I read the big article in Sunday's Dallas Morning News detailing the state's three plans for high school graduation. As a parent of a 7th and 8th grader, I was very interested. There were some surprises.
1. Didn't know there were actually three plans, minimum, recommended, and distinguished.
2. Our local district has more requirements than the state, specifically the things like health, PE, etc.
So, I emailed one of the high school counselors at the High school my sons will be attending, to ask if it was an oversight or what their plans were.(I only asked specifically about Healtlh, I later found out about the PE thing and there is some communications discrepancy, also).
Here's the big thing, the district is not planning to drop the Health requirement at this time. I guess I have a project to work on.
In a follow-up email to the deputy superintendent, who is new to the district(3 weeks in), I stated my case, because of the 4 X 4 curriculum being such a huge issue, scheduling is going to be a nightmare, etc.
She basically pushed my email off on lower ranking people, claiming that because she was only 3 weeks into the job, she didn't know anything.
Nobody else from the district in a position of power contacted me. The principal of the middle school did contact me, I gave him an attaboy in the email to the deputy supt.(I wasn't clear in my email to the deputy supt, that I had already contacted a high school counselor)
A funny sidebar: the counselor wouldn't give an answer about how they communicate graduation requirements for specific classes(iow, whether it's set in stone unless legislature changes, blah blah), because she said she had been in the state of Texas for only a year. So she asked me to follow up at the district level.
anyway, my questions to HF experts:
1. Am I correct in remembering that during the leg. session in which the 4 X 4 was approved, the leg understood the hardship it would be putting on students and parents, and that is why they reduced the state requirements for the PE, Health, etc.?
2. How long has the 4 X 4 been active? One of my issues is that to me, the full brunt of the 4 X 4 hasn't taken effect yet, since I'm thinking the kids who are now Sophs, or Juniors are the first class to have to fulfill the 4 X 4.
I followed up on my email to the Deputy Supt, and got no response so far. I'm guessing I'm dealing with somebody who thought she was walking into a rose garden(most of the time our district is a rose garden for administrators).
Should be interesting. If I can prove the intent of the legislature was to have some give and take re: the 4 X 4, I think I can convince the school board to drop the extra stuff.
The other real interesting thing is that the hero has been my middle school principal. He's been telling us parents since last year the 4 X 4 was coming, and encouraging us to get our kids taking high school credit courses in middle school. It works, our 8th grader is taking Algebra I and a Business something or other for high school credit right now.
1. Didn't know there were actually three plans, minimum, recommended, and distinguished.
2. Our local district has more requirements than the state, specifically the things like health, PE, etc.
So, I emailed one of the high school counselors at the High school my sons will be attending, to ask if it was an oversight or what their plans were.(I only asked specifically about Healtlh, I later found out about the PE thing and there is some communications discrepancy, also).
Here's the big thing, the district is not planning to drop the Health requirement at this time. I guess I have a project to work on.
In a follow-up email to the deputy superintendent, who is new to the district(3 weeks in), I stated my case, because of the 4 X 4 curriculum being such a huge issue, scheduling is going to be a nightmare, etc.
She basically pushed my email off on lower ranking people, claiming that because she was only 3 weeks into the job, she didn't know anything.
Nobody else from the district in a position of power contacted me. The principal of the middle school did contact me, I gave him an attaboy in the email to the deputy supt.(I wasn't clear in my email to the deputy supt, that I had already contacted a high school counselor)
A funny sidebar: the counselor wouldn't give an answer about how they communicate graduation requirements for specific classes(iow, whether it's set in stone unless legislature changes, blah blah), because she said she had been in the state of Texas for only a year. So she asked me to follow up at the district level.
anyway, my questions to HF experts:
1. Am I correct in remembering that during the leg. session in which the 4 X 4 was approved, the leg understood the hardship it would be putting on students and parents, and that is why they reduced the state requirements for the PE, Health, etc.?
2. How long has the 4 X 4 been active? One of my issues is that to me, the full brunt of the 4 X 4 hasn't taken effect yet, since I'm thinking the kids who are now Sophs, or Juniors are the first class to have to fulfill the 4 X 4.
I followed up on my email to the Deputy Supt, and got no response so far. I'm guessing I'm dealing with somebody who thought she was walking into a rose garden(most of the time our district is a rose garden for administrators).
Should be interesting. If I can prove the intent of the legislature was to have some give and take re: the 4 X 4, I think I can convince the school board to drop the extra stuff.
The other real interesting thing is that the hero has been my middle school principal. He's been telling us parents since last year the 4 X 4 was coming, and encouraging us to get our kids taking high school credit courses in middle school. It works, our 8th grader is taking Algebra I and a Business something or other for high school credit right now.
