Initiatives studied to keep students on pace to graduate

8th-grade GPA no longer to be bar to freshman sports

Friday, May 22, 2009

A task force of educators, community members, parents and students was formed to address these issues.

The school system is in the process of removing the GPA requirement for students to enter freshman sports, based on a recommendation from the task force. In the past a freshman could not join school sports teams if his or her eighth-grade GPA was below 1.75.

This policy is "probably, actually preventing access to those programs to some of those students that needed them the most," said Great Mills High School Principal Tracey Heibel.

Joining a sports team or other club can help a student become part of the high school community, Heibel said. It also gives the student a de facto mentor in the form of a coach or club leader.

Participation in sports often is linked to better academic performance, she said.

One out of four high school freshmen failed to earn enough credits at the end of their ninth grade year to go on to 10th grade in 2007. The majority of the failed courses were in core content areas — English, math, science and social studies. "We definitely had a problem," said Scott Smith, director of secondary instruction, administration and school improvement.

He said that many of the students who were retained were able to attend summer school or evening high school, "and many of them recovered credits."

That rate did improve somewhat last year and Smith said he hopes to see further improvement at the end of this school year.

Over the last several years St. Mary's public schools have been above the 2 percent threshold set by the state for dropout rate; the county schools topped out in 2006 at 4 percent, or 217 students.

Those students considered economically disadvantaged were even worse off, according to the data, and showed a dropout rate of 6.6 percent.

Smith said the data was "very startling, very unsettling and quite frankly, it said we were not getting it right the first time."

Changes put in place seem to be working, he said. "We may very well be on the way to the very lowest dropout rate this system has posted," Smith said.

"We're going to see even further reductions in dropout rate for ninth grade and across the board," Smith said.

Smith said the graduation rate is the most important piece of data coming out of high schools."We need to get it up to 90 percent," he said.

Over the last several years the graduation rate in St. Mary's has ranged from 85.8 percent to 87.7 percent.

Fairlead Academy student Kyle Harmon said in middle school he often did not do his work and was ready to drop out of school.

"At Fairlead, I wasn't able to get away with it. They wouldn't let me fail," he said. "I realize now graduating from high school is something I have to do."

Superintendent Michael Martirano will increase the school population at Fairlead from 60 to 72 freshmen next year.

This will raise the class size ratio slightly to one teacher for every 12 students. The school is intended to serve students who struggled academically in middle school.

He said he is looking for ways to create another freshman academy in another area of the county.

School board members questioned what would happen to the Fairlead freshmen next year when they become 10th-graders and return to their home high schools. School officials said some may be able to stay at Fairlead as sophomores for perhaps part of the day.

School board member Cathy Allen asked "Is that going to happen next year?"

Martirano replied at the meeting, "I'm not ready to reveal that at this time."

He said the budget implications of allowing sophomores to stay at the school, even for just part of the school day, would have to be weighed.

Allen also asked about using what she called an "external diploma" program, which would rely on an off-site vendor to provide services to high school students.

"It's kind of a modified charter school," Smith said after the meeting. A private company would be paid based on a per pupil rate to usher to graduation a small group of up to 45 juniors and seniors. "We need to have something for them," Smith said, describing a subset of students who need an intense focus to stay on track and graduate.

He said it is unlikely a program like this would be able to start next school year, he said.

jyeatman@somdnews.com