It's hard to believe the runaround endured by the parents of a Jay High School student trying to correct what they believed to be a grading mistake.
According to Dean and Pamela Couture, their son had an 85 percent average in history last May when they checked his grades online. Many schools now encourage parents to monitor their student's progress on a secure Web site.
But, when report cards arrived, parents and son were surprised to find his 85 had become a 65, meaning he had gone from a low B to failing the class, all in a matter of weeks.
The Coutures are the sort of parents school teachers and school districts encourage; they put academics first and clearly care about their son's performance.
When the Coutures saw the discrepancy, they talked to a school secretary about it and were told it would be straightened out in the fall.
But when school resumed in the fall, they heard nothing from the high school, so they approached a guidance counselor who told them they should have addressed the issue in the spring. By this time, the computer records in question had been erased to make way for new software.
So, the Coutures took their complaint to the board. Superintendent Robert Wall contacted the student teacher who had taught the class, who confirmed the grade had been an 85 in May.
However, the supervising teacher would not change the grade. In Maine, it was explained, only a teacher can do so. The teacher in question was informed of the school board meeting to discuss the issue, but did not attend.
Since the online grading system was not backed up, the Coutures were left with no hard evidence to support their case ... except this: Their son had earned recognition as a scholar-athlete during the spring. If he had failed the history class, he would not have been eligible for that honor.
The Coutures say their son has been on the honor roll throughout his school years, and failing a class would have been out of character for him. And, they say, the incident has forced their son out of contention for a top-10 rank at graduation.
The family went to the school board last week simply asking that the online grading system be backed up to avoid something like this from happening to another student. And, now, it apparently will be.
Still, the district owes the family an apology for not getting to the bottom of this complaint in an effective, timely fashion.
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Wall is a moronic example of
Wall is a moronic example of every Superintendent who lacks the courage to do the right thing. Instead of correcting the actions he passed it off the blind citing a central switch from servers. However, if the systems were made obsolete it would not be mentioned that the grading was an eighty-five and that the student was in danger of failing. If Mr. Wall wants to continually have problems were he backs down without doing really anything for his students it might be worthwhile to probe into the matter either civilly or criminally to see if in fact there was a direct knowledge of the changes taking place and the records still being maintained. It appears to me that there will always be copies of records and if Mr. Wall wants to violate the students rights by declining them a hard earned grade which the student has worked for it appears that a moronic Superintendent allows children in failure to unite due to his failed practices. As someone who has worked with databasing and technology there will always be records if Mr. Wall does not understand this perhaps he could explain the costs to the town assembly of the switching in systems and technologies and how it has affected the cost and per-ratio attendance of the students.
Joseph Ziehm
Lewiston, ME
"Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;" Colossians 4: 1-2
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.I think LadyJay has it right
I think LadyJay has it right with some of the "Good Old Boys" network at Jay High School. It would seem to me that the principal, acting principal, or even the Superintendent would have required this high school social studies teacher to be present at the meeting to review his information with the parents who had questions/concerns, and with the school committee. However, I recognize that the members of this "Good Old Boy" network in particular feel that they are exempt from any and all educational activities/responsibilities that take place before 7:30 a.m., and occur after 2:30 p.m. (unless it is something that they themselves have a direct interest in). Those fellas work their contracted hours and that it is it. Another thing to consider: I would think that any administrator could ask any dedicated teacher to review their previous grade books to made a determination about grades. Though we use automated grading systems, most teachers still keep track of grades by hand in a grade book. But, as we know, the simple solution for those that don't keep track of grades is to enter the "65"-- passing, but barely... and those students move on from those particular classes. Those who know anything about practices at JHS know exactly what and who I am talking about. YOU also know who you are, and as an educator, you should be ashamed. Come on Dr. Wall... act like the responsible Superintendent here... get control of those teachers that feel they are above any type of expectations!!!
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Welcome to the world of
Welcome to the world of tenure at Jay High School. The teachers are virtually untouchable and they know it. The citizens of Jay continue to support the "Good Old Boy Network". This mentality is in our athletics,teaching, and more. As a parent of a special needs child, trust me we fight for our child year after year. Lets not assume they get special consideration. This story is yet another example of the travesties in our schools. Administration needs to step in and hold the teacher/ teachers accountable.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.There has to be more to this
There has to be more to this story! I can't believe that no one in this school district can make this right. If only the teacher can change the grade then he or she should be called before the school board to explain why the grade suddenly changed fro an 85 to a 65. The person who told the parents that the problem would be rectified in the fall should also be made to explain such a stupid response to a parent's concern. To the parents, why did you not insist on immediate action to fix the problem when it surfaced? This can be a significant event that can affect this students future. Like I said this whole situation does not make sense, there has to be more to the story!
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I tell you, if this happened to me or my son, I would torment the SOB(the teacher) until he quit. Doesn't bother to show up to fix a mistake like this. This has serious implication for the kid, and you can't take time to fix it?
That's pretty low. The sun journal should have posted the teacher's name.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.The parent's first mistake
The parent's first mistake as anybody with any experience of schools in Maine knows was "they approached a guidance counselor". The second was that they didn't engage the services of an attorney and I hold them with about the same esteem that I hold “guidance counselors”. GPA quality transfers directly into a monetary value. How much scholarship and grant aid the student receives will be directly impacted by this. A “student teacher who had taught the class”? Sounds like Jay has far too much work for their teachers to handle and they’ve gone the way of most large universities where TAs do the grunt work and the teacher only shows up once in a while. Unless there is a really honest reason, not showing up for a board meeting where their work will be discussed shows a serious lack of concern. If there is one iota of truth in this whole editorial and we readers have no reason to believe otherwise, Jay has a real problem and it is not just with one or two individuals. However, this is Maine and this is what we’ve come to expect from our schools. If he had been diagnosed with a learning disability you can bet this wouldn’t have happened.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Jay is 20 minutes from UMF,
Jay is 20 minutes from UMF, a teaching college that has it's seniors complete a semester of student teaching (where they have to take on all of their mentor's responsibilities) as seniors. It happens all over the state. It looks like when he left the student was at an 85, and the student teacher was contacted to confirm that information (and make sure the parents were telling the truth).
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[Insert juvenile political statement here]
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No one will be fired your talking breaucrats here only interested in thier own well being!! they dont need to worry they get over 30,000.00 in benefits a year plus a decent salery to boot and like teachers who only work about half the year they expect more and use scare tactics on the voters to pay them even more Oh its for the children if we dont get our way the children will all suffer well this statement only brings forth thier true agenda they will not teach the children properly if they dont recieve ever increasing pay and benifits which means they ARE IN IT FOR THE MONEY AND NOT FOR THE CHILDREN.
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Sounds like you were assigned to one too many detentions...
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.If the records were not
If the records were not backed up, someone should be fired. All schools should maintain records permanently. It isn't going to take up that much space.
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