Schools Not Holding Back on Aid for Failing Kids

By the end of next year, schools will be prohibited by state law from promoting failing students to a higher grade. But school districts throughout Orange County are preparing early--meeting with parents, tutoring struggling students and, in some cases, already retaining poor performers.

For example, Saddleback Valley Unified School District has begun a remedial tutoring program for students who are in danger of failing their classes and being kept back. And Orange Unified, which began retaining failing middle-school students two years ago, has expanded the policy to the entire district.

Social promotion, the practice of passing flunking students, has been standard across the county and state, according to many school officials. A law signed by former Gov. Pete Wilson at the end of his term, however, bans the practice as of next year.

Most schools are hoping that early identification and tutoring of struggling students will help them avoid holding students back.

“Instead of failing a student and having them repeat all of second grade, maybe additional help might just get them over that hurdle,” said Colleen Wilson, principal at La Madera Elementary, home to one of Saddleback’s tutoring programs.

Traditionally, in Saddleback Valley, children who are not up to grade level have repeated kindergarten or first grade, or later on, the eighth grade.

At Serrano Intermediate School in Lake Forest, however, students who fail more than three classes or earn below a 1.5 grade-point average don’t go on to high school.

“About 1% of our population is held back traditionally each year,” said guidance counselor Gary Gray, although some students are automatically promoted if they reach a certain age.

“We don’t want them driving to junior high,” he said. “We don’t have enough parking spaces.”

Saddleback may be further along than many districts in terms of starting programs geared to the new policy, but every district throughout the county has begun the process.

“The idea is not to fail students but to get every student to move ahead or to provide the support for those who are falling behind,” said Bill Habermehl, associate superintendent for educational services at the Orange County Department of Education.

“Also,” he said, “if you just start holding students back, “the psychological impact on a family is devastating, and there’s not a district in Orange County that wants to see that happen.”

Now is the time for massive community support of the new policy, he said. More after-school, weekend and summer tutoring programs will be needed.

Parents of children failing right now should make immediate appointments with their children’s teachers.

“Don’t wait until the end of the semester to do it,” Habermehl said.

In Buena Park, Supt. Carol Holmes Riley said she and other district officials began meeting with parent committees as soon as the law passed.

The district’s goal is to have a policy in place within the next month or two.

“I look at this as an opportunity not to hold kids back but to ensure their success,” Riley said.

Buena Park’s policy, however, will be tailored to suit the needs of its multilingual school population, she said.

About half the district’s students are not fluent in English, and those students will be measured more by their rates of improvement than on a prescribed level of skills.

“We have kids that enroll in our schools in fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, but who have no English,” she said. “Do you say you can’t move out of seventh grade until you can do all the seventh-grade work? That doesn’t make any sense.”

How much money the district will spend to end social promotion and implement intervention programs has not been calculated, Riley said.

The most immediately apparent change will occur this summer in Buena Park and probably other districts.

The summer school program, which used to offer many enrichment classes, now will focus on the basics of education.

“If you only have x amount of dollars, you have to serve the kids who are not succeeding,” Riley said.

Although most districts welcome the new policy, Habermehl said, retaining significant numbers of students will present its own set of problems. Schools already are overcrowded; finding space for extra students will be difficult.

Officials at Capistrano Unified School District said they too have a history of having students repeat failed grades, especially in the middle school. Like Orange, the district now is reconciling its policy with the new state guidelines.

Capistrano students, however, won’t be retained under the new policy until the 2000-01 school year.

“What we’re doing right now is taking preventive steps,” said Susan McGill, executive director of elementary instructional services.

The district offers remedial tutoring in reading, writing, listening and speaking, and plans to add other subjects.

Times correspondent Alex Katz contributed to this story.