Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well this isn't about a science fair project, it's about a little girl whose teacher sat her in a box for 2 weeks without informing the parents and then repeatedly gave the student low marks for the journal without offering to have the mom come in and see it or sending it home for review. It seems she is picking on this student. The teacher doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt here.
Besides the anonymity, the number of trolls and make believe on CD should make everyone stop for a minute and consider that not every post is 100% accurate. I'm not going to argue the minutae of any post, but rather use them as a point for discussion.
There is every possibility that A teacher (not necessarily the OP's) doesn't want certain things to go home in order to preserve the independence of a project- the teacher could want to know what a child is capable of on their own. That's all. I'm not defending or accusing anyone.
FERPA is the law I was referring to. It states that only the parents/legal guardian has access to a students records or work (not work sent home in backpack like I mentioned earlier). Since it was grandma who took the journal, it does violate FERPA. Parents can have it. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
If you check the website, it states, "FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students."
The term "record"...does this mean the journal? I don't know. It could "loosely" if that journal is being used as a record of writing progress through the year. Students must create frequent writing samples to show growth (NCLB here...growth and data!). I don't know the purpose of the journal so I can't answer the question if it was a record or not. But it sounds like it was something of importance.
Again, I would suggest checking into it for more answers. We can only speculate on here. The OP asked a question and I am only answering based on what I know.
Oh yea, another quick thing I thought I would add- the emails I get from parents gets automatically filtered into my junk email. Parents are given my work email, the school email, and for some dumb reason, the automatic filter sends those emails to my junk email. What sense does that make?! Hand out my email to only have them filtered to my junk email account? Additionally, it does it to new emails I recieve that don't end with the district's address. If I have found a parent email in the junk email and respond, then the filter no longer recognizes it as junk and next time it goes straight to the inbox. I get a good 20 emails daily so getting to the junk email account happens only weekly. That doesn't mean searching for parent emails isn't important, it just means I don't get a lot of them and instead of filtering through that junk email that has tons of advertising in it, I do it only once a week if that. I don't get a lot of computer time during the day because my planning is only 20 minutes a day which I end up using to meet with teachers, running to the bathroom, to grab a bite to eat, make copies, solve a crisis with a student, collecting data/progress monitoring kiddos, and read and answer emails.
Could this also be a reason why the teacher didnt respond to your email? Because the stupid email system filtered your email into the junk account? Did the teacher state why she didn't respond to your email? Anyhow, it was just a thought.
Last edited by froggin4colorado; 03-12-2009 at 07:10 PM..
Reason: Added my experience with email issues.
Reposted from a few pages back...FERPA doesn't regulate student work, only student records.
Quote:
What is NOT in a student record?
Informal notes kept by teachers are not usually part of the record. For example, if a teacher keeps notes about a student's progress for the purpose of helping her remember what the student has done, these notes are not part of the record. But, if a child's teacher shares the notes with other staff, like in a TEAM meeting, the notes are part of the record. A student's homework, quizzes, and/or academic papers are not considered part of the student record.
Correct NCyank, those items aren't. Those are usually sent home after being graded via a folder in the backpack or something. I have attended several team meetings, (I serve K, 1, 2) where student writing journals are shared as writing samples to share growth or nongrowth. BUT, those writing journals go home at the end of the year. Throughout the school year, it is part of the data collection/records. I can't share a student's portfolio with anyone but the parent or a team member. But that portfolio goes home at the end of the year. So that work is fluid going from record to nonrecord over the course of the school year.
Make sense?
1. The District and teacher are wrong. At this age the work should be sent home. And you should always be informed of any disciplinary and educational decisions.
2. At you child's age (kinder, correct?) it will be very hard to determine if she has any writing deficiencies. The skill levels are quite low and all over the place.
Since RTI hit schools...NCLB. School journals are a means of keeping data on a child's writing- progression over the year.
The amount of data and progress monitoring that teachers must do these days is a lot. This is all a result of RTI and a data driven society.
In kinder, students will only have writing deficiences if it is a fine motor issue. However, students can have writing deficiences if they aren't making those connections between letter sounds and letters. Kinders are writing simple sentences. When I work with my kinder students (I am a sped teacher), we are working on getting the correct letter on the paper that corresponds with that letter sound. I have to do weekly writing progress monitoring and it is considered data/records. I can not show these writing samples to anyone but the team or parent. Other students who don't have an IEP are also doing writing samples in their writing journal which is used as data/records and is usually sent home at the end of the year. During the school year, it is used as data, brought to team meetings/grade level collaboration meetings and analyzed/discussed if issues are present. Interventions are discussed, implemented, and then the writing samples are looked at again later to see if growth has occurred.
I think several on here are thinking school records only include what goes in the cumm folder, which isn't the case. School records can include school work, which again is fluid in the sense that things like writing journals are kept at school during the school year as records but then sent home at the end of the year. A student's portfolio also consists of student work samples that is considered records for the year. Not all student work is sent home, some pieces are kept for the student portfolio or records to show growth over the year. These are confidential because it is student work. In the past, parent volunteers would compare student work with another student, discuss these things with other parents and it caused issues. Therefore, things have changed and certain things are kept and considered student records.
Again I want to reiterate that parents always have access to records, but only parents. This is done to protect the student. In this case, the parent didn't gain access to the student's work. A grandparent took the work, not the parent. The note that came home the following week was the school's way of stating that the parent had to be the one to gain access and it was a procedure that was violated and the parent had every right to know that someone else besides the parent had gained access. Granted, the parent told the grandparent to do so, but nonetheless, the school needed to state that what was done was in violation of procedure and if the parent wanted to, could go after the school for allowing the grandparent to bring home the writing journal. In fact, the parent could really get the school for this... in a sense I bet the school is relieved that the parent told the grandparent to get it because if this wasn't the case, it could easily go to court/due process.
I don't know how else to explain to everyone that a writing journal is a means of collecting data for showing growth over the course of the school year. Yes, even in kindergarten! This journal is considered a record because of its purpose. It will be sent home at the end of the year and no longer be considered a record. You can dispute this as much as you want, but its how teachers show growth over the year.
The key here is the grandparent took the journal. The grandparent is NOT entitled to view the child's work. Any work the child does in school is an educational record and covered by FERPA. If the mother wanted to see the journal, she would have had to pick it up herself - the grandparent cannot. The principal was 100% correct. If the parent is that concerned, she can take a few minutes out of her schedule to go pick the journal up, or actually wait for the teacher to send it home.
i dont have time to read all this so I will throw in my .02
Schools have been thrust into the role of raising our children. Many parents have abdicated this role to them. I am unsure if the schools want to do this, but the are. They end up making parental decisions all the time. they also get very upset when a parent will call them out on it.
Case in point
My 2nd grade son didnt like what was for lunch one day. I didnt have time to pack him one and told him to buy ice cream and eat when he got home. Mind you "I" am his parent and "I" instructed him to do this. I get a letter from the school that I owe them for the lunch they charged to him. Seems you are not allowed to buy ice cream without buying lunch. there reason was too many kids dont eat lunch but buy Ice cream. I had to go t the office and explain to the school that my son was told to do this and it was not their job to contradict me in this case. I point blank told them it was responsibility to raise my child and their responsibility to teach him. If a child does not spend his money on his lunch, the parent should be the one to deal with it, not the school.
anyhow
rant over, I try to rein myself in and give teachers and admin the benefit of the doubt, but I refuse to let them bully me over "non school" issues.
I agree that the journal should have been freely available and that the Principal invoked the FERPA rules improperly. I just think that the OP is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
One must wonder if this is going on in kindergarten, then what is going on in the sixth grade or 8th grade or 10th grade? There are times when teachers are totally out of line. My tenth grade health teacher gave us psychological evaluations we were not allowed to take home, among other things. She was not a qualified psychologist and her individualized responses to these tests were damaging to many of the students. If three students answers the questions relatively the same, she would base her responses based off data she had collected earlier, that we were also not allowed to take home, including questions about our parents jobs, yearly incomes, religious backgrounds, and the parents and children’s personal views about social issues. So the poor kid would “test” out happy and healthy but boy would she go say write notes about the dangers of how poor people don’t eat right, lack skills and confidence, and accuse the student of fibbing on their test because poor kids suffer. The most popular girl would “test” out happy and healthy as well but then was told the dangers of vanity and how the real world would come around to slap her in the face, of course worded more softly and emotionally. The girl in the middle, happy and healthy as well, would get one about how they are doing great, but hang in there because, although we don’t want to be completely honest with ourselves, we know how depression can set in with the challenges of always trying to be popular. Sheesh! What she did was not only unethical but dangerous AND against the law. I asked if I could take my stuff home and she would not allow me to. I would fold it up, ask to use the restroom, photocopy it in the library and leave the copy in my locker and return to class where I would precede to answer all the questions with “confidential.” She took the time to grade my papers and always had lengthy answers back. It escalated to the point where she told me that my continuing to answer the questions with “I don’t wish to share this with anyone,” “confidential,” and “I don’t feel this is anyone’s business,” she was concerned about my mental health. She began comparing me to school shooters in another part of the country. Toward the boys, she was a rape victim and was very extreme about it. You can imagine what happened to them. God forbid a pencil fall on the floor and they have to bend near a girl to pick it up. And I’m not kidding about that either.
My father wrote letters to the teacher, principle, school psychologist, and administrators. They basically told him to mind his own business because he was not an educator and had no formal degree so he had no idea what he was talking about. Sure, I agree my father is not “right” in the head but in the one moment he was right. So finally, he started writing letters to the local paper. That got attention and she did not return to teach the next year.
[SIZE=2][/SIZE]
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
