Some members of the Hamilton County School Board’s policy committee want more uniformity in district-wide policies about student cell phone use at school and policies about failing grades.
Board member Larry Grohn requested that “no grade below a 50,” an optional high school grade-recovery strategy, be placed on the December board meeting agenda for discussion.
Mr. Grohn said eventually the board should have the chance to state whether it approves of the practice by voting to add it as an official grading policy, required district-wide.
He said teachers must employ “extraordinary acrobatics” to help some students reach the 50-minimum grade. He called it “unicorns and fairytales.”
Mr. Grohn’s Letter to the Editor on the subject was published in July by Chattanoogan.com.
The county’s credit-recovery policy states that if a student earns at least a 50 in a class, the student qualifies for the state Edgenuity program, an online re-take of a whole semester course, during which the student earns a new grade.
But if a student earns a 49 in the class, he is not eligible for Edgenuity. Instead the student works with their teacher on a few key assignments within that quarter to earn no higher than a 60 in the course. This low D grade counts as a 1 in the student’s grade point average.
The “no grade below 50” strategy has the potential to significantly affect graduation rates in schools that choose to use it, it was stated.
Mr. Grohn argued that this optional strategy is a “different standard” that leads to inequity within the district. He said the 50-minimum is a “grading policy,” which means it must be approved by the school board.
Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson called the practice a “procedure” that is subject to a teacher’s professional judgement or discretion and compared it with extra credit that teachers all do differently. A “procedure” does not require approval by the school board.
Mr. Grohn told the committee that Dr. Robertson had not fulfilled his requests since May 2023 for data from the district’s 13 high schools illustrating outcomes of this strategy. The strategy was first promoted by the district in an October 2020 memo to high school principals.
Adding the grading topic to the school board agenda is a policy step meant to check what may be protection of important data.
“It would require a lot of work for us to get this done,” Dr. Robertson said.
“I don’t see how that is overworking or overburdening,” Mr. Grohn said.
CELL PHONE POLICY
This school year the board effected a cell phone ban during school hours, though high school principals and teachers may allow cell phone use for certain lessons or at lunchtime.
Board members Rhonda Thurman and Larry Grohn said all high schools should have the same policy at lunchtime, and Mr. Grohn said some high school principals are not enforcing the district cell phone policy, allowing students to check phones at the end of class and between classes.
Ms. Thurman said substitute teachers who document cell phone violations are given fake names by students. She also said that students allowed to use phones during lunchtime show no discretion and ignore each other during the whole break, a sacrifice she questions, she said.