Registering for the PSAT in Little Rock
I tried to get my 11th grade daughter registered to take the PSAT and I just have to get this off my chest.
First of all, we are home schoolers. I know that there are some public school advocates that seem to resent home schoolers but you would think that when someone works in the public school system as a student counselor, their aim would be to help any student, not just the ones from their own public school. Isn’t it a desire to help students that would drive someone into that field? It certainly isn’t the money …
But still, I also knew that my wife had had some problems getting our daughter enrolled in the PSAT last year and, in fact, had been treated rather rudely by some school officials. She was told at first that she was calling too soon to get registered and that she should call back later. When she called back later that month, she was told she was too late and that our daughter could not test, essentially shutting her out of the PSAT last year.
I was not going to let that happen again.
There are (rightly so) tight controls put on taking the PSAT — for example you cannot take the test at home, you must test at one of the approved testing centers. This is all fine and dandy.
I called the nearest school, J.A. Fair High School, in order to get my daughter registered. I selected Fair because it is close and also because this is the school from which I graduated high school (it was a county school when I attended, it has since been taken over by the Little Rock School District.)
When I called the first time, I spoke with Mrs. Mueller, the secretary, whom I have known for many years. I also attend the same church as she does and she is an incredibly nice and warm person. She told me that she would be glad to have the school’s counselor, Dorothy Jones, or her assistant, Judy Hardin, give me a call back, with the information about the test. So far, it seemed things were going swell.
After a while, Judy Hardin called back. Talk about the difference between night and day. She was was no help at all. She kept telling me that she didn’t know if they had room for my daughter and was apparently unwilling to make any efforts at all. I asked her over and over again if I could just come down and pay the registration fee to reserve her a slot and Mrs. Hardin kept saying that she didn’t know if she had a spot for her. We went round and round like this for a while. She just kept repeating the same thing over and over: that they " Had only ordered 50 tests "and that there was no way to tell if there was room for my daughter and that I should call back later.
I told her that we had done this same routine last year and that we ended up being shut out and not able to take the test. I also told her that I was not going to let this happen this year, because this is the last year that my daughter can take the test. (It turns out that this Mrs. Hardin is the same lady that my wife spoke with last year.) She said that their students have to register for it and pay, "like $12.50" and I told her I would be glad to come down right now and pay the $12.50 and register my daughter. She then said in an exasperated tone that I would have to speak to Dorothy Jones. She said that Dorothy would be in at 3:30 p.m.
Needless to say, I was quite incensed at this woman’s lack of help. I decided to call the superintendent’s office and find out what I should do about this.
When I called the LRSD superintendent’s office, I spoke with Ray Wilkerson. I expressed my dismay at this lack of response by Mrs. Hardin and he replied that I should call the Department of Education’s home school office. Having spoken with the ADE’s home school office before (which is staffed by very helpful people, by the way) I knew what they would say: That I should contact a local school and try to get registered to take the test. I decided to call and spoke with Connie Alford, a very friendly woman who seemed very sympathetic. She even said that she understood that some school counselors were more "friendly" to home schoolers than others and that if I didn’t get good help from one school, I should try another. She even suggested a couple of "home-school friendly" schools.
I decided to call the local school that my daughter would normally attend, if we didn’t school her at home, which is Joe T. Robinson High School, a county school. I ended up speaking with the college counselor, Mr. Tom Sullivan. I was overwhelmed at his helpfulness and openness. He told me that all I needed to do was bring a check for the registration fee and they would be glad to host my daughter’s test. Again, it was the difference between night and day from the rude, unhelpful Mrs. Hardin.
I spoke with my wife about the counselor at Fair and she told me that she received the same treatment from both Mrs. Hardin and Mrs. Jones at Fair. She had gone through the exact same rigmarole about "we don’t have room, call back later" and then finally "you’re too late, you cannot test with us."
Well, no thanks to either Mrs. Hardin or Mrs. Jones, my daughter will be taking the PSAT this year. I sincerely hope that these two don’t pass on their rotten attitudes on to the students they are paid to counsel. But if it were up to those two, they would have ruined my daughter’s chance at taking the PSAT. Again.
If they were any good at making life decisions, they wouldn’t be high school counselors.