bakerprune64 said:
When my 6th grade daughter's teacher gets ready to assign projects, he sends home a note to the parents letting them know what it is, and when it's due. The parents have to sign the letter and return it to the teacher prior to the assignment. Her teacher holds her and Us (as parents) accountable for the completion of the assignments. Education is a partnership between parents, children and the teachers. Without, each one doing their part, the child will have a hard time. I prepare dinner every night with all three of the kids sitting at the dining room table with homework. And yes, while it is a huge pain, and sometimes hard to keep up witht the three of them, I know that this will only beneift them in the long run. Like I posted before, I don't agree with the out of school suspension, but after school detention would achieve the same result. The parents should have been forewarned about the assignment and it's due date.
Oh the parents knew ell in advance. Read the last paragraph:
07:03 AM CST on Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News [/size]
Lancaster schools Superintendent Larry Lewis said students should have opened more than presents during their holiday break.
He wanted them to open their books during the three-week break because he feared that some would forget things they had learned.
Between 750 and 1,000 students had not completed assigned holiday homework upon returning to school Monday, and hundreds of them were suspended. There are about 5,770 students in the Lancaster school district.
Phillip Randall, principal at Lancaster Elsie Robertson High School, said he suspended more than 200 of its approximately 1,700 students and told them not to come back until they had completed the assignment.
"We had few parent complaints," Mr. Randall said Monday afternoon. "We sent those students home with a written copy of the policy."
Suspensions and incomplete project results varied widely among campuses.
At Pleasant Run Elementary, about 36 percent, or about 154 of 428 students, didn't turn in their winter break assignment.
"We're giving them until ... [today] to turn it in," said Cindy Lunch, Pleasant Run principal. "It is recorded as a major grade."
All students at two schools Houston Elementary and Lancaster Intermediate completed the winter break homework.
In September, about 750 junior high and high school students were suspended for failing to complete a summer reading and writing assignment.
Dr. Lewis said he would continue to order the mandatory homework during breaks until Lancaster students are reading above grade level.
"We will continue to put pressure on our students until they're competitive globally," Dr. Lewis said. "We should have zero tolerance for poor academic performance. ... They'll face the consequences later in life when they can't read or write."
Some parents are questioning whether the district is simply pulling a power play with the students.
"It seems like overkill to me," said Brian Pulver, who has one child each in sixth and seventh grades. "It seems like every chance they get, they load the children with a big assignment during vacation."
Mr. Pulver said his sixth-grader had no problems with the reading assignment during the winter break. However, he said the school district didn't prepare his seventh-grader for the thorough research needed to complete that project.
"The seventh-grader had to look up sources, use the Internet, the library, things like that. I don't know what the district is trying to pull," Mr. Pulver said.
Elementary school students had to read from a list of books and complete a task related to that book. Secondary students had to read, research and perform some activities that were geared toward their science project topic.
Board President Nannette Vick said she supports the policy and doesn't understand why students to refuse to do the work.
Nick Moore, a 17-year-old senior, said he had plenty of time to complete the assignment. He said he believes the district is trying to "weed out" students who don't want to work.
Kenneth Farr, a 17-year-old senior, said he thinks the district is trying to keep students' minds stimulated during the long breaks.
"You can see a lot of kids slip back after a long break," he said.
Dr. Lewis said parents' complaints about the lack of communication surrounding the summer assignment might have been justified. However, the winter break homework was well-publicized and on the district's Web site for the last couple of months.
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/DN-suspended_10met.ART.State.Edition3.e3ebe4a.html
