New Proposal Aims to Stem Dropout Rate : Education: Oxnard Union High School District’s plan to improve students’ grades targets ninth-graders.

Hoping to reverse a trend of high failure rates among students, the Oxnard Union High School District on Friday announced a sweeping new, get-tough proposal to improve academic performance at its six high schools.

Prepared by a team of top district officials and principals, the education plan spells out specific responsibilities for teachers, parents, students and even community residents in helping the schools to succeed.

Although the plan, which will be considered by trustees Wednesday, focuses on enhancing learning among all 12,200 students, it targets ninth-grade students.

“The success of ninth-graders really determines their success for the other three years,” said Supt. Bill Studt, who headed the group that devised the new strategy. “We want to attack the very beginning.”

Oxnard school officials have been concerned for years about the poor performance of freshmen. In recent years, roughly 25% of Oxnard’s ninth-graders have flunked their freshmen year.

To help students improve their grades, the district team is proposing for the next school year to put all freshmen who earn less than a C average in the first semester on academic probation.

Students put on this probationary status would be taken out of their regular courses and put into small group classes where they would be held to rigorous standards of behavior and academic performance. The idea behind the proposal, Studt said, is to show ninth-graders that school is serious.

“We want to establish the environment and the expectation that school is not just a place to socialize,” Studt said. “This is not fun and games. This is not Disneyland.”

In addition to being taken out of the school’s regular classes, students on academic probation would be restricted from joining sports teams and other extracurricular activities. Under the education plan, the district would also ask for some changes from teachers.

Instead of allowing many of its best and most experienced teachers to teach mainly upper-grade students and honors classes, the district would assign some of its top instructors to teach freshmen.

Dick Butolph, president of the Oxnard Federation of Teachers, said he doesn’t believe it will make much of a difference to ask experienced teachers to take on freshman classes.

Many teachers who have honors classes already teach regular courses to students in various grades, Butolph said. “We try to move things around. It’s very boring if you teach the same thing every period.”

Board President Nancy Koch said she had not yet had a chance to examine the proposal.

But Koch said she is pleased at the idea of establishing an academic environment that lets students know they are expected to do more than squeak by with D averages.

“I don’t think that the majority of kids in high school see the importance of what they are learning in high school to their later life,” Koch said. “If you expect something of kids and let them know what you expect, let them know there’s consequences and let them know you’ll help them meet these goals, I think that will help.”