I'm sure she wishes she had followed the rules. She knew the rules and chose to break them and paid for it. A valuable life lesson is often a very difficult one.

 

[AustinTink]

Our school doesn't rank but that alone isn't going to make our break a kid. My daughter has a 3.93 weighted GPA. We come from a highly achieving district in a high achieving state. My daughter's GPA carries a lot more weight with colleges than a kid with the same GPA coming from a lower performing district/state.

Colleges have reports on how high schools rank throughout the country.

Don't discount your son's achievement compared to his classmates.

I know. I get it. And I definitely praise him for his accomplishments. I'm just venting at this point. How can a kid with his gpa not make the cut for auto-admit (top 7%) at the University of Texas? This system they use is all wrong IMO.

 

[sksjasams]

I'm sure she wishes she had followed the rules. She knew the rules and chose to break them and paid for it. A valuable life lesson is often a very difficult one.

Sorry, but grades are intended to measure academic performance, not to be used as a tool or consequence to control behavior. I have never heard of any high school class that would lower your academic grade for a behavior issue. Behavioral issues have their own set of consequences - such as detention, parental meeting with the asst principal, etc. This teacher's random decision to throw an extra 100 points out there based on cell phone use is inexcusable, and it's messing with some students' futures. For PP's daughter to potentially be denied admission to higher ranked schools because she used her cell phone...that punishment does not fit the "crime".

Robin, regarding the AP score, can you pay for a hand scoring of the essay or just the multiple choice?

 

[robinb]

I'm sure she wishes she had followed the rules. She knew the rules and chose to break them and paid for it. A valuable life lesson is often a very difficult one.

I certainly wish she had followed the rules!

Sorry, but grades are intended to measure academic performance, not to be used as a tool or consequence to control behavior. I have never heard of any high school class that would lower your academic grade for a behavior issue. Behavioral issues have their own set of consequences - such as detention, parental meeting with the asst principal, etc. This teacher's random decision to throw an extra 100 points out there based on cell phone use is inexcusable, and it's messing with some students' futures. For PP's daughter to potentially be denied admission to higher ranked schools because she used her cell phone...that punishment does not fit the "crime".

Thanks. I would have preferred any of those punishments because at least I would have known there was still a problem and would have fixed it from my end by taking her phone away as I promised. I makes me wonder why the teacher didn't do any of those things but instead put up with cell phone use in her classroom for the entire semester.

Robin, regarding the AP score, can you pay for a hand scoring of the essay or just the multiple choice?

No, they will only hand score the MC portion. I'm pretty sure that it's probably right but if the writing portion was really great than there is a chance that the MC was not scored properly.