This one is a rant.
If you had a student who missed one-third of the classes, arrived late for 20 sessions, turned in half the required homework assignments, failed 11 of 14 tests and quizzes, and never took the final exam, what would you do?
I would have probably:
a) Checked with the administrative department on news from home the first time she skipped class.
b) The second time it happened, I would call home.
c) The third time, I would write and inform the Principal.
I wonder if any of these steps were taken by Austin Lampros, Mathematics Teacher in Manhattan when his student Indira Fernandez careened of-course at the Arts & Technology High School.
If he did, what did the school authorities do about it?
Whatever the case may be, I was shocked to read in the New York Times article this morning that the student in question, who had been failed by Mr. Lampros was given perimission to take the exam separately after being coached by another maths teacher for 2 days. After her aggregate score still fell below the pass mark, Mr. Lampros decision was over-ruled and the student promoted by the Principal. Apparently the school has a poliy that all students who turn up for even one class in the term get a minimum of 45 marks (of 100) when 65 are needed to pass.
Mr. Lampros quit.
What it worth it?
I don’t know. The student still graduated. The school still goes on unaffected. Hopefully he will find employment in native Michigan, but knowing the rather conservative administration of schools, I don’t see many jumping enthusiastically to have him working on their team.
Was it the appropriate thing to do?
Maybe. If he had indeed done Steps 1, 2 and 3 I mention above and has reason to believe that Ms. Fernandez’s absences were better categorized under truancy than illness, I can see why he was disillusioned.
Would I do it?
I would have probably brought the walls down if someone skipped 11 of the 14 tests I gave. Matters probably would not have come to head. But assuming Mr. Lampros did create his share of noise and the student was passed only to keep graduation rates soaring, I’d have to side with him. It would probably be the honourable and loyal thing to stick with the school and try and change things from the inside but lets be realists. As rookie teachers, none of us would have had the clout that early in our careers.
Frankly, I could not have worked under a head who I felt had compromised on the reasons for which we become teachers.
If change is what was important, I’d say Mr. Lampros has made a useful first step by talking to the press.
What’s my view on the action taken by the Principal?
This one action has probably seriously jeopardized the culture of the school, plunged the respects students had for her, made the other teachers feel a little distanced from their jobs and seriously undermined the confidence and the will-power of Ms. Fernandez who may never learn to take responsibility for her actions.
If the Principal may be in duress (low graduation rates may mean less money or no job) – the policy makers and boards deserve a swift kick in the pants.
If the Principal did this to cover her own inadequacies in not having discovered Miss Fernansez’s prolonged absences earlier, she is the one who should have quit.
Chivalry notwithstanding, maybe even received the aforementioned kick in the pants.
This is the kind of thing that gets my goat. What do you think? Let me know by writing in the comments section. Thanks.
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I swear, wasn’t it our admins who weren’t into social promotion? yet they’re allowing it by the policies they’re allowing for. it’s rather contradictory. i read the same joint over at nyceducator, and i’m still shaking my head at the whole story. geezus. good post …
As the article says, this wasn’t a good student who suddenly strayed off course. She was repeating her senior year and had just failed the same course during the first semester, in part because she skipped 2/3 of the classes. What did _that_ teacher do? Surely the school was aware of her status after having failed to graduate her in 2006?
I too read this article online today. I wish I could have talked to this teacher BEFORE all this went down for this teacher. His situation is the unfortunate result of a well-meaning (maybe too idealistic?) new teacher.
I have taught math for 8 years in an urban low-achieving high school (though will move “uptown” for this new school year). I was probably one of the toughest/yet consistent teachers.
Anyway, this COULD and SHOULD have been avoided, if not with your “3 steps” with the additional “sit-down” with student, parent, and principal 1 month before graduation. Give the full picture of the grade situation, and then tell them how (if it is ANYWAY possible) the student could bridge the grade gap in order to pass.
Anticipation and “pre-emptive” action are the keys to survival as a teacher today. BTW, I had a “sit-down” this past year–the student jumped every hoop I layed out and did pass, though barely–My principal was thrilled…
Great post! I wonder about the teacher’s 24 absences in the school year. It sounds like one of those situations where early action taken (the steps outlined as well as Randy’s comments above) could have helped. I teach at the college level, and cannot imagine missing 24 days unless in the case of a serious illness. I am not about to blame the teacher for the failings of this student, nor would I endorse the principal’s decision to pass this student. I would ask, though, why more action wasn’t taken throughout the school year and prior to the graduation deadline.
Jose: Thanks for the post- also congratulations on the new (much cooler) look of your page.
It’s sad but its true. There is many a slip between the cup and the lip and education seems to have more than its fair share of clumsy drinkers. Whenever something like this happens, I always wonder about pay/promotion being linked to graduation rates and whether this gets the administrators to make these egregious decisions.
The same is probably too at the teacher level- and many of our kin have been guilty.
Salaries in India remain low. Ditto for the US. Do you think this is responsible, even partly?
Keep dropping by – its not often that luminaries from the cabal do!
Robbie: Thanks for emphasizing this point I didn’t touch upon inadvertently. It strengthens what Beth and Randy have said and I have written above- this was a case of moor administrative checks and balances.
The school failed its students through poor administration.
Thanks for dropping in. Hope to see you around more often!
Beth and Randy: Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I am on board for Pre-emption and Anticipation- no well meaning educator (or manager of any kind) should wait before matters comes to a head.
I came face to face with a similar situation. A habitual truant (for the three preceding years under the earlier Head) was reeled in early in the school year. Turned out he cut classes every time a cricket game was on or when he had a late night telethon (which was frequent). The parents, he and I had a talk – it turned out he shared a room with an infirm sister who didnt let him sleep at night and he sat up watching television.
He was moved to the couch, television was monitored and his attendance started rising. He finished the year 20 point ahead of that of the previous three years.
More power to Parent-Teacher Sit-Downs!
Mr. Lampros just discovered a trend that is already flourishing in private schools and colleges. The emphasis is to hike the graduation rates “by all means necessary.” I have witnessed plenty cases where grades were changed or the numbers were manipulated to pass students. I even worked at a college that supported the purchase of “fake” high school diplomas to gain federal funding. The objective is “quantity as opposed to quality” in terms of enrollment and graduation numbers. I was pressured to pass students who couldn’t even write an e-mail without a load of grammar and spelling errors – nevertheless writing a paper which was usually plagiarized. When reported to the Dept. of Education, an investigation was launched but no charges were filed despite the fact that it was fraud (a criminal activity). There is no reinforcement of personal responsibility or accountability, because everyone has an excuse while passing the blame. And “yes” I would bend backwards to assist students in their academic success which is tough when other teachers comply to the pressures from “up above.” Students quickly pick that up and learn to manipulate their way into getting what they want. They even threaten you with unfavorable course evaluations and complain to administrators – before you know it, you are sitting in the administrative offices. Moreover, sticking with your ethics comes with a price: your job. I applaud Mr. Lampros for his courage and sense of integrity – I also stood up and left my job behind with NO regrets! I no longer wonder why the world scrutinizes the US education system, especially the private sector!
What Mr.Lampros did was exactly correct! He was my teacher, the best math teacher, and he always checked us, students, for hw, class work, lateness, absneces, etc. He was the best. However, the principal is another story. NOBODY in Arts & Tech can stand her. Not even the teachers. All the students are very proud of Lampros that he spoke up. Indira Fernandez, in my opinion, is completely stupid. She was already a super-senior, what a difference it would’ve made to be there for summer school. Her mother’s excuse was “I can’t afford another senior prom”. Are you serious? Grades matter, NOT THE PROM. The prom was terrible anyway, they charged too much and it lasted about 4hours. Lampros should not be looked down upon, seriously, he was AND WILL ALWAYS be an awesome teacher. And yes, I know, because I was one of the students who actually attended his class, did all the work, and got a 99-100 in his class. I know what he graded on, and Indira is a GIRL WHO DOESN’T CARE ABOUT HER EDUCATION. Geiger, should get fired in my opinion. As well as Arocho!!!!!!!!
By the way,
Lampros was actually sick.
The 24 days were not all together, it was through out the school year, and he still left us work.
Angel: Thanks for sharing your experience. I always wonder it’s the same all over the world – media and commerce holding education hostage. Sorry you had to go through those experiences
Diana, Thank you for the post that gave us a student view on the situation. Seems like Mr. Lampros was a favourite- sorry he had to go. Has there been any communication from the school authorities on why Mr. Lampros had to resign? Whats the mood at school like?
Great topic, Vivek…
In hindsight, the unfortunate Mr. Lampros should have decided, before moving to NYC, if the school district’s/school’s academic policies were a good fit to his teaching philosophy. Newly minted teachers and experienced teachers looking for change are generally so eager for employment that they will jump at the chance to get in a classroom, almost any classroom. There’s a lesson there, but it will keep for another discussion.
As a counterpoint to the Lampros case, recently, in West Virginia, there was a case of a high school teacher not accepting a biology project from an honors student, although the student was excused from school (on school business, no less) on the due date, and turned it in the next day. (The teacher was also absent on the due day!) The project was worth three tests and the teacher gave the child a zero and never assessed the intended learning outcome of the project.
After going through the Kanawha County Schools chain of command, the parents and the student sued the district and the teacher…and lost because the judge cited a statute in the West Virginia Code that says nobody can change a teacher’s grade for an individual assignment or a report card grade unless there is a math error! The teacher claimed total victory for all teachers everywhere (I wrote to the paper and said that she should not include me), and another classic case of educational stupidity and injustice was added to that bulging book we all carry around in our heads.
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2007050824?pt=0
West Virginia Code
§18-5-46. Requiring teacher to change grade prohibited.
No teacher may be required by a principal or any other person to change a student’s grade on either an individual assignment or a report card unless there is clear and convincing evidence that there was a mathematical error in calculating the student’s grade.
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/WVCODE/18/WVC%2018%20%20-%20%205%20%20-%20%2046%20%20.htm
At the other end of the stupid scale, we have the Lampros affair. A principal apparently ignored the evidence Mr. Lampros had accumulated regarding the student’s performance, and disrespected his professional judgment of the student’s level of achievement (apparently non-existent, the floor of 45 notwithstanding),
Although we never get all the facts in a news article, several aspects deserve commentary: 1) as mentioned above, intervention needs to begin early on; 2) the floor of 45 is not really an issue. It’s simply a means of insulating students from the outlying scores most teachers so willingly dump into grade calculations. When I was in school on Long Island in the 60s, our district had a policy that no teacher could enter a score less than 60 on a scale of 0-100). 3) If the school district has standards (which it does), has identified the most important ones (which it must have by now), and grades are standards-based, i.e., linked to the standards (which they are probably not – yet), there should be no dispute.
Mr. Lampros and the principal have focused on numbers (no or low grades plus the floor of 45) and student behaviors (late to class, not doing homework, absences) rather than measuring what was learned by the student. If a district has a clear picture of what learning must take place to earn a credit in each subject offered, there need be no disputes like this one. The teacher need only provide sound instruction and valid assessments, and keep good records.
To sum up, the NYC situation looks to me like the result of administration paying lip service to standards, both parties ignoring standards-based grading, and both parties getting lost in the numbers games. (In any case, the student, according to what we read in the article, should not get credit. But the reasons for and against cited by both Lampros and the principal, are beside the point.)
My last comment is that although NCLB, the sanctions of which were obviously on the principal’s mind, has been credited with raising consciousness in the USA about the need for all students to achieve, it is an unconstitutional, ineffective, wasteful exercise in…stupidity.
As I said, great topic. But now I have a headache! 🙂
Repairman: “In hindsight, the unfortunate Mr. Lampros should have decided, before moving to NYC, if the school district’s/school’s academic policies were a good fit to his teaching philosophy. Newly minted teachers and experienced teachers looking for change are generally so eager for employment that they will jump at the chance to get in a classroom, almost any classroom. There’s a lesson there, but it will keep for another discussion.”
Angel: Unfortunately, there is very little to research prior to accepting employment as the school policies are standardized measures that are often violated by its own administrators. It is not on the surface and the interview process almost always implies that the school follows the academic district/school policies. The policies are set forth by the Dept. of Education and are often identical to those set forth by accreditation bodies. In other words, teachers receive implied messages along the way that are later denied when issues do surface.
I have been involved in grade disputes where administrators turned the table and question the teacher’s ability to provide a “conducive” learning environment despite the fact that a student failing grade may be due to absenteeism or lack of effort. In the case of Mr. Lampros, the lack of effort by the student, parental support, and the administrator’s failure to apply ethical standards equated into a no-win situation.
Ms. Geiger justified her actions “as part of a “standard procedure” of “encouraging teachers to support students’ efforts to achieve academic success.” (NY Times, 2007) What students’ effort? Perhaps, I am missing something, because I fail to see this particular student’s efforts to achieve academic success. She has taken this class for the 2nd time and thus knew of the class content and expectations. At the same time, her mother states that her daughter deserved everything she got. Well, I tend to agree except in that she deserved to receive a failing grade and not a “grade change.”
Her financial prom concerns are irrelevant to the subject at hand and it reinforces her parental inability to acknowledge that her daughter needed help especially after having failed the class the first time around. In my eyes, teachers are not miracle workers and it should be a joint effort between the teacher, the student, and the parent when it comes to academic achievement. It would be interesting to know how involved the parent really was (i.e., meeting with the teacher, attending Parent Teaching Conferences, etc).
If the student is seriously sick leading to an abundance of absences, an individual education plan (IEP) could have been established provided that legitimate medical documentation exists. Otherwise, students should not be seen as victims via the art of manipulation practices. Having taught first year college, I could write a book on these practices and trend setters. Why should an individual try harder in accomplishing academic success when a series of excuses are positively reinforced? Children and adolescence learn by observation and in this case, I am certain, it is just the beginning of a long journey!
Angel, did you read my entire post? The first paragraph was just a preface.
With regard to the part you addressed, I can hardly quibble with any of your remarks. In fact I agree with most of your points based in fact.
And it is true that in general, teachers go blindly into their first job, young and old ones both. But if one has been around the block once or twice, in education or business, one really should exhaust every source of information about potential employment.
A great deal of intelligence can be gathered by speaking to employees of the district/building. All you need is one name and some conversation to compile a dossier on a school’s culture and the principal’s personality and behavior. Contact information abounds on web sites.
Read the rest of my post if you are curious about what I had to say about the NYC principal and the root source of the problem aside from poor administrative leadership.
In all honesty, I have to take the side of the student in this situation. The only reason is because I have delt with Mr. Lampros on a first hand basis. He is now teaching Statistics at Colorado State University and I am a student there. I am writing this blog under an anonymous name due to fear of him failing me if he reads this. Mr. Lampros has total disregard for school policy. For example, CSU has a strict policy that a syllabus is required to be passed out at the beginning of each semester for each class; Mr. Lampros did not do this. His arrogance and uncooperative attitude has made approximately 400 CSU students very aggitated. If he is teaching, and looses the class on a certain idea, he just moves on. In a math class, if you don’t explain the material at the beginning of the semester, it tends to have a snow-balling effect towards the end. He has done such a terrible job teaching this semester that he has had to offer over 200 points of extra credit in order to bring his class average up so that a D average in his class does not look bad on him. We don’t know what happened behind the scenes at the school in New York, only what the writer decided to put into the article, but I can guarantee you that that school in New York is a better school without Mr. Lampros.
John–
Having had first hand experience with Mr. Lampros myself I seriously question the accuracy of your blog and wonder if more effort could be put in on your part. Have you met with him to discuss your concerns? How many hours a week do you study? You will learn nothing without effort. Complaining will get you nowhere. Good luck!