Teachers out there?

Hubby is a 7th & 8th grade history teacher, and he has 130 students all together... and this semester he has 44 failures! :eek: :eek:

He wants to know what he should do? He says he's never had so many "I don't care" attitudes. He says half of them don't hand in homework, half refuse to even answer half the questions on tests. I occasionally help him grade papers, and its SAD to see how much these kids don't try.

Should he give everyone a bump up... like kids with 60's bump up to 70's those with the 70's become 80's? That will get less failures, but not much. He has agood number of kids with 20 average. He has kids that show up one or two days a week -- they cut or stay home the other 3 days. It is an inner city school and he has hardly any parent backing. He's tried sending letters home to parents. Tried calling parents. To no avail.

Its not him or his teaching style. Apparently the other teachers on his team (they teach in teams where the same group of 20-30 studens all go from different subject to different subject together) have the same number of failures. But he knows that the school district will come down on him telling him he has too many failures. They are going to try to make him push these kids through. Sigh, no wonder the drop-out rate is so high in the cities... they don't get the foundation at a young age and by the time they get to Junior high, the work is above them and they can't keep up. He already has years of unlearning to compensate for, plus teach them what they should be learing.

I say, tell your hubby to fail. NOTHING is to be gained from "pushing" them through... and if the school board votes to do that, it's on THEIR conscience - not your husbands. Maybe if all the other teachers that have that many failures also give them flunking grades, the board will see it's not just your husband being too hard on them and will address it.

That is always a tough situation. I have been in that position before--never with that quantity of students, however. I have been forced by system policy to promote students who, according to their grades, did not pass. I can't offer any words of wisdom, but I do understand your husband's frustration. He is in a very difficult position. (I'm thankful I'm in Pre-K right now, where I don't have to deal with the pass/fail issue.)