Anyone with children in high school?

As a college professor, I understand I get more frustrated with my kids' high school than most parents. I've had 4 kids go through this school district, which is "exemplary-rated" - not saying much in TX.

I've had a daughter physically assaulted & was caught on camera yet the boy (much wealthier family than I) received no repercussions.

I've gone back & forth with the Principal because the students don't receive their graded work back, can't see what they missed on exams, teachers don't input grades until the end of the quarter, etc. "They may share their homework or tests with their friends & cheat".

Still three of my children have gone on to college, received very large scholarships, and are doing well in life.

My youngest is a senior this year, and already there are issues. He was supposed to take an honors anatomy & physiology course junior year but his counselor forgot to put it on his schedule. By the time they send out schedules - 1 week before school starts - he realized he didn't have the class. They said it was too late to add it.

He was also supposed to take 2 dual-credit college courses that the counselor "forgot" to enroll him in. The college instructor said he could still add, but his HS said it was past the deadline

Last Spring arrives & he meets with his counselor to select his senior classes & makes sure to have the A&P class on his schedule. Well guess what, received his schedule last week & no A&P class.

He fills out the required google form for schedule changes immediately & also emails now his new counselor - no response. School sent out new schedules the morning of the 1st of school with any changes - still no A&P course.

He went to see his counselor in-person & got turned away, "they aren't taking appointments". Filled out another schedule change request form - no response. I emailed the counselor - no response. He emailed the teacher of the A&P class, no response.

I have over 300 students in my classes each semester & respond to student emails within 24 hours (most times much sooner than that). That's on top of my department meetings, teaching classes all day, labs, working with my TAs, grading, etc.

I try not to be "that parent" but this crap frustrates the hell out of me. I know they are not that busy that they can't respond to students, especially when it impacts their next steps.

My son is applying to very competitive colleges & the A&P class is important for his intended major.

I will be ecstatic when I no longer have to deal with this school.

Man, I feel your pain. My pops was a cheapskate so even though he made good money working for NASA, we lived in the cheapest neighborhood and my education (or lack of it) still shows today.

We put our kids in a great school district but it was in a relatively small town south of Houston (Friendswood). Great results, responsive faculty, good scheduling and whatever you needed they made it happen. All the kids are thriving now as young adults even though I'm not sure they always think so.

A good friend of mine with kids up in the Memorial area has similar complaints to yours. I think some of what made the Friendswood ISD work is the faculty and school leadership stood up for (and TO) the parents. If the schools culture is corrupt there's not much you can do no matter what the effort you put in.

I wish you the best of luck.

Yeah our district is too concerned with our $58M football stadium & wanting to build another $100M stadium. They're holding hostage already approved $ for a 2nd natatorium & making the 4 schools all use the same pool for practice - way over capacity for the number of students allowed. 3/4 of the water polo & swim team got pneumonia last season because the filtration system and a/c system wasn't functioning properly.

Thankfully, one of the athlete's mom was an attorney and threatened the district to force them to bring in a 3rd party company to evaluate the pool. They concluded the systems in the building were not sufficient and not working properly. District still hasn't fixed it.

Was at my son's water polo game yesterday and could barely breathe inside there, all the kids came out coughing and eyes burning. They don't care.

There's a long list of complaints sadly, and it's one of the more affluent districts in the state.

Can you get him into an A&P class at the college where you teach as a non-matriculated student, and have that substitute for the missing high school class? I assume that you have free tuition benefits that will cover the class as an employee benefit.....

Subbed so I can return with comments and my personal experience....

JABCAT wrote

As a college professor, I understand I get more frustrated with my kids' high school than most parents. I've had 4 kids go through this school district, which is "exemplary-rated" - not saying much in TX.

Yeah, I feel your pain.
I lived in TX in the past, and TX public education system being ranked in the bottom half among 50 states is one of the reasons we moved before having kids.

JABCAT wrote

My youngest [...] was supposed to take an honors anatomy & physiology course junior year but his counselor forgot to put it on his schedule. [...]He was also supposed to take 2 dual-credit college courses that the counselor "forgot" to enroll him in. The college instructor said he could still add, but his HS said it was past the deadline
[...]received his schedule last week & no A&P class.

I'm sorry, but the only actionable course of action for you is to hire an attorney to get attention from your HS's incompetent administration through the courts.
I think you are long past the point of being reasonable with them...

JABCAT wrote

My son is applying to very competitive colleges & the A&P class is important for his intended major.

Yes, they are.
Top schools may not accept AP classe credits once you get accepted (some accept upto 1 or 2, less selective accept more), but they do look at the AP classes kid took as indication of kid's aptitude and interest in the proclaimed academic area of interest. 5-7 AP classes is a norm around these parts (I volunteer to interview kids for college admission to my alma mater). Fewer than 2 (if school offers them) or more than 10 (scatter shot interest) are red flags.

If you still can, enroll him in after-school college classes in your area, if there are any to be had. That can substitue for lack of AP classes from HS.
Then invest into SAT/ACT prep. Top 5% score from either is a bare minimum to get into a highly competitive college. Great GPA and class rankings also matter.

And invest a few $5-20K to sue the sh*t out of your HS administration, if you can afford it!

HTH,
a

P.S.: A kid can also self-study and take APs exams without taking AP classes, though that requires more discipline. History, Calc AB, and Lit are popular as self-study AP targets.

afadeev wrote

Yes, they are.
Top schools may not accept AP classe credits once you get accepted (some accept upto 1 or 2, less selective accept more), but they do look at the AP classes kid took as indication of kid's aptitude and interest in the proclaimed academic area of interest. 5-7 AP classes is a norm around these parts (I volunteer to interview kids for college admission to my alma mater). Fewer than 2 (if school offers them) or more than 10 (scatter shot interest) are red flags.

If you still can, enroll him in after-school college classes in your area, if there are any to be had. That can substitue for lack of AP classes from HS.
Then invest into SAT/ACT prep. Top 5% score from either is a bare minimum to get into a highly competitive college. Great GPA and class rankings also matter.

And invest a few $5-20K to sue the sh*t out of your HS administration, if you can afford it!

HTH,
a

P.S.: A kid can also self-study and take APs exams without taking AP classes, though that requires more discipline. History, Calc AB, and Lit are popular as self-study AP targets.

A little misunderstanding in my post the A&P class to which I'm referring is Anatomy & Physiogy (sorry that's my field & I abbreviate).

He's taken plenty of AP courses & dual-credit courses. He'll have 30 college credits and several accepted APs by the time he enrolls next fall.

As a future pre-med student, the honors anatomy & physiology class is a great precursor to the separate human anatomy & human physiology courses he'll have to take. Plus it looks good on his apps that he's taken it.

I reached out to the Anatomy & Physiology teacher myself & she responded that she would meet with the counselors and see if it is an option to add the class.

My son's best friend's mom is also in the Science Dept at the school, and while I like her, it's always excuses about how the teachers are overwhelmed, the counselors are overwhelmed, etc. So the answer I got was, "the counselors are completely swamped trying to fix a lot of students' messed up schedules".

JABCAT wrote

A little misunderstanding in my post the A&P class to which I'm referring is Anatomy & Physiogy (sorry that's my field & I abbreviate).

For what it's worth, it isn't my field but I knew what course you meant from too many years working with a .edu email address and listening to students whining about it being their most difficult course every year.

The acronym is also shared with Airframe & Powerplant classes/certification to be an airplane mechanic.....