"I have a D? Yes!"

     I find it frustrating that so many of the students at Sweetwater are not passing when they all could and should be. They are certainly smart enough to understand the material; they are just not willing to put in the effort to pass. They would much rather socialize or do nothing than do class work and study. I have always been someone who wants to finish my task quickly so that I have time to have fun and not stress about unfinished work. Many of these students want to do nothing now, and then ask for extra credit to bring up their grades when they are failing – but they did not even turn in all of their class work!

This year Mr. Dorray decided to try something he has never done before. He gave the students a retest of their first test, which many of the students had done poorly on. He thought it would be a good opportunity for the students and a good way to see if they would embrace the opportunity. He gave them a one week advance notice of the test as well as a new political map and list of places and features to help them study. When the test day came around many of the students were surprised that the test was that day, even though the day had been posted on the white board for the past week. Most had not studied. Some of the students did better on the retest, even if it was just by a few points. Between five to eight students in each class actually did worse on the retest. Only a few made truly substantial increases in their scores. Most of the students still scored under 70%. I know that Mr. Dorray was frustrated. He gave his classes an opportunity and very few of them really took advantage of it. I am not sure that he will offer retests again, as it took up an extra class and most of the students did not benefit from it.

Now, at the end of the first grading period he has around 6 failing students in each class, and many that are just scraping by with a D or C. It was frustrating to see the students celebrating their D’s last Friday when they were given their grades. Their goal is only to pass, and as long as they are passing they do not care about what their grade actually is.