High school makes it extremely hard to miss tests

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 2:31 am

My daughter is in 9th grade and overall is really happy in her new school, and so am I. The only issue I have is with the school's policy regarding making up tests. If a girl is absent on the day of a test, she has to make it up on the next Rosh Chodesh. Any girl taking a test on RC has to pay 10 shekels and doesn't start with 100. The principal told the girls that even if they're sick on a test day, they should come in just for the test and then go back home.

My daughter has taken this very seriously and it has made her make irrational decisions. There was one morning that she accidentally took a sip of milk, which she's allergic to. She told me she felt fine and she left to school. About an hour later, I got a call from her. She told me that on her way to school, she had a lot of trouble swallowing, and when she got to school her stomach was killing her, so she asked permission to leave. However, there was a math test that day and she didn't want to miss it, so she asked if she could first take the test and then go home. So they gave her the test early, and by the time she was done, her stomach was feeling better. She was calling me to ask if I thought it was safe for her to stay in school after that reaction.

I was pretty livid. Not being able to swallow is a dangerous symptom and she knows that, and she's always very cautious with her allergies. She was just so brainwashed against missing a test that she pushed herself to go anyway. Also, she took the test with a miserable stomach ache and got an 86, when she is a serious math whiz and has never gotten below a 96 in all her years of elementary school. I'm sure the way she was feeling affected her grade.

In another incident, she was up all night with a raging fever last week and was crying in pain (just general achiness that comes along with fever). In the morning, she got up all glassy-eyed and flushed and informed me that she was going to school to take her test. I told her that she was not going after a night of fever, and I reminded her of how miserable she had felt a few hours earlier and asked her if she wanted that to happen again during her test. She agreed with me but was really torn about what to do. In the end, she listened to me and stayed in bed, but just the fact that she would consider going to school in such a state makes me think that something is wrong with the system.

We have PTA this week and I'm thinking of bringing it up to the principal but am not sure how to go about this. Any thoughts?

MitzadSheini

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 2:58 am

amother wrote:

......

We have PTA this week and I'm thinking of bringing it up to the principal .......?

I am very surprised at your passive language, when before , you described yourself as livid. You're "thinking" of bringing it up at PTA? To my mind this requires a call to principal to discuss ahead of the PTA, even for a year 9 student.

What you need to do is channel the lividness into assertiveness and speak up for your child. The situation as you describe it sounds horrible and it doesn't seem to be teaching anything much except fear.

I would say you first need to listen - ie calmly verify with the principal if the situation is as DD describes. Then you can know whether you need to

1. Let the school know how unacceptable you consider this to be and ask them to change

and /or

2. Consider changing schools

and /or

3. Help your daughter deal with anxiety based on an incorrect perception of the true situation

amother

Coral

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 3:11 am

MitzadSheini wrote:

Agree with this.
Be livid
Call the principal and teachers until you get the result you want
In my experience, I've worked in schools, parents don't realize how much the administration will work and change policies when parents insist on change

Last edited by amother on Mon, Feb 12 2018, 12:53 pm; edited 1 time in total

merelyme

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 3:43 am

The school is purposely making it hard to miss tests, because they're trying to crack down on kids purposely missing tests for no good reason (e.g., they didn't study).

NIS 10 is about $2.50 - a token sum, and reasonable considering the additional work involved for teachers and school administration (giving a possibly different test, proctoring, and more). The problem is that the girls don't start with a grade of 100%. I would request that they waive that if the girl has a good reason for missing the test.

And I would also discuss with your daughter that if she's unwell she should miss the test, notwithstanding these consequences.

(If this is the only thing you are unhappy with in this new school, consider yourselves extremely fortunate.)

DrMom

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 4:40 am

amother wrote:

...Any girl taking a test on RC has to pay 10 shekels and doesn't start with 100. The principal told the girls that even if they're sick on a test day, they should come in just for the test and then go back home...

You should strongly object to:

1. Forcing students to pay for taking make-up tests and

2. Forcing students to come in while sick. This endangers the health not only of the student in question, but also the health of the rest of the class.

I'd suggest getting other parents behind you and speaking to the principal as a group regarding this draconian policy and the impact on the health of the students.

I would solicit a letter from your family physician or some other person in the field of public health, etc and add this to your arsenal before approaching the administration in any organized fashion.

First speak to the administration individually at this upcoming meeting, but if they seem inflexible, plan to organize other parents to meet with the admin as a group.

Does your school have a parents' association?

Last edited by DrMom on Sun, Dec 18 2016, 4:47 am; edited 1 time in total

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 4:46 am

merelyme wrote:

Im sorry but you can not compare 10 shekels and 2.50 dollars. The amount is not a token sum here in israel. Seriously.

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 5:58 am

Thanks for all the input. When I said I was livid, I meant that I was livid at my daughter for going to school while in a dangerous state of reaction. And I did tell her that despite the makeup test policy, she has to put her health first.

Merelyme is right - the school is trying to prevent girls from staying home just because there's a test. The principal told them that studies show that most girls get sick on test days and that it's really just from nerves, so they should come anyway.

It's not so much the 10 shekels or even the starting with a lower grade, both of which I think are unfair in the case of illness. It's the underlying message that scares them into coming even when they shouldn't.

I did hear from 2 other mothers that their daughters told them the same thing DD did, but they felt no need to speak to them about it yet since their girls had not been sick on a test day so far.

I will speak to the principal on Tuesday.

amother

Salmon

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 7:21 am

I had this policy in high school - if you missed a test, you had to pay $10 to make it up (if you had the flu for a week during midterms or finals, you had to pay $70!). This went towards paying the proctor. You also started off with a lower grade.

But - students only started off with a lower grade if they were absent for non-medical reasons. If their mother called to say they were sick, or they brought in a doctors note the next day, they didn't deduct points. Perhaps you can suggest such a system.

rachel6543

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 10:12 am

Wow, this is a terrible horrible policy. I have never heard ever of such a thing. It's horrible to make kids pay for making up a test.

I was one of those kids who got sick a lot and yes, I missed several tests. Between 8th and 10th grade I think I missed about a month total of school each school year. I have asthma. During those years ANYTIME I caught a cold (from a sick classmate of course) I would have asthma flare ups and bronchitis. It was scary because a few times I ended up in the ER for breathing treatments! I was an A student and didn't want to miss school & tests, and I remember on at least 1-2 occasions my parents absolutely forbidding me to go to class what so ever.

It was very hard making up all that schoolwork and tests. I actually just ended up redoing at least one class in summer school because I had just missed too much school during the year. I couldn't imagine the extra stress if I had to pay extra $ for each test I had to makeup.

I agree with the other posts here. You should definitely speak to the school administration about such an idiotic policy. There must be a better way to handle students who miss tests "pretending" to be sick or are nervous. But penalizing with $ fines is ridiculous and also unfair to families with less $$.

amother

Salmon

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 11:39 am

Simple1 wrote:

I think it means she's agreeing with you.

I'm really curious - why is $2.50 different than 10nis?

In Israel, salaries are typically lower, so 10 shekel means more than $2.50.

For example, in Brooklyn, starting salaries for high school grads are about $12 for office work.

In Israel, same position will be about 25 shekel or a bit more, which is about $6.45 at the current exchange rate. I know families which are scraping by at 30 shekel an hour salaries. So 10 shekel can be quite significant here when you have a family to feed and rent to pay!

Simple1

Sun, Dec 18 2016, 3:58 pm

amother wrote:

That's interesting to know.

amother

Chartreuse

Tue, Dec 20 2016, 3:33 pm

Today was PTA and I spoke to both the teacher and the principal. I didn't discuss the money specifically but rather the whole message of fear that my daughter came home with. They were both very surprised and said that it was not meant the way she took it. The principal said that in the past they would have girls copping out on test days for no good reason, which is why they made this policy. She said that they did not at all mean for sick girls to come take tests. The teacher said that she's going to speak to the class about how it works in case other girls came home with the same message. She said that anyone who's really sick has nothing to worry about.