Questions: Education & Career

The reason given for this policy is that you don't want to take the kid out of the game in the first quarter by giving a zero and creating a 30-week discipline & attendance problem. The local Board of Ed policy is we teachers have to leave room for them to pass the class. The math generally works like this across most districts that I'm aware of:

WITH THE ACTUAL EARNED ZERO (NOT LIKELY - MY EXPERIENCE IS IT'S USUALLY IN THE '30S OR '40S BECAUSE OF CLASS WORK & ASSESSMENTS) The kid would need to get a MINIMUM 81 EACH quarter AND on the midterm & final just to pass with a 65%.

WITH THE UNEARNED 50%: Each quarter is worth 2/10 of your final grade and the midterm and final is worth 1/10 of your final grade so, if you crunch the numbers, it's 2 * 50 = 100 and then you need 8 * 68 = 552 for a total final grade of 65.2% which is a passing grade.

So here's the question: Do you give them the freebie grade of 50 and only ask them to achieve a 68% average for the rest of the year or so you demand better and measurable improvement and make them work for the MINIMUM 81 for the next 30 weeks?

BEFORE YOU ANSWER KNOW THIS:
1) I have never known a department chair person to say no to a teacher's discretion to change the grade to whatever the most "common good" is; that is to say if the kid doesn't get the minimum 81 to pass but has shown improvement up to say let's say in the low mid-70s or even high 60s, as long as that chairperson gets a heads up on WHAT you're doing it's absolute teacher discretion, the WHY is left to us (correctly I believe) to determine after 40 weeks of being with that student.
2) EVEY ASSIGNMENT IS ONLINE for parents to view 24/7

So what's it going to be? Mediocrity or merit? Freebies or no free lunches? What's the "common good" for the student, the teacher, the school, the parents, the college, future employers and the community and nation at large?

Here's the conundrum. I'm trying to figure out if I should do this as concerned parent or collegial practitioner. I should preface this by saying that I have almost no hope of changing the pace or priority of content. I don't think ANY observation (wearing any hat) about how he prioritizes different content or pace would have any effect whatsoever.

That said, if my observations wearing any hat will likely not have any effect other than communicating concern, should I still contact the teacher just to say I'm concerned but I don't want to be nagging and say "That's not how I would do it...". I keep on trying to compare this to a tradesman coming to my house; if an electrician, framer, mason, siding, windows, plumber, roofer, whatever were at my house (NOT LIKELY I do all of that work myself and have only had two occasions where a job was beyond me) would I say to them as the knowledgable homeowner "That's not how I would do it..." But that analogy fails because I still have an opportunity to influence the job. Addressing the teacher, my possibility club changing anything will likely have no effect. If anything just food for thought for a veteran teacher who is probably set in his ways.
I've had parents of kids in my classroom who were also teachers and I have gotten feedback that the pace (not my presentation or prioritization) is relentless. My reply was that it's an AP course that earns them college credit in high school and we treated as such. The problem here is it's a two-year course and the first year teacher did not keep a pace that the second year teacher didn't have to rush but that's not her call, that's departmental - all teachers use the same pace.

I don't know. I'm leaning towards saying nothing and just helping my kid the best way I can at home. What do you think? Have you or your parents ever intervened with a teacher about academic or curriculum concerns because they had specialized knowledge or even if they were just playing parent? How did that go?