http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075 In today's story, I spelled out what this new Kern High School District policy of holding back failing freshmen means. I'll attach that story to the end of this post. When I go to schools to talk to students and parents about the new policy, there seems to be a lot of support. I have, however, gotten several anonymous or semi-anonymous letters and phone calls criticizing the policy. Here are some excerpts from those letters: &quot;The motivation of the principals in recommending the adoption of this policy is to eliminate the lowest-performing students from taking the CAHSEE.&nbsp; The effect will be to raise the pass percentage of sophomores taking the exam.&nbsp; In today&rsquo;s article, you cite Chad Vegas as saying that &ldquo;holding failing students back gives those students one more year to prepare.&rdquo;&nbsp; Actually, not true.&nbsp; They have until the end of their senior year to pass the test.&nbsp; Not allowing them to take the exam during their second year of high school eliminates one opportunity for them to take the exam. &nbsp;Even if they are not likely to pass it, I think most educators would agree that something is gained, and nothing lost (by the student, at least) by taking the exam one extra time. &nbsp;This policy is way less about helping students, and way more about making schools look stronger in regard to No Child Left Behind.&quot; Another comment from a different letter writer: &quot;Students who repeat 9th grade (2nd year freshmen) will still graduate with their classmates.&nbsp; How?&nbsp; They will skip sophomore year and move directly from 2nd year freshmen to being juniors.&nbsp; These students who fail their first attempt at freshman year will repeat their freshman year but will still graduate in four years (assuming they don't drop out).&nbsp;&nbsp; They will NOT be in HS for five years or longer.&nbsp; So, why bother? Here's the reason: They will then never have to take the High School Exit Exam as sophomores, the only group whose scores affect API.&nbsp; The KHSD is in program improvement, meaning it is marching toward takeover by the government if it can't raise its scores.&nbsp; This 2nd year freshman bit is sleight of hand aimed at raising scores.&nbsp; It's like the shell game of hiding the ball under the cup except this time it's &quot;hide the sophomore.&quot;&nbsp; I address some of these concerns in today's article. Other than these few anonymous letters and phone calls, most of the people I've spoken with seem to think the new policy is a good one. They don't want to see failing kids pushed through the system without help. Obviously, some of the kids who might be held back weren't very happy. What do you think of this policy? (Today's story explaining the policy) Freshman rule change will still allow students to graduate on time By LISA SCHENCKER, Californian staff writer e-mail: lschencker@bakersfield.com | Wednesday, May 9 2007 10:22 AM Last Updated: Wednesday, May 9 2007 10:21 AM Kern High School District officials say most of the freshmen who might be held back this year will still be able to graduate in four years. Trustees voted unanimously Monday night to create new requirements for freshmen to move on to 10th grade. The requirements include passing a certain number of classes, state tests or passing at least math and English. The change means as many as 2,000 freshmen might not move on to 10th grade this year. The idea is to help failing students before they fall too far behind. Freshmen will, however, be able to retake one class during summer school and then another next year. The rest of their classes &mdash; the ones they didn&rsquo;t fail freshman year &mdash; will be sophomore classes. That means, hypothetically, a freshman who failed math and English this school year could catch up with the rest of his class by junior year. He could essentially have two freshman years and then become a junior. Students who still haven&rsquo;t caught up by the end of their senior years can continue working toward a diploma at Bakersfield Adult School, said district Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Joe Thompson. They won&rsquo;t stay at their high schools for a fifth year, Thompson said. He said the district expects most students will be caught up by their fourth year of high school. &ldquo;Our goal is to catch these kids when they&rsquo;re young so they don&rsquo;t have to go to the adult school and so we can keep our graduation rates up high,&rdquo; Thompson said. No one spoke against the policy change before the school board Monday night, and many parents seem to support the change. Some, however, have criticized the district, saying the new policy is only to boost test scores. That&rsquo;s because normally sophomores take the California High School Exit Exam. The state calculates a school&rsquo;s academic performance index (API) &mdash; a measure of how schools are performing &mdash; partly by using sophomore exit exam results. In fact, those results account for 20 percent of a high school&rsquo;s API score. Freshmen who are held back this year won&rsquo;t take the exit exam next school year. Essentially, only students who passed their classes freshman year will take the exam, which might boost schools&rsquo; API scores. Also, students who are held back will have fewer chances to take the exit exam, which students must pass to graduate from high school. Thompson said students who are held back as freshmen will have six chances to take the exam instead of seven. Thompson, however, said the district believes the move will help students. There&rsquo;s no sense in students taking a test for which they&rsquo;re not prepared, he said. He and all five trustees have said the change is to help students before they fall too far behind, not to boost test scores. Trustee Chad Vegas even acknowledged Monday night that though the move might help boost the district&rsquo;s API scores, it could ultimately hurt the district&rsquo;s AYP (adequate yearly progress), a federal measure of school progress that takes graduation rates into account. If the new policy causes more students to drop out, it could hurt the district&rsquo;s AYP. &ldquo;Testing was never a part of this discussion,&rdquo; Thompson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we think will benefit our students, reduce the dropout rate. What we&rsquo;re asking is pretty reasonable.&rdquo; Still, some freshmen weren&rsquo;t happy about the change Tuesday. Bakersfield High freshman Joel Navarro said he&rsquo;s one of the 1,500 to 2,000 freshmen who might not move on to 10th grade now because of the change. &ldquo;I think it sucks,&rdquo; Navarro said of the policy change. &ldquo;Freshman year is the hardest year out of all four years. You&rsquo;re introduced to whole new things.&rdquo; Navarro said he plans to take classes this summer and is seeking extra credit now. BHS freshman Yva Schmalzer called the policy change a &ldquo;scare tactic&rdquo; that she doesn&rsquo;t think will work well. &ldquo;They told us too late in the year,&rdquo; Schmalzer said. Kern High Faculty Association President Mitch Olson made a similar argument before the board Monday night. He urged them to hold off on the policy saying it was a &ldquo;little bit rushed.&rdquo; Trustees, however, said they felt they&rsquo;d do a disservice to students by waiting. They said they didn&rsquo;t want to let one more group of failing students pass on to next grade. Schmalzer said she knows &ldquo;quite a few&rdquo; students who won&rsquo;t go on to 10th grade next school year. Other students wondered whether the new policy would lead to classes crowded with kids who were held back. Thompson said freshman class sizes won&rsquo;t be any larger because of the policy. He said schools will still have the same number of classes they would have had regardless of who was held back. The difference will likely be more freshmen sections of certain classes to accommodate those who need to repeat classes and fewer sophomore sections. Other students said Tuesday they support the change. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s better because there are people in classes who are holding other people back,&rdquo; said BHS freshman Ronald David. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t learn what they&rsquo;re supposed to, they should learn it again.&rdquo; BHS freshman Joey Chavira said he can see both sides of the issue. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s good, but also kind of unfair,&rdquo; Chavira said. In today's story, I spelled out what this new Kern High School District policy of holding back failing freshmen means. I'll attach that story to the end of this post. When I go to schools to talk to students and parents about the new policy, there seems to be a lot of support. I have, however, gotten several anonymous or semi-anonymous letters and phone calls criticizing the policy. Here are some excerpts from those letters: &quot;The motivation of the principals in recommending the adoption of this policy is to eliminate the lowest-performing students from taking the CAHSEE.&nbsp; The effect will be to raise the pass percentage of sophomores taking the exam.&nbsp; In today&rsquo;s article, you cite Chad Vegas as saying that &ldquo;holding failing students back gives those students one more year to prepare.&rdquo;&nbsp; Actually, not true.&nbsp; They have until the end of their senior year to pass the test.&nbsp; Not allowing them to take the exam during their second year of high school eliminates one opportunity for them to take the exam. &nbsp;Even if they are not likely to pass it, I think most educators would agree that something is gained, and nothing lost (by the student, at least) by taking the exam one extra time. &nbsp;This policy is way less about helping students, and way more about making schools look stronger in regard to No Child Left Behind.&quot; Another comment from a different letter writer: &quot;Students who repeat 9th grade (2nd year freshmen) will still graduate with their classmates.&nbsp; How?&nbsp; They will skip sophomore year and move directly from 2nd year freshmen to being juniors.&nbsp; These students who fail their first attempt at freshman year will repeat their freshman year but will still graduate in four years (assuming they don't drop out).&nbsp;&nbsp; They will NOT be in HS for five years or longer.&nbsp; So, why bother? Here's the reason: They will then never have to take the High School Exit Exam as sophomores, the only group whose scores affect API.&nbsp; The KHSD is in program improvement, meaning it is marching toward takeover by the government if it can't raise its scores.&nbsp; This 2nd year freshman bit is sleight of hand aimed at raising scores.&nbsp; It's like the shell game of hiding the ball under the cup except this time it's &quot;hide the sophomore.&quot;&nbsp; I address some of these concerns in today's article. Other than these few anonymous letters and phone calls, most of the people I've spoken with seem to think the new policy is a good one. They don't want to see failing kids pushed through the system without help. Obviously, some of the kids who might be held back weren't very happy. What do you think of this policy? (Today's story explaining the policy) Freshman rule change will still allow students to graduate on time By LISA SCHENCKER, Californian staff writer e-mail: lschencker@bakersfield.com | Wednesday, May 9 2007 10:22 AM Last Updated: Wednesday, May 9 2007 10:21 AM Kern High School District officials say most of the freshmen who might be held back this year will still be able to graduate in four years. Trustees voted unanimously Monday night to create new requirements for freshmen to move on to 10th grade. The requirements include passing a certain number of classes, state tests or passing at least math and English. The change means as many as 2,000 freshmen might not move on to 10th grade this year. The idea is to help failing students before they fall too far behind. Freshmen will, however, be able to retake one class during summer school and then another next year. The rest of their classes &mdash; the ones they didn&rsquo;t fail freshman year &mdash; will be sophomore classes. That means, hypothetically, a freshman who failed math and English this school year could catch up with the rest of his class by junior year. He could essentially have two freshman years and then become a junior. Students who still haven&rsquo;t caught up by the end of their senior years can continue working toward a diploma at Bakersfield Adult School, said district Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Joe Thompson. They won&rsquo;t stay at their high schools for a fifth year, Thompson said. He said the district expects most students will be caught up by their fourth year of high school. &ldquo;Our goal is to catch these kids when they&rsquo;re young so they don&rsquo;t have to go to the adult school and so we can keep our graduation rates up high,&rdquo; Thompson said. No one spoke against the policy change before the school board Monday night, and many parents seem to support the change. Some, however, have criticized the district, saying the new policy is only to boost test scores. That&rsquo;s because normally sophomores take the California High School Exit Exam. The state calculates a school&rsquo;s academic performance index (API) &mdash; a measure of how schools are performing &mdash; partly by using sophomore exit exam results. In fact, those results account for 20 percent of a high school&rsquo;s API score. Freshmen who are held back this year won&rsquo;t take the exit exam next school year. Essentially, only students who passed their classes freshman year will take the exam, which might boost schools&rsquo; API scores. Also, students who are held back will have fewer chances to take the exit exam, which students must pass to graduate from high school. Thompson said students who are held back as freshmen will have six chances to take the exam instead of seven. Thompson, however, said the district believes the move will help students. There&rsquo;s no sense in students taking a test for which they&rsquo;re not prepared, he said. He and all five trustees have said the change is to help students before they fall too far behind, not to boost test scores. Trustee Chad Vegas even acknowledged Monday night that though the move might help boost the district&rsquo;s API scores, it could ultimately hurt the district&rsquo;s AYP (adequate yearly progress), a federal measure of school progress that takes graduation rates into account. If the new policy causes more students to drop out, it could hurt the district&rsquo;s AYP. &ldquo;Testing was never a part of this discussion,&rdquo; Thompson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we think will benefit our students, reduce the dropout rate. What we&rsquo;re asking is pretty reasonable.&rdquo; Still, some freshmen weren&rsquo;t happy about the change Tuesday. Bakersfield High freshman Joel Navarro said he&rsquo;s one of the 1,500 to 2,000 freshmen who might not move on to 10th grade now because of the change. &ldquo;I think it sucks,&rdquo; Navarro said of the policy change. &ldquo;Freshman year is the hardest year out of all four years. You&rsquo;re introduced to whole new things.&rdquo; Navarro said he plans to take classes this summer and is seeking extra credit now. BHS freshman Yva Schmalzer called the policy change a &ldquo;scare tactic&rdquo; that she doesn&rsquo;t think will work well. &ldquo;They told us too late in the year,&rdquo; Schmalzer said. Kern High Faculty Association President Mitch Olson made a similar argument before the board Monday night. He urged them to hold off on the policy saying it was a &ldquo;little bit rushed.&rdquo; Trustees, however, said they felt they&rsquo;d do a disservice to students by waiting. They said they didn&rsquo;t want to let one more group of failing students pass on to next grade. Schmalzer said she knows &ldquo;quite a few&rdquo; students who won&rsquo;t go on to 10th grade next school year. Other students wondered whether the new policy would lead to classes crowded with kids who were held back. Thompson said freshman class sizes won&rsquo;t be any larger because of the policy. He said schools will still have the same number of classes they would have had regardless of who was held back. The difference will likely be more freshmen sections of certain classes to accommodate those who need to repeat classes and fewer sophomore sections. Other students said Tuesday they support the change. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s better because there are people in classes who are holding other people back,&rdquo; said BHS freshman Ronald David. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t learn what they&rsquo;re supposed to, they should learn it again.&rdquo; BHS freshman Joey Chavira said he can see both sides of the issue. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s good, but also kind of unfair,&rdquo; Chavira said. en-us Wed, 09 May 2007 10:36:59 PDT Does this mean they get to play 5 years of sports? http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_88127 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_88127 Does this mean they get to play 5 years of sports? If I was a High school teacher I would think twice about this move. If you fell uneasy having to face belligerent 16 and 17 year old kids now, think of having to deal with 19, 20&nbsp; and 21 year old kids. It will be fun! http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_88447 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_88447 If I was a High school teacher I would think twice about this move. If you fell uneasy having to face belligerent 16 and 17 year old kids now, think of having to deal with 19, 20&nbsp; and 21 year old kids. It will be fun! <p>For all of those parents who are not happy with this new rule, tuff luck.&nbsp; If you were actually being good parents your children would be passing.&nbsp; It takes more effort to not pass a class then it does to pass.&nbsp; I am sick and tired of parents not taking accountability for their own offspring.&nbsp; If you do not want to be a true parent you either should not have children or should have thought about that before you had them.&nbsp; Our teachers are here to help make the next generation of our country great, why don't you get off your as*es and help them.&nbsp; Take some pride in what you have created,&nbsp;if not our country is not going to be worth living in.</p> <p>P.S.&nbsp; This is not directed to all parents, just the ones who take no part in their children's lives until it is to late.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_88944 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_88944 <p>For all of those parents who are not happy with this new rule, tuff luck.&nbsp; If you were actually being good parents your children would be passing.&nbsp; It takes more effort to not pass a class then it does to pass.&nbsp; I am sick and tired of parents not taking accountability for their own offspring.&nbsp; If you do not want to be a true parent you either should not have children or should have thought about that before you had them.&nbsp; Our teachers are here to help make the next generation of our country great, why don't you get off your as*es and help them.&nbsp; Take some pride in what you have created,&nbsp;if not our country is not going to be worth living in.</p> <p>P.S.&nbsp; This is not directed to all parents, just the ones who take no part in their children's lives until it is to late.</p> <div> <p>I would fully back a policy&nbsp;retaining students who have not met the requirements to move on to the next grade level.&nbsp; This is not that policy.&nbsp; The public is in favor of this decision because it&nbsp;SOUNDS like it has the students' best interests in mind when it actually makes NO changes to current policy except for the renaming of students to artificially boost API scores.</p> <p>The lowest achieving sophomores are simply being called freshmen a second time.&nbsp;&nbsp;Their class&nbsp;schedules and&nbsp;graduation dates are the same as before the policy.&nbsp; NOTHING changes except that when the rest&nbsp;of the sophomores go to take the &quot;census&quot; CAHSEE, we hide these students in the back calling them &quot;super-freshmen&quot;.&nbsp; </p> <p>The best part is the students have already figured the gimmick out:&nbsp; Their sophomore year is renamed &quot;freshman year part 2&quot;.&nbsp; Instead of being Freshman-Sophomore-Junior-Senior they get to be Freshman-Freshman-Junior-Senior.&nbsp; </p> <p>It's a sham.&nbsp; It's artificially inflating our scores.&nbsp; According to some H.S. students it's &quot;cheating the system&quot;.&nbsp; I think we're teaching them a lot by doing this.&nbsp; I do not believe it's&nbsp;a lesson most parents would like.</p> </div> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_91347 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_91347 <div> <p>I would fully back a policy&nbsp;retaining students who have not met the requirements to move on to the next grade level.&nbsp; This is not that policy.&nbsp; The public is in favor of this decision because it&nbsp;SOUNDS like it has the students' best interests in mind when it actually makes NO changes to current policy except for the renaming of students to artificially boost API scores.</p> <p>The lowest achieving sophomores are simply being called freshmen a second time.&nbsp;&nbsp;Their class&nbsp;schedules and&nbsp;graduation dates are the same as before the policy.&nbsp; NOTHING changes except that when the rest&nbsp;of the sophomores go to take the &quot;census&quot; CAHSEE, we hide these students in the back calling them &quot;super-freshmen&quot;.&nbsp; </p> <p>The best part is the students have already figured the gimmick out:&nbsp; Their sophomore year is renamed &quot;freshman year part 2&quot;.&nbsp; Instead of being Freshman-Sophomore-Junior-Senior they get to be Freshman-Freshman-Junior-Senior.&nbsp; </p> <p>It's a sham.&nbsp; It's artificially inflating our scores.&nbsp; According to some H.S. students it's &quot;cheating the system&quot;.&nbsp; I think we're teaching them a lot by doing this.&nbsp; I do not believe it's&nbsp;a lesson most parents would like.</p> </div> Why again is the gubermint involved in edjuwkation?? http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_91373 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_91373 Why again is the gubermint involved in edjuwkation?? great way to manipulate the numbers the state/federal government wants us to show.&nbsp; as long as there is no child left behind, the numbers games and ways to try and manipulate them will continue. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_100479 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/schooled/9075/#c_100479 great way to manipulate the numbers the state/federal government wants us to show.&nbsp; as long as there is no child left behind, the numbers games and ways to try and manipulate them will continue.