Yes. The SAT and ACT and local community college all are consistent with each other. It’s the local high school that is making her “feel-good” and graduate, while not giving her the tools she needs to continue.
She is our number four of five child. Our number one has had us pro-occupied for over a year and this senior year of this daughters has slipped by rather unchecked.
Our number one and his wife has two kids that have been kidnapped by the state of Nebraska back on 4/1/2008.
It's absolutely understandable that this slipped under your radar. You were getting reassuring signs from the school, and had bigger fish to fry. It happens.
What you need to do now is determine whether she has the drive to do the work she's going to need to do now to catch up and whether she has the intellect to catch up. Not everyone is cut out for college work. That isn't a slam, I have a child like that myself.
If you want to go rail at the school board, you can. It might make you feel better to take out your frustration on them. It's unlikely to do any good. They know they've failed these kids. They get all the test scores. You won't be telling them anything they don't already know.
She's in her 4th year in college (on the five year plan), and doing quite well (3.3).
I have a son who is two years younger than she, and he's never been interested in school. We tried everything to keep him up to speed: carrots, sticks, more carrots, Sylvan, you name it. Even letting him have the use of a car for his senior year wasn't enough motivation for him to crack the books. Up until the week of graduation, I wasn't sure he would graduate with his class.
He's now at a local CC, and the importance of an education hasn't sunk in yet. He's paying the freight this semester, as I refused to pour any additional money down the drain. I've seen only minimal effort towards homework, and I highly doubt he'll attain the necessary GPA to get off probation.
He just turned 20, and I'm giving him a choice (should his grades be deficient): vocational school, or the military.
Based on my life experiences, I no longer judge one's parenting skills based upon their child's GPA. Parents are obviously important influences on their child's upbringing, but there's got to be a fire that burns within the child.
Not a day goes by that I don't ask "what could I have done differently?" I doubt that I'll ever come up with the right answer.
Fortunately, we have been blessed with a third child, who is finishing up first grade. He has the same "fire in the belly" that his sister has, and it shows in his schoolwork. He has had the benefit to directly observe how we have interacted with his older siblings, and it's safe to say he likes the carrots more than the sticks.