Held Back Learning Experience In Tacoma Starting A Program To Retain More Students Scary, Expensive

Scary? “Very.”

That’s how Joe Willhoft describes being among the first in the state to devise a plan to retain more kids.

“We prefer to call it a promotion policy,” said Willhoft, research and evaluation director for Tacoma public schools.

Whatever you call it, students will have to start proving they’re ready before advancing to the next grade. And there’s “no question” more kids will be retained, Willhoft said.

Next year’s fifth-graders will be the first in Tacoma required to meet new standards before moving on to sixth grade. Eighth-graders will come on board later.

“We’re kind of out on the leading edge here,” Willhoft said. “Our superintendent is willing for this to be a learning experience.”

Parents helped create the new plan and keeping them involved is critical, he said.

They’ll be notified by mid-November if their kids are struggling, so the family and teachers have plenty of time to help the student recover.

Educators still are hashing out how to handle students who don’t make the grade. “Will there be a number of students who’ll return as fifth-graders, or will be required to take summer school, or will move to middle school but be considered fifth-graders for several weeks until they catch up?” he said. “We really don’t know how that is going to work out yet.”

Students who aren’t promoted might go to special classrooms designed to help them with problem areas. District officials set aside $300,000 for the first year’s effort, but they expect it’ll cost much more.

His advice to districts interested in rethinking retention polices: “If you wait, you’ll never implement it. At some point, you have to run with it.”

Families in the Yakima School District also will face radical changes starting next year, said Dan Penhallegon, the district’s curriculum manager.

“Parents would come in and tell the principal, ‘My kid will do better next year. Just pass him along.”’ Penhallegon said. “The kids had the attitude, ‘I don’t really have to work.”’

No more. Students who wish to move from grades 5 and 8 now must attend school regularly, pass the basic subjects and demonstrate skills in math, reading, writing and communication.

The district is kicking $450,000 into its summer school program, Penhallegon said, so students can get a chance to catch up without repeating a grade.

Students in Seattle also can expect more scrutiny next spring with the debut of a policy to hold students more accountable before promotion. Students in grades 3 and 5 will have to prove themselves with good schoolwork and test scores, said Dorothy Dubia, spokeswoman for Seattle Public Schools.

Teachers will evaluate students’ progress quarterly so they’ll have time to get extra help for those falling behind. Grades 8 and 11 will be phased in later.

Ellen Roe, who’s been on Seattle’s school board 22 years, thinks it’s about time students are held accountable.

She’s not impressed with theories linking retention to damaged self-esteem. “That’s malarkey,” she said. “It hurts them more if they can’t read.”

, DataTimes