“Setting low expectations for students does not help them; it insults them. When we give a student a certificate that means little, we insult her by suggesting that she is not smart enough to know the difference. It is hard to inspire students to leap over a bar which they know they are allowed to walk under,” said TUSD Governing Board President Dr. Mark Stegeman of social promotion.
For too long and for too many TUSD students there was no standard for promotion from the eighth grade. Teachers watched helplessly as students were promoted out of their classrooms with few if any academic skills. The students had been passed through the school system without the ability to read or write at the most basic levels, despite the objections of conscientious teachers, to satisfy uninvolved administrators and unknowing and sometimes uninterested parents.
Many of those students received a “Certificate of Promotion” signed by district and school administrators and often times, the Pima County Superintendent of Public Schools, Linda Arzoumanian. The meaningless certificates satisfied no standards, but the low standards required to make adults feel good about their failed efforts.
At this week’s TUSD Governing Board meeting, the Board will consider a motion to develop criteria for receiving a Certificate of Promotion. Dr. Mark Stegeman, in response to requests from educators and the public, will introduce a proposal to instruct staff to “develop and bring to the board new proposed policy which shall specify the criteria for issuing 8th grade promotion certificates, as permitted by A.R.S. 15.701.F and respecting the standards mandated by A.R.S. 15.701.C.2.”
At the last meeting of the TUSD Governing Board, Adelita Grijalva grew enraged at the very mention of such a proposal. Ignoring the fact that the proposal was a policy decision, which is the responsibility of the Board, Grijalva snapped, “I object to you as the Board President being able to put this on the agenda, you didn’t go through any middle school staff. I have a real issue with one individual board member putting something on the agenda. I have an issue with that.”
To which Stegeman responded, “The point of having a public discussion is to involve the public.”
Both the public and staff were involved in urging Stegeman to present this proposal.
Grijalva has no problem placing her issues of interest on the Board’s agenda.
Grijalva is asking her fellow Board members to vote for a waiver of graduation requirements for students who have failed the AIMS test, who want to “walk” in graduation ceremonies. Last year, she called for and received the same waiver. Of the 149 students who received the waiver, approximately 30 returned to complete their graduation requirements.
Stegeman’s proposal is not meeting resistance from the African American plaintiffs in the desegregation case. They have not objected to the proposal, and have insisted that the district implement long promised programs to ensure that all students are not neglected in the early grades making them victims of retention in later grades.
For over thirty years both teachers and the African American plaintiffs have fought for closing the achievement gap, and ensuring that all children leave the third grade with at least third grade reading skills.
Robert Aguilar, a teacher at Valencia Middle School, who has fought for kids and to end social promotion in TUSD for years said, “I have a concern regarding the lack of academic requirements in most TUSD schools, specifically in grades K-8. The basis for my concern is our practice of promoting all students while totally ignoring the academic requirements for promotion from grade level to grade level established by Arizona Revised Statute 15-701 (C)(2) and District Policy IKE-R. Personally, I believe our actions are illegal and would be considered fraud in any other business.”
“The result of our unwritten policy of promoting all students, unfortunately, rarely affects the adults who are committing the act, we still get paid. The victims are the students who are routinely sent to high school even though they are in no way ready to succeed at that level as evidenced by the dropout rate,” Aguilar continued.
Rich Kronberg of Tucsonans United 4 Sound Districts said, “The draft proposal circulated by Dr. Stegeman is a necessary first step in the process of ending “social promotion” and focuses TUSD’s efforts in the right place. Dr. Stegeman’s approach of asking staff to come up with systems, approaches and timelines to make sure all students have opportunities to succeed is exactly what needs to happen. This is not about punishing students because teaching students who have fallen significantly behind is very hard to do, nor is it about rewarding student failure in the name of protecting their self-esteem. It is about making sure systems are in place to prevent the failures in the lower grades that make it almost impossible for students to catch up once they fall significantly behind their peers. Now is not the time for the Governing Board to kick this can further down the road. Now is the time to recognize that pushing failure on to another grade or another school is not acceptable, that it will require a serious effort and maybe even out-of-the-box thinking to reduce and eliminate the systemic failures that have led to social promotion, and that this level of accountability from the TUSD Governing Board and administration is what the public wants.”
The proposal requires that the “criteria, which should be clear and objective, should include requirements based on state testing outcomes and, separately and in addition, requirements based on credit and grades earned; they may make separate provision for special education and ELL students. Additional (not substitute) criteria based on attendance and district testing may be included. If adopted by the board, these criteria shall be in force and binding for the issuing of 8th-grade certificates at the end of academic year 2012-13.
Staff should, at the same time, present evidence that the proposed criteria reflect, at minimum, nationally accepted standards for academic achievement for 8th-graders.
Recognizing that current students are not responsible for the past practices of the district, the board’s intention is that the new policy create no new barrier, for any student who completes 8th grade in a TUSD school, to the matriculation into a TUSD high school in academic year 2013-14; in particular, the revised 8th-grade certificate shall not be a requirement for admission.
Staff should however bring to the board a timeline for full implementation of a policy which establishes the holding of the 8th-grade certificate, potentially with narrowly defined exceptions to be approved by the board, as a prerequisite for advancing to high school. This policy should include guidelines for the notification of students, and their families, who are at risk. The timeline should reflect the need to improve student support and interventions and to clarify promotion criteria, in earlier grades, to ensure that students have adequate and equitable opportunities to meet the criteria for promotion to high school.”
Staff should bring these proposed new policies to the board by [date].
The board’s ultimate goal is to enhance student achievement to a degree which minimizes the need for retention and which improves all students’ chances of success after they leave the district.
Staff shall report to the board, at the end of each academic year, the fraction of 8th-graders at each middle school who have earned the 8th-grade promotion certificate.”
Dr. John Pedicone is resisting the new criteria. He and Board member Miguel Quevas prefer to make cosmetic changes which will help them “sell” the district to the public.
Related articles:
TUSD’s social promotion policy perpetuates fraud on community
TUSD’s social promotion rejected as more states retain 3rd graders
Tucson community leader takes on TUSD’s social promotion policy