Yea!

The AHSGE results came back today.  Well, hard copies haven't, but Christy (our counselor who is over testing at the high school) got the results online.  Of the ten students I had for the language remediation class last semester, eight of them passed!!!  I am so excited for them!  I am extremely disappointed for the two who did not, though.  The sad thing about them is that they are seniors, and this was their last chance to take the exam.  However, they both have IEPs, and even though they have been working toward a high school diploma with a technical endorsement, they will still be able to participate in graduation ceremonies.  I'm not sure if they will have the requirements to receive the Alabama Occupational Diploma or if they will receive a certificate of attendance.  I hope they have what it takes to get the AOD.

Of the four students I have this term for the language remediation class, all but one passed the language portion, and she was so close!  I'm not sure if they will stay in my class for a study hall or if they will find another class.  Or who knows...maybe they'll even get to leave school the last block of the day.  (I guess that would depend on the number of credits they have.)  I really hope that they don't stay in my class so I can work uninterrupted with the one student who didn't pass.  Actually, I have an assistant that block, and she didn't pass, either, so I would be working with both of them.  The others are great kids, but think back to when you were a 17 year old high school junior.  If you didn't have something to keep you busy, you sat and talked, right?  I know I did.  :)

Any of the juniors who didn't pass a section will have an opportunity to take the exam again in the summer, and then they will have three chances their senior year.  Some of the ones I had still have other sections to pass, mostly social studies.  The crazy thing about the social studies is that the majority of the test comes from the second part of American history, which they don't take until their junior year.  Some had been in American History 2 for only about 8 weeks when they had to take the AHSGE, so they hadn't covered much of the material.  This year, our social studies department made some changes.  Now American History 1 is taught in the 9th grade, and American History 2 is taught in the 10th grade.  Juniors will take world history (except this year and next year...all of this year's juniors and sophomores already had world history), and seniors will continue to take government and economics.  Doesn't that just make more sense all the way around?  Hopefully, we will see improvement on the scores for social studies for sophomores.

We're one day closer to spring break.  Everybody is so tired and ready to get to April 11th.  Teachers who have children in the elementary schools have said that their kids are exhausted.  They are having to test for one more week without having had a break since Christmas.  I'll be surprised if we don't see a change for the worst in their test scores.  And then that will affect our AYP.  Then we'll have to listen to how we didn't do as well as we needed to.  **sigh**

Guess that's it for now.  :)  Have a GREAT day tomorrow!  I sure hope mine is better.  Other than the good news about my kiddos, today has been about the crappiest of crappy Mondays.