Making The Grade, Or Not
If at first you don’t succeed, move along and hope that extra support will help you catch up. That’s the philosophy critics contend is driving a new set of grade-promotion and graduation standards at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
The new rules, which take effect next school year, strongly encourage principals to not retain a student more than once in elementary school, even if the student is failing to perform on grade level, and to not hold back a student in eighth grade who has already been retained one time in middle school or who will be 16 years old before Sept. 1 of the next school year.
And where CMS’ old standards required ninth-graders to pass English I, a math class and four other elective courses for promotion to 10th grade, the revised standards still require passing six classes but don’t specify which ones. In an old-school throwback, however, at least one of the classes must align with the required “exit standard” courses, a.k.a. The Big Five: English I, Algebra I, Biology, US History, or Civics and Economics. Similarly, the new rules require high school students to pass at least one of the five End Of Course exam classes each year to keep getting promoted to the next grade.
A ninth-grader who failed to pass English or math, but was still promoted, would be scheduled into English and math courses in every grade until graduation standards in those areas are eventually satisfied, and would have to pass English I and II, along with Algebra I, to make it from 10th to 11th grade.
Proponents of the new standards argue they allow for continued education of struggling students, who might otherwise dropout of school after being repeatedly held back.
Terri Cockerham, principal at Hough High, assured school board members Tuesday night that the new grade-promotion rules don’t lower the district’s educational standards. Instead, she said, “We’re just giving kids more time to master the same things.”
“There’s nothing more frustrating as a high school principal than having a student who has been in high school for three years still sitting in a ninth-grade homeroom,” Cockerham said.
At the middle-school level, students are now required to pass a health/PE course and at least one elective class, in addition to core classes in language arts, math, science and social studies. The health/PE and elective class requirements were added to better prepare middle-schoolers for taking elective classes that are required to graduate high school. Speaking of which, starting with the graduating class of 2013, students will only need 24 instead of 28 credits to receive a diploma. That’s a change the school board approved in 2008.
The new grade-promotion standards were vetted through middle- and high-school principals and the CMS Graduation Task Force and were approved by Superintendent Peter Gorman. The new standards didn’t require approval from the school board, although several members had questions and concerns about them.
“In discipline appeals, you see the grades of these kids and you see that some of them get all Fs, yet they’re on to the next grade,” said board member Kaye McGarry. “I just can’t understand that.”
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