Angela Scioli: PEPs not worth it

In his Sept. 5 Point of View “How will N.C. help failing students?” Mark Trustin voices concerns about the elimination of Personal Education Plans for kids who are failing.

At least on the high school level, those PEP requirements created a mountain of paperwork that required teachers at my school to document, for each parent individually, our willingness to accept missing work, meet after school and at lunch with our students, let them improve their test grades by demonstrating knowledge at a later time and raise their previous quarter grade if they show improvement in subsequent quarters.

This information is available, in multiple other formats, to any parent who takes an interest in her child’s academic progress. PEPs did allow us to reveal amazing insights, such as if kids want to do better, they should come to school, stay awake and do their work.

Not once did I see a student improve as a result of sending a PEP to a parent.

If Trustin and policymakers would talk to teachers and gain trust that we are working in our students’ best interests, we could make sure teachers have more time to dedicate to teaching and grading and spend less time doing senseless paperwork.

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Angela Scioli: PEPs not worth it."