School District Won't Hold Failing Students Back Anymore

Baltimore City Public Schools announced a new grading policy this week that allows the district to move tens of thousands of students who have failed at least one class up to the next grade level.

Chief Academic Officer Joan Dabrowski said via CNN that the change is meant to "avoid the punitive approach of failing students," who will be assessed in the fall to complete their missed course.

Here are the details: a high school student with a failing grade will receive a "No Credit" instead of an E or F that'd force the student to stay back. Second through eighth grade students will see their failing "Unsatisfactory" or "Fail" remarks replaced with "Not Completed."

While the idea that failing and passing students should move on together sounds like something AOC's Squad would campaign for, Dabrowski says the decision actually comes as a result of students struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic. If that's the case, and it's not some bogus claim that test scores are racist, I'm fine with it. In fact, it's the right call.

Of all our leaders' poor decisions made over the past 12 months, the decision to force students to stay home remains the most inexcusable and consequential. No politician or teacher union rep can justify what they took away from students across the country. The lost social and academic growth over the past year could have ramifications for years to come. 

Virtual learning was never a practical alternative for most students.

Get this: Baltimore City Public Schools says that 63% of middle and high school students are failing at least one class. That's nearly 25,000 students out of the 40,000 in the district. That's not on the students -- that's on the decision-makers.

The data is just as damning for elementary students. In the same district, 51% of students in grades second-fifth and 37% in Kindergarten-first grade have failed at least one course this school year.

Students not only struggled to learn virtually, but some struggled to attend at all. Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises found that, at times, only 65% had even logged on.

This problem spans far beyond Baltimore. A study in May claims that almost three million children have dropped out of full-time school “because of the shift to virtual learning from in-classroom learning.”

Students have suffered enough. For now, exceptions should be made. Baltimore City Public Schools made the right decision. That said, this should be an exception that ends after next year when, hopefully, a normal school year nears completion. Don't let this become permanent.