I am very hesitant to make this announcement given somewhat fragmentary information, but time is of the essence since grades were just posted yesterday, and it will be too hard to take corrective action if it is not done now.
I am getting very concerned that there *may* have been a problem with the precalculus final exam in one of the three precalc teachers’ classes at Aragon.
I have about a half dozen precalculus students this school year spread over multiple classes of the three precalculus teachers at Aragon. Several of my students did fine, but yesterday, when the grades for the final exams and the course were posted, some students were shocked by how poorly they did on the final exam. After calling their friends (who were not my students) they heard similar stories. These stories seemed to be concentrated in a particular teacher’s classes. For example, students who went into the final with an A in the class were shocked when they found out that they failed the final (these were not my students, but friends of them). Something (and there are obviously many possible causes) is clearly wrong when there is this big of a discrepancy between the final and the grade for the rest of the semester.
The problem with the system is that the finals are graded after the year ends and students never get to see them. In addition, there has been an increasing tendency at Aragon to use student “teaching assistants” to grade tests. I do not know if this was the case with the final exam in this class.
If you have a child who was negatively surprised, I want to let you know that you may not be alone in this case. You may want to call the school office as soon as possible next week and see what recourse you may have.
I realize that this note will make me even more despised at Aragon than I already am, but a student should have the opportunity to review his/her exam at the end of the school year, and this habit of quickly grading tests and heading out the door for the summer is problematic, to say the least.
