With less than a month left of school, some parents are receiving letters informing them their child may be required to take summer school before moving on to the next grade level.
The letters are part of the student accountability plan phase-in, which was implemented this school year for students in grades six through eight and determines whether students are promoted to grades seven through nine for the 2002-03 school year.
Under the plan, the students not meeting academic-promotion benchmarks in language arts and mathematics will either be conditionally promoted and required to take summer school or be retained and have to repeat their current grade level. The plan is an effort to end social promotion and help borderline students get the extra help they need.
Teachers, however, say the plan requires too much paperwork and takes away from their teaching time. And in the end, it does nothing to end social promotion.
"It's unworkable. It bogs down the teachers with paperwork," said Judy Johnson, president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers. "It leads to social promotion the way it's set up."
The Republican-endorsed members of the county School Board also think the plan is not ready to be phased in. During budget debates May 23, four of the seven amendments put forth by the Republicans included raiding the plan's funds to finance other programs. The amendments failed to gain majority support.
The student accountability plan was sacrificed last year due to budget cuts.
"IN MARCH, I was fairly supportive of it. I've always been against social promotion," said School Board member Mychele Brickner (At large). "In hearing from a number of teachers, and the Fairfax Education Association did a report on it, the feeling is it's not ready for prime time."
The plan was designed to identify students at risk of not learning the basic skills required at each grade level, as spelled out by the state Standards of Learning (SOLs) and the county's Program of Studies.
In the past, students who received an F were retained; however, those receiving a D could be promoted, since they technically did not fail the class.
Johnson said for example, last year, out of the entire fifth- grade class countywide, only 14 students were retained.
"This raises red flags," Johnson said. "It's saying only 14 students needed to go to summer school."
Under the plan, the student who does not meet 85 percent of the promotion benchmarks for any of the four core classes and is on track to receive a D will be conditionally promoted to the next grade. A student receiving an F in one or two core courses can also be conditionally promoted.
That means the student will be required to take summer school, and if he or she makes progress toward meeting the benchmarks, the student will go on to the next grade level. However, the student will take remediation courses the following school year, in place of an elective, in the subjects in which he needs more focused attention.
Students who receive an F in three or four core courses will be retained. They can still attend summer school, but it is not required.
The program is focusing on language arts and mathematics this year and will be phased in. The conditionally promoted sixth- through eighth-graders in English and math will be the first required to take summer school this July. The tuition will be waived for those students. In addition, students conditionally promoted in science or social studies have the option to take summer school but will be charged tuition.
"It is an intervention program," said Louise Porter, the middle school SOLs coordinator for the school system.
At a March work session, Porter told the School Board that based on first-quarter figures, the school system projected a total of 445 elementary-school-level general-education, special-education and English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students were in danger of being conditionally promoted, while 53 students were on track to be retained.
At the middle-school level, 1,617 seventh-graders were on track to be conditionally promoted, with 1,290 potentially retained. In eighth grade, the figures were 1,871 and 1,162, respectively.
Porter said the estimates tend to go down as the school year progresses and the students get back into the swing of school after the summer break. She said the third-quarter figures were not available yet.
THE PLAN does require more "teaching effort" from the teachers, said Porter, and the assessments called for in the plan are the same the teachers would be giving if the program were not in place.
"The teachers are still teaching what they would have been teaching," Porter said. "We're saying teach, and if the students are not getting it, re-teach."
Porter said teachers have said they feel it is time-consuming, but as far as the paperwork is concerned, it is a set of checklists of benchmarks. The teachers have only to fill out the checklist for the students in danger of receiving a D or F. The teachers are being asked to re-teach only those students who do not pass the assessments.
"Teachers are not used to that," Porter said. "How do you teach three or four when the rest get it?"
Johnson said the teachers support creating standards, but under this plan, the final decision regarding promotion is still out of the control of the teachers.
"How can you solve it? Leave it in the hands of the teachers. They know what to do," Johnson said. "The administrators still have the final say if a student is promoted or has to go to summer school. The teachers are not in control here."
The result, said Johnson, is social promotion will still exist in the schools.
School Board member Jane Strauss (Dranesville) said the plan does require teachers to learn a different way of benchmarking the students, but the money put in the budget for the plan will help the students in danger of failing.
"This program enables us to get to those kids at the bottom of the class," Strauss said. "If we wait until they're in 11th grade, it's too late for them. They won't get a diploma."
Beginning with the Class of 2004, students will be required to pass the end-of-course SOLs in order to graduate.
THE BUDGET approved May 23 includes $2 million to cover the cost of an additional 33 positions and remediation materials. The additional staff, 13 for the high-school level and 20 for middle-school level, will help with the remediation and summer-school classes.
"It doesn't cost extra to stop social promotion. Either the student knows the material and is ready to move on to the next level or he doesn't," Brickner said. "The part where funding comes in is to provide remediation. The plan includes conditional promotion. … I have never cared for that approach. It puts a lot of burden on the teachers already trying to meet students' needs."
During the budget debate when motions were made to cut the plan's funding to use for other programs, School Board chairman Stuart Gibson (Hunter Mill) defended the plan.
"This puts a stop to social promotion and a stop to promoting kids up through the 11th grade until they realize they can't get a diploma," Gibson said.
Strauss said, without some sort of plan to help the borderline students, the school system will see its dropout rate increase from 2 percent to 10 percent.
"That is unacceptable," Strauss said.
Porter said the plan will require more staff development and it will be reviewed regularly, and any changes that are necessary will be made.