By Jodi Stewart
Last June my older daughters enrolled in the ILC run by TVO and funded by the Ministry of Education. They did it as a trial run, just to see if they liked the program and if it would work for our high school years. Daughter 1 enrolled in grade 9 geography, daughter 2 in grade 9 art. Each course had 4 units to be completed and submitted for marking by an ILC teacher.
Things were going well, work was submitted, corrected and sent back. All went swimmingly until daughter 2 submitted her second unit. It came back with a 72%. Decent mark, but the comments from the teacher made me pause. The teacher had scrawled notes all over Daughter’s work with references to Lesson 16. Notes, charts, diagrams, all with the message that the teacher docked marks because Daughter didn’t use the Art Criticism technique taught in Lesson 16. That makes sense right? Except that Lesson 16 is in Unit 4. The teacher was marking Unit 2.
Honest mistake I thought. But no problem, the ILC has an appeal process, we’ll just send it back with a note clarifying that Daughter hadn’t reviewed Unit 4. We submitted it, and waited. I waited two weeks, not hearing anything about the appeal process and finally emailed. No response. I then called. The receptionists and learner service operators had no answers. Finally after 3 weeks of calling, I got transferred to the manager in charge of appeals. Manager told me she’d have some answers the following day. The following day, there were no answers. A week later Manager still had no answers, someone was going to talk to the teacher.
Finally, I started tweeting about it. I made sure it went to the attention of @tvo. After 2 or 3 days of tweeting my frustration at not being able to even get someone talk to me on the phone, TVO twitter guy got something done. Manager called me. She actually took the time to explain the appeal process, guaranteed me that she would look over the work when the teacher had submitted it. Great. Finally someone had listened.
Well, that’s what I thought. Yesterday I talked to Manager. Great news, they had it all sorted out. The teacher had just made a slight error. She had meant to refer Daughter to Question 16, not Lesson 16. Ohhhh… Except Question 16 is about Ancient Mesopotamia, not Art Criticism.
It appears to me that Teacher not only made a mistake, she lied to cover it. Manager and I both had a copy of Unit 2 in front of us. Manager and I both saw that Question 16 was about Ancient Mesopotamia. Of course the ILC saw that there was a problem with the mark now, right?
Wrong. No kidding. Be flabbergasted. I am. Apparently, despite the notes about Art Criticism scrawled all over Daughter’s work, the Art Criticism technique is now not an issue for them and didn’t affect Daughter’s mark. (Huh?)
So that’s where we stand. I’m still waiting for the principal’s call that was promised to come yesterday afternoon.
dawn says...
As you sit and wait for them to call you make a few calls to the Dept of Ed in your area and also your MLA and MP . If it is Govt funded they might help .
Jen says...
Hm, that’s strange! I did that course last year and I got 99% - 100% on each unit. I would DEFINITELY contact them, because the run around they’re giving you is ridiculous. Maybe ask for a different teacher to review it?
Jen says...
(Whoops, I didn’t mean to sound like a brag–I just meant… they usually mark that course VERY high! Everyone I know who has done it usually ends up with high nineties to perfect, NEVER under 80!)
Ricki911 says...
I took a Math course with them (this is going back about 3 years). It was a compelte and I mean compelte of time and money period. I mean I know I suck at math but my sister had helped me and check it over. The teacher would just write over with red pen - wrong, wrong, and the right answer but wouldnt explain it. I would get it back yet my sister and numerous amounts of my college professors said it was done right (now who do you ebleive?). I just ended up getting frustrated and stopped doing it. I had asked,a nd called for help numerous time yet noone would. I got help from my local college yet its all wrong.
I took a chemistry course before that (which I need to get into college). After being contacted by my college saying I didnt have my high school diploma. I found out that the mark hadnt been submitted. I called and they said I didnt take any course. The only record I had was a cheque written for the fees. I had passed with a 75% and they put on my transcript I passed with a 50%. Therefore rejecting me from the college course I had wanted. I just graduated college after routing 3 years just to bring up my marks and get the crediability to get in.
I wish you luck and you both can figure it out.