The initial day of registration for the class of 2012 was a week ago, and the 501 8th graders we accepted were invited to school so they could register for classes next year. According to the administration, the turnout was better than expected, considering the economic situation most families presently find themselves in.
I wrote about freshmen registration last year ( Freshmen Registration Day, March 9th, 2008) and this year was very similar. I spoke that day with about 15 families who thought that their child’s entrance exam scores were not consistent with their success in grade school. Of these, I moved 3 students up in placement on the basis of information the parents provided (grade school report cards, recommendation letters from teachers, etc.). I felt comfortable that these students could handle the higher level work based on the information I saw. Another seven or eight I talked into starting out in the lower level we recommended, at least until we had a chance to evaluate their work early next year. Three were placed on a list for our Honors Biology teacher to evaluate, not feeling that I could make a decision one way or the other myself. She will call their grade school, speak to the parents, and make a decision based on her gut feeling. I suspect that, eventually, all three will be moved up.
All my discussions with parents were civil and productive, except for one mother. Her son has scored terribly on the entrance exam, his composite score below the 25th percentile (6th percentile in math and verbal ability). He was accepted conditionally, placed in all lower level classes, and required to attend a summer remedial program in both math and reading. She was beside herself with anger yelling at me (as if I had anything to do with her son’s poor score). “How could this be valid?” she argued, “He has straight A’s in grade school!” “How many other students with straight A’s are required to be in a remedial summer class?” she shrieked. I confessed I did not know, even though every student I spoke to that day had a grade school report card with straight A’s. I was afraid if I told her that she would reach across the table and attempt to strangle me on the spot.
I spoke to four students from the same school, all below average on the exam, who all argued that they should be moved up into Honors Biology because their science teacher (same woman for all) said they were the best science student in the school. This is why we don’t place students based on grade school report cards and teacher recommendations only.
She demanded that I place him in honors biology, which I refused to do. I argued that in the summer session the teachers would re-evaluate him and recommend a new placement if appropriate. She was not satisfied, threatening to go over my head to the principal if necessary.
I related this story to my friend in the Math Department who I know teaches the summer remedial program. He informed me that either his school has inappropriately low expectations for an “A” or the boy purposefully tried to fail the exam. He related to me that every summer they encounter students who were conditionally accepted who confess that they tried to fail the exam. They wanted to go to the public school with their friends, but their parents insist on sending them to us, so they tried to get rejected. They leave whole blocks of questions unanswered, or purposely enter answers randomly in an attempt to score so low they will be rejected. The more I think about it, the more I think this is the case with this boy. His mother fought for him to be placed in Honors, and he just sat there and said nothing. He must have been hoping that I would refuse to move him up; his mother intimating that if I didn’t, she would send him to the public school that already said he could be in their honors program.
On the other hand, he might be a very bright student who just had a bad day.
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