Letter About 7th Grade Computer Class Test

I am posting an email that I sent today to Ms. Merrick (7th Grade "Computer Skills" teacher). I also cc'd Fred Wright (middle school principal) and Jean Davis (special education mentor). I am posting this because this blog is all about parents communicating. I won't know if any other parents share my concerns if I don't post what my concerns are. I also won't post any concerns that I haven't first sent to the school and asked them to address. I will post any reply that I receive under "comments."

Ms. Merrick,

I was going over Mitchell's progress report with him this evening and have some concerns regarding some of the computer grades.

I understand that typing is a big part of computing, and being able to type without looking at one's hands is a big part of typing. However, I fail to see the merit in turning the computer screen OFF while one is typing. Not only is this something that the students have not been practicing, but it seems to negate the idea of word processing. In fact, I don't know of any computing application where one must type and not be able to see the results of what you are typing in real time. Can you please explain to me why students were graded on something that they typed with the computer screen off, and how this is relevant to computing?

Thank you
Margo Whitt

AP Classes Up and Running

AP classes are finally up and running! Now students will have to be up and running if they are going to make up for the 8 WEEKS of classes that they are behind. Again, this delay had NOTHING to do with Cloudcroft Schools...it falls squarely in the lap of PED and Aventa Learning. I am very disappointed that our State school officials didn't do a better job of getting a contract in place BEFORE school started. It is not like online AP classes are something new.

AP Classes Still on Hold

Students signed up for AP classes across the state of New Mexico are still waiting for classes to start! I spoke to Carolann Gutierrez at PED (New Mexico's Public Education Department) yesterday. She said the contract between PED and Aventa Learning, who provides the online courses, is still under review. They are also waiting for the State of New Mexico to issue Aventa Learning a tax ID. No one I spoke with could give me any sense of when the contract would be finalized. Nor could anyone tell me how kids are supposed to make up for over six weeks of missed classes!

Dual Credit

My first experience with Dual Credit came when my daughter wanted to take a class at NMSUA this summer. What I came to learn about the Dual Credit program was:

• The dual credit program would allow a student to take a college class and receive both college credit and credit for 1 elective at the High School level
• The University waives the tuition costs, CMS picks up the tab for books and "supplies", and the parents/students are responsible for transportation and course-specific fees.
  
• CMS has a list of courses that it will approve for dual credit. This list contains only some of the 100-level courses that are offered by the University (while Alamogordo HS has no limitations as to what courses it will approve).
• There are no written criteria for how a course is deemed to be acceptable for the Cloudcroft list
  
• Cloudcroft defines entry-level courses as 100-level, while the University has several entry level courses that are 200-level
• The legislature has funded the program, but the bill that would outline how those funds are to be dispersed did not pass the state senate. The funds still have not been dispursed to the schools
• Future funding will be based upon the number of students who participated in the program the prior year
• Probably fewer than 10 Cloudcroft students took advantage of the dual credit program this past school year