At my child's high school, a math teacher of some longevity retired last year and the high level courses he was teaching was taken over by a new hire and another teacher on staff. This year lots and lots of kids that everyone would call really smart are really struggling. We're talking Beta club kids making 40's on tests. The particular teacher my child is dealing with (we'll call him TA) belittles the kids when they ask questions. One kid got a 'this is why we can't get anything done, you can't learn anything' comment early in the year.
It has happened enough that the kids no longer ask questions. There are other teachers that began to come in at 6:30 in the mornings multiple days a week and hold tutoring sessions. Many of these kids go to the tutoring sessions in order to learn the material so they can pass the tests. Other kids have private tutors. One day one of the tutoring teachers goes to another class and is teaching the math to the kids in that class. TA walked by the door and saw what was happening. When the kids get in TA's class, he is frustrated and gets on to them about going to other teachers for help and wanting to know why they won't come to him. He could tutor as well. So now the kids feel pressure for going to someone who won't treat them poorly for asking questions.
This week, TA assigned 50+ problems for homework one night. My child sat down to do it and the first thing out of the mouth was "he didn't teach us how to do this!" Talking to other parents, their children expressed the same frustration. Some kids were at the point of tears because grades are so bad and they are having to teach themselves. They did their normal thing, look for videos online to show them how they are supposed to do it, go to morning tutoring sessions, one even texted one of the tutor teachers asking for help. (Significant amounts of homework is a nightly thing for this guy. Even gave homework over Thanksgiving break.)
I'm not sure it if was the same day or not, but TA told some kids that they wouldn't be going to a University the would just be going to a JUCO so them learning the particular skill wasn't going to matter. He told a couple of other kids that they would work McDonald's the rest of their lives so it didn't matter if they learned it.
Accused another child of sleeping in class with their eyes open. A parent posted some frustration regarding the homework on facebook. It got back to TA and he brought it up in class when assigning homework to not go run tell their parents its some outrageous number and let them post on facebook, while looking at the kids who's parent made the post.
A parent of the kid with the McDonalds comment (also the eye open sleeper) went to the school to meet with the Principal. TA was defended from the moment the kids parent walked in the door. TA has the best test scores. TA is the best teacher. No one has ever accused TA of calling kids names. Your child took the McDonald's comment wrong, it was "sarcastic humor".
For every child that doesn't like TA, there is this inordinate number of kids who love him. (this is a total falsehood, I haven't found a kid yet that likes the guy because he's been such a jerk to them). The facebook post by another kids parent got brought up in this meeting. People are afraid to go to the school and complain because rarely does anything ever get done except the kids get retaliated against. TA had someone sit in on his classes and got glowing remarks because he was on his best behavior that day. The kids even acknowledged it was the nicest he'd ever been but soon as they left things got bad again. If you go to the school board, they get mad because you didn't go to the local school first, then the Principal is mad because you went over their heads.
Adding some further backstory to TA, I have two separate friends who's kids have had this guy for lower level math classes. One was afraid to ask any questions in class because of how he treated those who did, so his mom taught him Algebra 1 at home every night because he didn't understand the teaching method. Another's daughter was a cheerleader and when TA learned she was the only cheerleader in his class he commented that "so you're the one that's going to fail this class" and threw every dumb cheerleader stereotype out at her. After a couple tests with the highest grade he finally left her alone.
I know of another child who failed TA's math class and had to go to Summer School. One of teachers that is doing morning tutoring, taught the Summer School class and the kid aced it, said it was really easy with the different teacher.
My question, and what I'm needing advice on, is what do we do? The Principal defends regardless of the accusation. Parents are not heard. How can we as parents attack this situation and be heard.
It has happened enough that the kids no longer ask questions. There are other teachers that began to come in at 6:30 in the mornings multiple days a week and hold tutoring sessions. Many of these kids go to the tutoring sessions in order to learn the material so they can pass the tests. Other kids have private tutors. One day one of the tutoring teachers goes to another class and is teaching the math to the kids in that class. TA walked by the door and saw what was happening. When the kids get in TA's class, he is frustrated and gets on to them about going to other teachers for help and wanting to know why they won't come to him. He could tutor as well. So now the kids feel pressure for going to someone who won't treat them poorly for asking questions.
This week, TA assigned 50+ problems for homework one night. My child sat down to do it and the first thing out of the mouth was "he didn't teach us how to do this!" Talking to other parents, their children expressed the same frustration. Some kids were at the point of tears because grades are so bad and they are having to teach themselves. They did their normal thing, look for videos online to show them how they are supposed to do it, go to morning tutoring sessions, one even texted one of the tutor teachers asking for help. (Significant amounts of homework is a nightly thing for this guy. Even gave homework over Thanksgiving break.)
I'm not sure it if was the same day or not, but TA told some kids that they wouldn't be going to a University the would just be going to a JUCO so them learning the particular skill wasn't going to matter. He told a couple of other kids that they would work McDonald's the rest of their lives so it didn't matter if they learned it.
Accused another child of sleeping in class with their eyes open. A parent posted some frustration regarding the homework on facebook. It got back to TA and he brought it up in class when assigning homework to not go run tell their parents its some outrageous number and let them post on facebook, while looking at the kids who's parent made the post.
A parent of the kid with the McDonalds comment (also the eye open sleeper) went to the school to meet with the Principal. TA was defended from the moment the kids parent walked in the door. TA has the best test scores. TA is the best teacher. No one has ever accused TA of calling kids names. Your child took the McDonald's comment wrong, it was "sarcastic humor".
For every child that doesn't like TA, there is this inordinate number of kids who love him. (this is a total falsehood, I haven't found a kid yet that likes the guy because he's been such a jerk to them). The facebook post by another kids parent got brought up in this meeting. People are afraid to go to the school and complain because rarely does anything ever get done except the kids get retaliated against. TA had someone sit in on his classes and got glowing remarks because he was on his best behavior that day. The kids even acknowledged it was the nicest he'd ever been but soon as they left things got bad again. If you go to the school board, they get mad because you didn't go to the local school first, then the Principal is mad because you went over their heads.
Adding some further backstory to TA, I have two separate friends who's kids have had this guy for lower level math classes. One was afraid to ask any questions in class because of how he treated those who did, so his mom taught him Algebra 1 at home every night because he didn't understand the teaching method. Another's daughter was a cheerleader and when TA learned she was the only cheerleader in his class he commented that "so you're the one that's going to fail this class" and threw every dumb cheerleader stereotype out at her. After a couple tests with the highest grade he finally left her alone.
I know of another child who failed TA's math class and had to go to Summer School. One of teachers that is doing morning tutoring, taught the Summer School class and the kid aced it, said it was really easy with the different teacher.
My question, and what I'm needing advice on, is what do we do? The Principal defends regardless of the accusation. Parents are not heard. How can we as parents attack this situation and be heard.