Do students taking higher level class have the right to request that a teacher be removed?

Question

Many students and I at our high school are very annoyed and frustrated at a biology teacher. We are in high level classes (in the IB program. If you dont know what that is, it is similar to AP courses except the ciriculum is taught internationally). This teacher is not teaching effectivly. He/she is not even giving lectures. We (the students) simply copy down notes. We were told to write a research paper, and afterwards found that we were not to write in 1st person. The teacher did not tell us that. He/she said that our other teachers were supposed to tell us that. The other teachers have enough ono their plates already. Why should they tell us how to write a paper for biology? You can see why we have problems. Do you think we have the right to request that this teacher be removed because she is ineffective in teaching?

Answer 1

You definitely have a right to talk to a principal; they may be able to explain to the teacher that they need to change their methods. If that doesn't work, you, your classmates, and/or your parents could talk to the principals and the school board of your area. I know I've had horrible teachers like that. I wish you the best.

Answer 2

No, you aren't seeing the big picture. It is not your place to decide how the teacher should be giving you the information. There are different methods, and just bc you don't like his method doesn't mean he can't teach. By the way, when has it EVER been okay for you in school to write a paper in the 1st person? Every high school student should know that--especially the "gifted" ones. Were you unsure, you should have been smart enough and proactive enough to ask. I can't believe you would want someone to lose their job over your mistake...instead you should learn from it. So again, no, you don't have the right. Suck it up and redo the paper, this time without being so careless. A valuable lesson before you hit the big, bad world of college, or even scarier, REAL LIFE.

Answer 3

If you can prove several things that are inadequate in your class about the teacher, I would write to the headquarters in Switzerland of the IB programme. However, if you are kind hearted, go to your headmaster/principal and prove your point. Is this person head of department at your school for science? Then you may have a problem. However, if the teacher is not head of department, you may have a conference with school head, college counselor, and head of department. It may solve the problem. IB courses are tough, they are not meant to be just taken if you want credit towards your future in university and a paper. It will help you get into better schools, skip 101 of that subject if your points are high, and it can also help your carrier. Fight for your rights! It might be a good idea to get adult involvement so that you don't go on a attack mode of the teacher. Then you are just showing your lack of maturity. Ask or discuss with another IB subject teacher whom you really can trust, and try a "session" with that teacher to see how your argument sounds to other people before attempting your main battle. Good Luck.

Answer 4

These are not grounds for the removal of a teacher. Grounds for such a thing would be misconduct i.e. sexual, physical, verbal, etc. Merely failing to give a lecture is not, ESPECIALLY for higher level classes, such as AP and IB, where classes are meant to simulate the collegiate experience, in which courses do consists of vast amounts of note-taking.

As for having your other teachers tell you that, I'm pretty sure that if you are in an AP/IB class, writing research papers, it is absolutely reasonable to expect that you know such a basic principle; your other teachers should have taught you that years ago.

Your teacher is not a good teacher, but you don't have grounds to remove her, either, unfortunately.

Answer 5

Tenured teachers can't be budged with a blow torch. All the "discipline" and "investigation" done favors the teacher and you are sh!t out of luck.
This same thing happened to me. He was a crappy teacher and admitted it freely in class. He told us straight out that he doesn't teach. That if we wanted to learn [AP Geometry] then read the text book, but he had no intention of teaching, or answering any questions. He gave 4 tests that we had to pass, but after that, he didn't care what we did. He told us that every class he had for the past (at the time 4 years, but that was 10 years ago, and he's still teaching AP Geometry!!!!) tried to get him fired, but because of tenure, he was safe.
Sure enough, we tried, and the school board, the teachers union and the school told us to give it up. He was following all the proper procedures and it was his class to teach as he saw fit.
Good luck buddy, I hope you had better luck than I did.

Answer 6

First of all, IB and AP classes are NOT the same thing!!! You can have special education students in IB classes so long as they can keep up their grades. IB is for college-bound kids. AP stands for Advanced Placement and that is for gifted kids...kids above Honors classes. But as for the question on your teacher, you can all complain. The teacher might just need some guidance on how to do certain things.

Answer 7

Well my question to you is are you at a large 4 year university? If you are then here is my advice ... get used to it! Getting a college professer is like tossing the dice .. sometimes you get a good one sometimes they teach you nothing. College classes you have to realize are not like high school. Alot of the time you have to learn from the textbooks. My guess is by "other teachers" she is refering to the graduate students that basically teach the classes. Most likely it sounds like she is a large university professer who is there mostly for reasearch and publishing. I've had problems in college where my chem professer was chinese and we couldn't understand a word she spoke... for the most part you gotta deal with it. Get a good grade and really use the grad students as much as you can for the teachers. Alot of us are accually very good teachers.

Answer 8

If this affected more than one person, then yes, you do have the right to request that he be removed. Make sure you go as a group, and have valid concrete examples of why this teacher is ineffective. I would try speaking to the teacher first (again, as a group, after class) and allow him to state his case. He may not even realize that you all are above him. If he didn't tell you about the specifics of the term paper, then he owes it to you to consider that when he is grading your papers.

Good luck. Remember, don't attack him...be specific and go as a group.

Answer 9

Keep in mind that you are taking a higher level class similar to APs. Aps are college level classes. Do you really think that professors in Universities or colleges really teach you things step by step? They just have you copy down notes and everything else is up to you. Almost all classes have research papers. My AP stats and Ap spanish teacher in high school didn't really give a hoot about what i did in the class either.

Answer 10

Well if you go to college if you make threw the ib program do you think the teacher or professor will hold your hand threw your classes,they want.You all need to learn to do your lessons by yourselves If you think the Teacher is not doing his or her job then tell your mother or father let them set up a meeting with the school.You really don't need to say anything yourself let your parents take care of it.

Answer 11

Not in minneapolis, minneapolis is very tight with teachers and budgets. An IB teacher is exetionally important, there is no way a student can go above and beyond.

I refrence minneapolis because one of the only IB schoools in the USA is in minneapolis and your userr name is one of the teachers that works there Mr Lee haha dang.