Schools Keep F but Add Chance to Replace It : Education: Backing down from their controversial plan to kill failing grades altogether, trustees instead decide to give struggling students an opportunity to take courses over.

San Diego city secondary school students will continue to receive F grades if they fail a course, but they will have a chance to earn a higher mark if they take the class again and pass it.

In the face of spirited opposition from many principals and teachers, as well as the public, city schools trustees Tuesday backed down from a controversial policy passed only last month to eliminate F grades in secondary schools and replace them with a no-credit mark.

Instead, they decided on a grade-replacement plan recommended by a committee of secondary-school principals and trustee John de Beck, the only board member to oppose the original plan. Under the new plan, which will apply at all middle, junior and senior high schools, any student earning a D or F will have a chance to earn a higher grade if he or she successfully repeats the course.

After the vote, trustees said the revised policy still accomplishes what they were aiming for when they adopted the no-credit plan last month. It had been one of the recommendations from a citizen Round Table advisory committee to help reduce the number of dropouts.

The idea was to avoid damaging student self-esteem and adopt a “more positive” attitude by showing students that a poor academic effort would not be held against them if they tried harder a second or third time.

But critics argued that the policy sent a message to students that they are not responsible for the consequences of their actions as long as they make a commitment to work harder a second time.

Although Supt. Tom Payzant still believes that a no-credit policy is a more enlightened path to follow, he conceded Tuesday that he “had missed the depth of emotional feeling” among most teachers and principals concerning the F grade.

“But I think the idea of having a policy that will motivate a student a second time was accomplished today, and I think it is better to move on and not dwell on this any longer,” Payzant said after the board’s action.

Even after the vote, there was no consensus on whether there was any difference between an F and a no-credit beyond the psychological effect.

However, several senior high principals said they were satisfied with the board’s action. But they cautioned that trustees must consult with individual schools more regularly on proposed policy changes before passing them.

The lack of consultation, as much as the no-credit policy itself, enraged a majority of the district’s secondary principals during the past month.

“This would not happen if someone would share new ideas with us before they become district policy, especially controversial ones,” Jim Vlassis, principal at Mira Mesa High School, said in speaking for his colleagues.

“We proposed years ago providing an opportunity for students to repeat a course and have the F eliminated, but for whatever reasons, the policy remained as is--until the Round Table came forth as the ‘conscience of the district’ to say there will be no more failures, and the board accepted that recommendation.”

The “conscience” comment referred to remarks by Round Table chairman and Latino community activist Irma Castro, who called her committee the district’s “conscience” two weeks ago in arguing that trustees must push principals and teachers “not to expect that a large number of students would fail in school.”

Vlassis roared on Tuesday: “We have never wanted to brand students as a failure for life. That’s an unfair and inaccurate comment. We suggest that the F grade remain as one of the student options to earn, and rest assured, they earn it.”

Trustee Susan Davis, who last week talked with a group of students at Hoover High retaking English because they had failed it, said the students “really didn’t see no-credit and an F as really very different, except as kind of a semantic (difference), as a bit superficial.

“But they liked the idea of a replacement grade.”

Round Table member Claude Townsend, who during the debate castigated opponents for being hostile to the idea that “all students can succeed,” was more diplomatic after the vote.

“It’s close to what we proposed, to give a student a chance to make up a grade,” he said. “But there are some kids for whom an F would be destructive” to their self-esteem and willingness to continue with school.

Trustee De Beck, along with colleague Ann Armstrong, said that, in the interest of fairness, any student earning less than an A should be allowed to repeat a course for a higher grade.

But other trustees, mindful of their lack of consultation with teachers and principals on the original plan, said the idea of allowing a student with a B to take a course over again for an A should be discussed at schools in the fall before any decision is made.

Board President Shirley Weber said students with straight A’s earned in courses taken only once might argue that it would be unfair to share valedictorian honors with a fellow senior who had taken a course twice to gain an A.

“I’m saying that could very well happen,” Weber said, to the assent of Payzant.

Principals agreed with the trustees’ vote to consult on the equity issue.

“Allowing a student with a B or C to take the course over again needs a heck of a lot more discussion,” Vlassis said, with La Jolla Principal J.M. Tarvin and Mission Bay High Principal Maruta Gardner nodding in agreement. “If this issue is about dropout prevention, then allowing that only confuses the issues.”