Proposals to more closely monitor student progress from first grade through high school in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 to keep the youngsters on track to continually move toward graduation will soon be considered.
Promotion from one grade to the next will be “determined on academic growth and development and not on social reasons or other criteria,” according to information released by the district.
In the weeks ahead, the District 60 Board of Education will consider three options proposed by administrators to more specifically determine if a student is ready for the next grade.
“This will allow students to have some ownership in their learning, while holding them to academic standards,” said Jason Nault, the district’s associate superintendent for equity, innovation and accountability.
Along with the proposed retention and promotion policy, administrators suggested a revised grading system where a score of zero will no longer be given. The lowest possible failing grade will be 50%.
Though student academic progress — emphasizing reading and math — will be closely watched from the start of first grade, Nault said the closest attention will be paid to students in third, fifth and eighth grades, as well as each year of high school.
All students not making sufficient progress through their third, fifth and eighth-grade years will have the opportunity to go to the Summer Bridge summer school program to earn a promotion to the next level.
“If they are not successful in the summer, they will be retained,” Nault said. “By the end of the third quarter (of the school year), we’ll send out warning notices. Parents will get reports every five weeks starting early in the year.”
Were the program in place this year, 7.1% of third graders and 7.6% of fifth graders would be eligible for the Summer Bridge program. The number climbs to 38.6% for eighth graders, according to statistics released by the district, but the standards are different.
Elementary school students are considered far enough behind after third or fifth grade to be considered for retention if they are more than a grade level behind in both reading and math, according to the proposal.
“Math and literacy are a big part of what we’ll do in the Summer Bridge program,” Nault said. “Students in that class will get a lot of support in those areas.”
Middle school students are judged not by how far below grade level they are performing, but by their grade-point average, according to the proposal. If it is below 2.0 on a four-point scale, they need to be successful in the Summer Bridge program to advance.
Even though no one will be denied the opportunity to attend the Summer Bridge and advance, Nault said at the high-school level promotion is based strictly on credits earned in each class.
A high school student needs five credits to attain sophomore standing, nine to be a junior and 13 to enter their senior year. If they do not have nine credits at the end of their second year, Nault said they will remain at the Brookside campus for students in their first two years of high school. Credits can be earned in summer school.
When an elementary or middle school principal believes a student should repeat a year of school, Nault said they can petition the district for such an action. A parent can make the request as well.
Should the board want a less comprehensive plan, he said the administration is presenting three options. Though the standards will remain the same, the second possibility is applying them only to middle and high school students. A third choice would concentrate on high school only.
“We’re going to let the board make that decision,” Nault said.
While middle and high school students will still receive grades of A, B, C, D, or F, the grading scale will be 50 points rather than 100. Grades A through D will carry the same value, but a failing grade will be between 50 and 59, now zero and 59, according to a new proposal.
Robert Vossel, the district’s science coordinator, said a grade of zero on a test can make it nearly impossible for a student to score well enough on other exams to ever pass or earn a C.
