Old Vail Middle School

Reviews

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  My son, though extremely intelligent, was not particularly studious. However, that attitude did not apply to subjects he chose to study on his own. For his science project he did a series of experiments using magnets, then used the information he gathered from those experiments to build an electric generator. His science teacher didn't believe that he did the project himself and gave him a D-. We tried to schedule an appointment with her to discuss the grade. She refused to meet with us one on one and we had to wait several days until she could arrange to have us meet with all of his teachers plus a vice principal all at once. I suggested that perhaps she didn't believe he done the work himself and if that was the case she should test him on the material. She just looked confused. I asked her what she had studied to qualify her to teach middle school science, and she responded, fighting tears, that she had studied psychology. I explained that I understand that his project would be difficult for her to test based on her field of study, and that she shouldn't feel bad about that, I didn't understand his project until he explained it to me, as I never studied physics. She left the room in tears. I asked the vice principal what she had studied in school, mathematics and physics, and asked her if she could test him on the material as she had the education to understand the material. She refused, stating that her only purpose in attending the meeting was to support the decision of the teacher. I suggested moving my son to the other science teacher in the school. I was informed that his project had been shown to the other science teacher who gave it an F. I was appalled. I pointed out that they had set him up for failure with the other teacher before he had even had a chance to get to know him. The vice principal (the teacher was still in the hallways crying about her psychology degree) explained that he hadn't been asked to give him a bad grade. I asked if there was any reason they would have asked the other teacher to ask the other teacher to grade the project if it wasn't for the express purpose of justifying a bad grade given by another teacher, and she admitted that no, that was the only reason they would have asked the other teacher to grade his project. At that point the vice principal tried another tack. She explained that his project deserved a D- because the project didn't meet SARSEF standards. I asked if there was any appeals process and she lied and said no. I later learned I could have appealed the decision to the district offices; but the school clearly didn't want the district to know how they were mistreating my son. We withdrew him from school, I went home and looked up SARSEF (Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair). We discovered that while the scope of his project exceeded the requirements the teacher had given it met all of the requirements for SARSEF; so we entered him into SARSEF. Part of the awards process at SARSEF was an interview with a professional engineer. He took runner up (which wasn't bad at all considering the number of entries). At the reception that evening he spent all of his free time discussing engineering with various judges whose attention had been grabbed by his ambitious project, and his complete understanding of the methods involved in building a working generator. None of his knowledge was based on book learning. He had tested, and documented the results of his tests, every aspect of how to build an electrical generator using magnets. Ratheon said they would have a position for him if he chose to pursue engineering in college.
  By Kirra Armour, February 15, 2018

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