Individual students selling yearbooks is unfamiliar to me - when I went to public school, yearbooks were ordered through the Student Organization office in the same way that tickets to events were sold through that office and my kids’ private high schools included yearbooks in the yearly activity fee.Grades based on the number of ads sold or yearbooks sold seems bizarre to me, as does the idea of trying to sell yearbooks to anyone other than students.
But students selling ads- that doesn’t seem odd to me at all. When I was in school students working on the yearbook and the school newspaper sold the ads just like they did the writing, the photography, the art, the layouts and the editing. Both the newspaper and the yearbook were classes for credit at the same time as they were an extracurricular activity- it was a similar situation to sports teams having gym last period and starting practice early. They were run by the students like any other publication - the cost of producing the newspaper/yearbook needed to be covered by the ad and sales revenue and students did all the work of producing them with faculty oversight. There was no “yearbook company”- there was a printer who was paid a set rate to print the yearbook", just like the printer who was paid a set rate to print the graduation programs. Typically, the same local businesses and organizations bought ads each year, so it wasn’t like we were starting from scratch for most ad sales. I suspect the same is true of most yearbooks - that this restaurant and that car dealership, the insurance agent, the real estate agency, the VFW , etc. buy a congratulatory ad in the yearbook every year. (and in my experience, that’s what the yearbook ads are -either a half ,quarter or full page with the logo and contact info saying " Congratulations to the class of 2015")
If I understand this: Students are asked to bring money into the school from contacts they have / make in the community. In exchange for their labor, they receive grades instead of monetary compensation, grades which they can receive in no other way.
So in addition to being a terrible educational practice, it’s probably in violation of the state’s labor laws.
Yeah this is my pretty much my experience as well and I graduated HS in 1976. Who in the world are they supposed to be selling these $70 each yearbooks to beyond the graduating class and possibly some relatives? That’s really the question that intrigues me.
I cannot recall ever having any knowledge about a teacher’s specific grading criteria prior to day one of any class. This was true in grad school, undergrad, and certainly not in high school.
I find your idea that this high school student could have, much less should have, known the grading criteria and decided on her electives accordingly to be implausible in the extreme.
AFAIK, that’s normal. It functions as an elective. It’s basically just a journalism class based on a single project. Grading the students based on how much shit they sell, not normal.
Naw. You’ve spoken to the teacher and gotten a half-assed response. I’d think the next step is the principal. I’d give the principal one chance to fix things–and it’s almost summer, so it better be fast–and then go to the superintendent.
After that, a call to a reporter would be in order. I really wouldn’t bother with an attorney unless there’s an excellent reason to do so.
That’s consistent with my recollection of high school, but I got a syllabus with detailed grading criteria for every college and grad school class I ever attended (and some I didn’t.)
But in college and grad school, you can change classes once you have the syllabus, and even with required core courses you often have some leeway with when you take it over a four-year period. That is much more difficult in high school.
I don’t know. It seems like unless this is a first year teacher, word must have spread about the crazy grading scheme in the class. Also, usually the teacher explains the grading policy the first day or two and kids can drop classes for a good week or two. Most teachers around here send home a copy of the grading policy and the rules of the class the first day for the parents to sign just so questions like this don’t come up.
Now if the students are blindsided by this and it’s too late to drop without an F, that’s a different story.
I do think the policy is ridiculous, though, and needs to be changed.
A student’s GPA should not be determined by the actions of others, such as choosing whether or not to buy a yearbook. It should only be determined by the student’s own actions (or lack thereof).
It’s a damned good reason to do it effectively. And the principal is going to appreciate it if Crafterman goes to her before going to the media and is going to be a lot less likely to circle the wagons in that case. Going to the media before going to the principal has the high potential of making the principal see Crafterman as The Enemy, and that’ll make resolving the situation more difficult.
Absolutely go to the media with a juicy story like this if the normal chain of command won’t resolve it.
As for an attorney, maybe Crafterman is a lot wealthier than me and can afford an attorney over an unfair C-. That wouldn’t be a good enough reason for me.
That was true when I was in high school, but my two kids got syllabi that covered learning outcomes, class policies and grading criteria for all their HS classes. This was two different schools in different states. Not as detailed as a college syllabus, certainly.
I think you may want to take into consideration what the actual damage to her is and if it’s worth fighting for. Say she gets a C for the course. Maybe it takes her GPA down a bit. Yeah, it’s unfair. But did she already get accepted into the college she wants to get into? If so, then she moves on quite unscathed. If that is the case, do you want her to get a reputation as the one who raises an unholy stink over something that matters little in the long term? Maybe some future potential employer or client may remember her name and decide that it’s safer not to associate with her. So in a nutshell, yes she was in the right the teacher was definitely in the wrong but still you have to choose your battles.
I was on yearbook in high school 13 years ago, and I’m pretty sure we sold yearbooks, but it was at a table set up at the cafeteria for a week or two. I think we might have had to work at the table, but we didn’t get penalized if not enough people bought books on our shift. And then there was also order forms students could fill out other times, we might have pushed those to make sure everyone who wanted a book ordered one, and maybe had to bug people about paying up if they hadn’t yet, but once again, our grade was affected by it.
It is a good lesson for high school kids, because a lot of college classes have whatever grading criteria laid out in the syllabus and kids don’t read it until it’s too late.
However, I’d question how much they were informed of the grading criteria beforehand. And also how the teacher presented the criteria. If the teacher presented it like it’s not a big deal and everyone should be able to sell enough books and ads to make an A, the daughter might not have thought about how it would be a big deal for her.
I also agree with this. In your place I would talk to the teacher and principal and try to get the policy changed, but I wouldn’t go to the media or get a lawyer or anything like that. If she’s a straight A student, or close to it, then one C- for one quarter would be upsetting put probably not change her overall GPA by much.