Post by wch on May 27, 2014 14:05:42 GMT -5
Hi all -
It's been a few years. So good to be able to come back and see familiar posters still here helping each other navigate the maze of parenting, LDs and school life. My last post was in Oct of 2011, I think, and we had switched schools, started meds and remediation.
DS is just finishing up his sixth grade year. He has had a very successful year thus far, but has recently run into a bit of trouble in math. His math course is a regular 6th grade class, but focuses on the "power standards", so it moves at a slower pace. There is push in support, which he also has in his general ed English/Social Studies course. The middle school uses a collaborative model, but it is difficult to tell how much collaborating is going on. He also has a period of "Academic Success" with the resource teacher (who is also the push in teacher). Academic Success is for kids with IEPs and the period is spent doing homework, working in small groups, or studying for tests as a group etc. Goals are worked on in the general ed classroom.
Here is my question. Both the Student Services Director and the Resource Specialist say the same thing, but it just doesn't sound right to me... annual goals are not worked on until the teacher teaches the material. Sooooo, if you happen to have a geometry goal, for example, and that material isn't covered until the last month of school, you don't work on the goal until then - AND -, if your annual IEP is held in April, and you haven't worked on said goal by the time the meeting is held, the goal is rewritten for next year? So, this means that when the class learns the geometry in May, the goal is not acknowledged, because it was rewritten for next year, so you don't get any extra support - and you fail. Does this sound right?
When I talk to the administration, they echo what the sixth grade resource specialist is telling me, and recommend that I check with the 7th grade specialist to see when geometry is covered next year. The 6th grade resource specialist says that geometry is historically not taught until the end of the school year in all grades, but she rewrote the goal for October of next year, but says that the goals can't be worked on until the material is presented in class?! - Is she talking out of both sides of her mouth? How is he ever going to meet this goal?
So guess, what... after 3 quarters of A's in math, DS is failing, and falling apart, because he doesn't understand the geometry. After pressing the specialist and the math teacher for answers regarding gaps in learning, I get excuses ranging from "I'm not the math teacher, I can't introduce the material", to blaming common core, to they don't know why this is so hard for students w/ processing disorders, to admitting that they never would have written the geometry goal for him because it isn't covered until the end of the year.
I just let them keep talking, but I think they are done hearing from me. I don't want to make things difficult for my kid. Administration is saying the same thing as the teachers. Whom should I talk to next? The principal? It seems like they are really standing by their model here. Does this sound right?
Oh, and for progress in November on the annual IEP, (never received any progress reports despite asking in November and Feb) it says, 6th grade classroom teacher hasn't worked on this material yet. The annual progress for April says that he met the first part of the geometry goal, even though the teacher hadn't taught the material yet. (He went on to fail all three geometry quizzes the teacher gave, including the one that covered the material in which he met the goal)
Anyone ever run into a situation like this?
It's been a few years. So good to be able to come back and see familiar posters still here helping each other navigate the maze of parenting, LDs and school life. My last post was in Oct of 2011, I think, and we had switched schools, started meds and remediation.
DS is just finishing up his sixth grade year. He has had a very successful year thus far, but has recently run into a bit of trouble in math. His math course is a regular 6th grade class, but focuses on the "power standards", so it moves at a slower pace. There is push in support, which he also has in his general ed English/Social Studies course. The middle school uses a collaborative model, but it is difficult to tell how much collaborating is going on. He also has a period of "Academic Success" with the resource teacher (who is also the push in teacher). Academic Success is for kids with IEPs and the period is spent doing homework, working in small groups, or studying for tests as a group etc. Goals are worked on in the general ed classroom.
Here is my question. Both the Student Services Director and the Resource Specialist say the same thing, but it just doesn't sound right to me... annual goals are not worked on until the teacher teaches the material. Sooooo, if you happen to have a geometry goal, for example, and that material isn't covered until the last month of school, you don't work on the goal until then - AND -, if your annual IEP is held in April, and you haven't worked on said goal by the time the meeting is held, the goal is rewritten for next year? So, this means that when the class learns the geometry in May, the goal is not acknowledged, because it was rewritten for next year, so you don't get any extra support - and you fail. Does this sound right?
When I talk to the administration, they echo what the sixth grade resource specialist is telling me, and recommend that I check with the 7th grade specialist to see when geometry is covered next year. The 6th grade resource specialist says that geometry is historically not taught until the end of the school year in all grades, but she rewrote the goal for October of next year, but says that the goals can't be worked on until the material is presented in class?! - Is she talking out of both sides of her mouth? How is he ever going to meet this goal?
So guess, what... after 3 quarters of A's in math, DS is failing, and falling apart, because he doesn't understand the geometry. After pressing the specialist and the math teacher for answers regarding gaps in learning, I get excuses ranging from "I'm not the math teacher, I can't introduce the material", to blaming common core, to they don't know why this is so hard for students w/ processing disorders, to admitting that they never would have written the geometry goal for him because it isn't covered until the end of the year.
I just let them keep talking, but I think they are done hearing from me. I don't want to make things difficult for my kid. Administration is saying the same thing as the teachers. Whom should I talk to next? The principal? It seems like they are really standing by their model here. Does this sound right?
Oh, and for progress in November on the annual IEP, (never received any progress reports despite asking in November and Feb) it says, 6th grade classroom teacher hasn't worked on this material yet. The annual progress for April says that he met the first part of the geometry goal, even though the teacher hadn't taught the material yet. (He went on to fail all three geometry quizzes the teacher gave, including the one that covered the material in which he met the goal)
Anyone ever run into a situation like this?