The Great Motivator West Valley High Takes A Hard Line On Academic Standards, Relying On Peer Pressure To Keep Students Up To Speed

West Valley High School has created a new definition of what it means to be a senior, a junior, a sophomore or a freshman.

Tired of watching students fail one or more classes and stagger from year to year, Principal Cleve Penberthy this year set specific standards for each grade level.

“We are trying to get your kids’ attention,” Penberthy said. “If you have just five credits coming into your junior year, you’ve dug a deep hole. You get frustrated; you get behind; you want to leave.”

In the past, students have moved on to the next grade, regardless of failed classes.

The state requires that students have 22 credits to graduate from high school.

West Valley went further, creating grade-by-grade academic levels.

Freshmen need between 0 and 5 credits.

Sophomores need between 5 and 11 credits.

Juniors need between 11 and 16 credits.

Seniors need between 16 and 22 credits.

No other high school in the Spokane Valley has such standards.

What gives this set of standards any teeth?

Penberthy used a motivational staple of teenagers: Peer pressure.

Not enough credits to be a junior? In September, that student is still a sophomore, with his or her locker among the sophomore lockers; with his or her picture published in the sophomore section of the yearbook. And, by the way, no tickets to the junior prom.

And the biggie: Students who don’t keep earning credits on track know way, way in advance that as seniors they won’t walk across the stage with their buds on graduation day.

Teachers, parents and others like the changes, although some acknowledge that this program won’t motivate all struggling students.

“I’m a great fan of it,” said Jody Cahalan, head of the social studies department. For some students, especially the more social students, “it’s a real motivator.” She told of one student who moved “like a fire had been built under him” as soon as he learned of the new standards.

“I’m thrilled to death to see it,” said counselor Tami Henry. “Kids shouldn’t just move along because they’re older.”

Parent Judy Vermeers said her sense is that other parents are saying, “It’s about time.”

How many kids do the new standards affect?

One way of measuring is to look at the change in the size of last year’s sophomore class, to this year’s junior class. Not all of the change is due to insufficient credits. Some students moved out of the district; others moved in.

Still, it’s a dramatic shift: About 190 sophomores finished the year last spring; 151 juniors started at West Valley this fall.

West Valley staff also worried about the number of eighth-graders who left Centennial Middle School even after failing one or more core classes: English, math, social studies and science.

Penberthy and West Valley Superintendent Dave Smith met last spring with parents of certain Centennial students. The message was clear: Students need to take their studies seriously. “We have hard data: Kids who are failing English there, have a rough time in high school,” Penberthy said.

The district already has several programs designed to help keep students on track at all stages, starting as early as pre-school.

But an intense two-year debate about excellence, failure and accountability led to this restructuring. Memos flew last year among high school staff members. One was titled “Bite the Bullet.” It advocated strong measures to protect the traditional serious students at West Valley; and generated a stinging retort from the “Bullet Free Committee.”

Another memo stated: “it is time to STOP THE ACADEMIC BLEEDING … Kids who don’t succeed need, maybe, more time, more resources, more help. They don’t need to be ‘moved along’ while we cross our fingers and hope for some divine intervention to set them straight. We know it doesn’t work that way.”

The new standards are not an instant solution.

“We’re not going to fix this tomorrow,” said Superintendent Smith.

In October, at the end of the first quarter, 68 of the 244 ninth-graders enrolled at West Valley failed one or more classes. Grades for the first half of the year are being compiled now.

Penberthy and others have wrestled with just how to handle ninth- and 10th-graders who’ve failed their first-semester English class.

Penberthy believes there’s a link between those struggles and a lack of reading skill.

For second semester, three reading classes will be scheduled. A reading class is being instituted at the middle school, as well. Also, freshmen and sophomores who failed their first semester English class will be assigned to English classes focusing on basic skills.

Smith believes that the extra communication between the high school and parents of eighth-graders is one of the best things to come out of the change.

“I liken it to going to a smorgasbord. If you go ahead and tell the kids to help themselves, everyone helps themselves to dessert and no one takes the meat and potatoes. This way we can set a little direction.”

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