The Windsor Unified School District (WUSD) held a special emergency meeting to try to offer a lifeline to struggling students facing the possibility of not graduating — a change to the graduation requirements for 2021.
“We knew we were going to have to review what’s going on with seniors because of the pandemic and over the last four years,” said Superintendent Jeremy Decker. “We started before winter break, but we wanted to see how first semester grades played into the graduation status for students. So, then we dove in and did analysis and engaged our counselors around what do based on the data we received. What you see is a culmination of that conversation.”
Educational Services Director Lisa Saxon explained the current statistics and the proposed changes.
“What know is that at least 73 seniors, about 19% of the class, in danger of not graduating under current requirements,” Saxon said. “Of those 73, they are credit deficient in electives by at least 100 credits total, in Integrated Math 2 and English by 118 credits and history at 91 credits. When looked at our core system and the implication of what made sense for students and what they needed still and where they were headed after their high school career, the following recommendation came forth.”
The recommendation set before the board included:
- Electives: Reduce the number of electives credits required by 20, from 75 to 55. This also means that the total number of credits required for this group of students will be 200 instead of the current 220.
- Math: Adjust the current requirement for Integrated Math 2 to Integrated Math 1 plus one other course, matching the basic state requirement. (Students will still be required to complete at least two different math courses, but the highest would now be Integrated Math 1). An additional section of Consumer Math will be opened in Odyssey, the district’s credit recovery program, for students to complete as their second math course.
In addition, there was a recommendation, which is not part of the resolution, that additional sections of Odyssey be opened for seniors in need in English and History.
Students who are still credit deficient by the end of the school year will have the opportunity to catch up in summer school, and if they can get completed by July, they will be able to be counted among the graduating cohort of 2021.
“The other piece it is really important to understand is that all students under senate bill 98 must be enrolled in 5 classes or 240 minutes of synchronous learning a day,” said Saxon. “So, for students who may not be in danger of not graduating, however they see this option in front of them and want to take advantage to lighten their load, they can only if they have met all of the other requirements … and are enrolled in more than five courses, they could entertain dropping down but they would have to meet the other (requirements).”
As the board discussed the proposal a few additional things were confirmed, such as that the changes to graduation requirements will only apply to graduating seniors of the 2020-21 school year, though Saxon said depending on what the future holds future classes may be evaluated for assistance also.
While the board, minus an absent Malinali Lopez, were all generally in favor of the resolution, Trustee Bill Adams brought up an issue that ended up taking the conversation a bit down the rabbit hole.
He expressed concern that all opportunities should be made available to all students, whether they were in danger of not graduating or not, and he also wanted to discuss the issue of kids choosing to take classes as pass/no pass rather than for letter grades in order to preserve GPAs that may have suffered in the wake of distance learning. He also pointed out that an addendum needed to be added to the resolution because as written in the course catalog of the high school, students dropping a class after two weeks (which would be the case for those pulling out of electives and Integrated Math 2) would automatically receive an F.
The pass/no pass conversation was additionally complicated by the fact that some colleges won’t accept anything but letter grades, and the California State University system only awards a “pass” to grades of C minus and above, rather than Ds as done by the high school.
Also, the question came up of whether grades from the previous semester could be changed to pass/no pass, which led teacher an union president Pete Stefanisko to posit that it may not even be legal to do so.
“I’m not sure its legal to go back and change grades, ”Stefanisko said. “If I gave a kid a D-, I’m not sure you can go back and give them a pass, because that’s not the grade they earned, you can’t go back and change what’s been issued.”
“Yea, that’s not kosher,” said Eric Heitz, who is a trustee but is a teacher in another district.
WHS assistant principal Amy Zigler also took pains to remind the board what a massive undertaking retroactively changing grades could be.
“We record over 10,000 grades per semester, so the scope of changing grades and have to be recorded in grade history and on transcripts is monumental,” she said. “The scope of how far this could go, if it’s open to all students, think about the massive work needed by our staff.”
Finally, most college applications have already been turned in for the year, but not all as some schools, primarily private schools, have rolling admissions, so it’s not entirely clear how the decision to choose letter grades or pass/no pass may affect them.
As the conversation got further and further into the weeds, and Decker stated that he needed more time to look into these issue and bring forward a proposal, Windsor High School principal Lamar Collins worked to pull the conversation back on track.
“I feel strongly we have 73 to 80 kids that need us to allow them to drop those credits and need us to say get out of Integrated Math 2. They have to earn ten credits and they are already two weeks behind,” said Collins. “I should have seen it coming and I didn’t, but we need to transfer them as soon as possible. Your point is legitimate, but for those kids that need to graduate high school, whether you continue on another discussion or talk more tonight, let’s please make a decision on those two things, for remainder of the semester so they might graduate.”
Ultimately, the board voted 4-0 to approve the resolution to change the graduation requirements, with an amendment concerning the language in course catalog to protect students dropping courses from an automatic F.
The discussions regarding providing flexibility for all students, and what that may look like, will be brought back at a future meeting.
