So do schools serve the students or themselves?
A student came to me in tears the other day. She had been with the counselor lobbying for a schedule change, but the counselor would not allow it. Not only that but the counselor wasn't even listening to her. (This counselor rarely does--listen.)The student's request is to be moved out of the Advanced Placement Literature class, and places into regular 12th grade literature. The student is an ESOL student, who has made great progress in her 3 years in the country, but three years does not get one to the level of academic proficiency required for AP Literature. She is also enrolled in, and will stay in two other AP classes, Calculus and Chemistry. But the Literature class was proving to be a bit to much for her. So--I went to the principal to make the request. Even wrote out a well-crafted memo explaining my rationale for asking for the change to be granted. The AP Lit teacher concurred as well, that the student should make the switch. But these are the days of No child left behind and adequate yearly progress and school evaluations, where the image of the school is more important than the needs of the individual students. The principal didn't really even give my argument consideration. One of the measurements for school progress, of course, is "increasing the number of students enrolled in AP and higher level courses." So now we are making students take courses for which they are not ready, just to raise the public rating of our school. So is it about the school or the student? This particular case is not closed. I will counsel the student to bring her mother in to the principal's office to demand the change. Parents do have the final say of course. It's just sad that it has to go this far just to get a schedule changed. It's also disheaertening that a principal would make a decision over both the recommendation of the AP Lit teacher, and the professional opinion of an ESOL teacher who knows about the process of language acquisition, and even more knows the student and her language needs well. Alas.
1:57:22 PM 
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