Up to 2,000 may repeat a grade this year

Andrew Wainer

Fall parent-teacher conferences in Huntington Beach area elementary and

middle schools took on an urgent tone this year as more than 2,000

parents face the possibility of schools holding their children back.

In addition to parent conferences, Ocean View, Fountain Valley and

Huntington Beach City School Districts have just finished sending out

letters notifying some parents that their children are at risk for

retention under the new state legislation passed last year.

The law, signed by former Gov. Pete Wilson last fall, has sent local

districts scrambling to ensure that students don’t fall behind.

Districts are offering after-school and weekend tutoring, a special

summer session and continual assessment programs to help students at risk

for retention.

Fountain Valley School District Supt. Marc Ecker pinpointed the sense of

emergency the law has fostered among district officials: “We have never

been so focused on how we spend our classroom time as we have been this

year,” he said.

The law effectively ended the state’s previous practice of “social

promotion” -- advancing students based on their age rather than academic

performance.

Before the new law, parents had veto power over schools’ recommendation

that students be retained.

The new legislation gives school districts the final decision about

retaining students in grades two through six.

And with more than 2,000 local students identified as at risk for

retention, districts are now unrolling a battery of assessments and

remedial programs to help ensure that as many students as possible

advance.

Ocean View, the largest of the elementary and middle school districts in

the area, sent out almost 1,300 letters to parents warning that their

children were at risk for retention.

The number of letters equals about 10% of the district’s students.

“We prefer to err on the side of warning students about their status

rather than let them slip through the cracks,” Ocean View Supt. Jim

Tarwater said.

Still, he said that the number of students identified as at risk made him

nervous.

Ocean View students’ academic level was assessed this fall using district

math, reading and writing tests.

All students will be tested at least three times to gauge their academic

progress, with some students being tested up to six times, Tarwater said.

Students will also be required to take the state-designed Stanford

Achievement Test in the spring.

Students scoring in the bottom 22 percentile of the test will be at risk

for retention, Tarwater said.

Districts are using a combination of methods and standards to test

whether students are ready to advance in grade level.

The Fountain Valley School Distinct has used grades, teacher

recommendation and standardized test scores to determine if students are

ready to move ahead.

“I’m alarmed at the number of our students who are at risk,” Ecker said.

His district sent out more than 600 letters notifying parents that their

children were either “possibly” or “seriously” at risk for retention,

Ecker said.

Parents were also informed at parent teacher conferences about how they

can help improve their child’s performance.

Reading to their children and helping with homework are some of the

methods district administrators have suggested.

But just as the districts begin to finish parent conferences and mailings

to help parents get their children on track, the districts are also

offering a slew of extra programs to help students who are not making the

grade.

The Huntington Beach City School District, which sent home 268 parent

letters for at-risk students, is offering after-school tutoring and

Saturday classes, Supt. Duane Dishno said.

Some of the districts will also be offering a special summer school,

where students will have a final opportunity to increase their

performance before the start of the next school year.

But district administrators said that the state is not providing enough

money locally to maintain the remedial programs necessary to help

students.

“This is another example of the state mandating programs that they are

not willing to fund,” Ecker said.

He said districts are given $2.53 per student per hour for remedial

classes.

The funds are barely enough to pay teachers for working the extra hours

to teach the often-difficult classes, Ecker added.

But in spite of the lack of funds and the scare that the new law has put

into parents, teachers and administrators, many officials support it.

“I like the seriousness I have seen since the law was passed,” Ecker

said. “It has us focused as never before on how to optimally use class

time for teaching and learning.”

Huntington Beach City Assistant Supt. Mary Ellen Blanton said the new

standards have unified the district.

“Now we are all studying the same thing,” she said. “The standards have

put us on the same page.”

Donna Alexander, president of College View’s Parent, Teacher Student

Association, said the new law has boosted parents’ involvement in school.

“Parents have jumped into the educational process to help their

children,” she said. “This change is long overdue.”

Alexander said that in the past teachers had no choice but to promote

children due to parental pressure.

She said that while many students are worried about the social stigma

associated with being held back, most are able to advance if given the

proper help.

“Most of these kids can be saved,” Alexander said. “But it’s going to

take many hours of help from parents and teachers.”