OXNARD : Board OKs Tougher 9th-Grade Policy

The Oxnard Union High School District Board has tentatively approved a new policy to get tough with ninth-graders who earn less than a C average in the first semester.

Board members said last week that they agree with the proposal put forward by a team of top district officials as a way to curb the high failure rate among first-year students at the district’s six high schools.

“I think it’s tremendous,” Trustee Fred Judy said of the new plan. Under the proposal, ninth-grade students who fail to earn at least a C average in their first semester would be taken out of their regular courses and put into smaller classes, where they would be held to rigorous standards of behavior and academic performance. Officials hope to put the program in place this fall.

The proposal also addresses overall academic performance in the district by setting specific standards for all teachers, administrators, students, parents and community members to meet in helping students to achieve.

But officials said that the key to improving student performance at the high schools is to focus on the ninth-grade class.

In the first semester of this school year, 38% of the 1,134 freshmen at Oxnard district’s high schools had a grade-point average of either D or F. And each year, about one-fifth of the students in freshman classes are repeating the grade.