Figure this one out...

For the past 2 years, we've been having to ride RJ about his grades. The kid does his homework but just refuses the turn it in. We've threatened, took away game systems, grounded, assigned extra chores, etc. Nothing really seemed to get through to him. At the end of last year he ended up with 3 F's on his report card (2 in English, imagine that). I called the school to see if we could get him into summer school, thinking that might make an impression on him. Imagine my surprise to find out that since he scored in the PASS + range on the ISTEP, he couldn't get into summer school unless we paid the tuition ($1200) and provided transportation down to Indianapolis for it (Mon-Fri 8-5 for the entire summer). Needless to say, we passed on that. But we did manage to find something that actually made an impression on him. We check powerschool every Friday. If there is a single 0 listed on there, he is grounded from absolutely everything for the entire week. That means the only time he is let out of the house is to go to school, can't use his phone for anything other than calling the parents when he gets home from school or for emergencies, no computer except for homework, no TV, nothing except reading a book or doing homework. After 1 weekend of that, his homework is miraculously showing up in the gradebook!

So yesterday we got the boys' ISTEP scores in for this year. RJ didn't score PASS + this time around, but he did get a PASS on all subjects. Imagine our surprise to see that Robert did not pass the English/Language Arts section. This is a child who had an 89% or higher on all of his grades on his last report card! Granted, he scored a 418 and needed a 429 on the ISTEP. There was a note included that stated we needed to call the school to set up remediation over the summer for him. So Randy called the school to see what was going on. Apparently Robert gets a "do over" this year since they are ALL retaking the ISTEP in the spring. Now if he doesn't get above the minimum PASS level, he will have to take English/Language Arts summer school. Robert will be the first one to admit that he hates that part of the test, especially the free writing part. But he does understand that he would have to give up his summer if he doesn't buckle down and do it. One thing Randy did find interesting while talking to the principal: the overall scores for Washington are significantly lower than they have been in the past.

On a good note, today is my finals for my classes. No matter how I do on any of the tests, I have an A in Med/Surg I and a B in Pharmacology. I still have to go to clinicals tomorrow to get my evaluation. But I'm pretty sure I at least have a B in there. All I have to say is that I cannot wait until I am finally finished with my degree and take my state boards. Hopefully by then the ecomony will stabilize out a little bit and there will be enough people left in Kokomo for me to get a job here. We're already starting to hear the rumors at the hospital about having patient care area terminations in order to meet budget. Since we're the only unit that has 2 secretaries and a monitor tech on day shift, I imagine we'll see the first cuts. It will be interesting to see how the docs adjust to that.