42+6.5=49???

I got this one African American kid in my CTM that I let into the school January last year. This kid is about 6ft 3in and about 250lbs. Soft as warm butter. In his interview, he started crying and he just mumbled the whole time. He talked about getting picked on at other schools. Family was not without its drama. He came to us 15 years old with 10 credits and .15 GPA.

His first quarter he earned 17 credits out of a possible 20. Over the summer he earned 5 credits. His second quarter, he earned 10 out of 20. This last quarter, he earned 6.5 credits. Academically, he just did worse and worse. He's 16 years old and he still has freshman credit. When I asked him to add his 42 total academic credits to the 6.5 hours he earned this last quarter, he paused and said 49. F-O-R-T-Y N-I-N-E! Not even 49.5. Forty Nine. I asked him "say again?" He rethought it and said 49 again.

Socially, he is doing great. He has friends that he hangs out with and he isn't picked on. I've even seen him tease other kids in the way teenage boys do when they are friends with someone.

But what do I do when a kid is improving in one area but getting worse in another? At the end of the day, I'm teaching at a school not a club for kids to hang out at.


Update April 9th: The kid's parent pulled him from the school. They are going to try and put him in an adult school nearby. I wished they would have talked to me about this. They just went and did it. He's got no skills. He's soooo not an adult. My school was somewhere he was safe and socialized. His love for school could have been used to motivate him.