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School board lowers credits students need to graduate
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 |
LARGO – High school students in Pinellas County need fewer credits to graduate, effective as of the April 15 School Board meeting.
The amendment passed 5-2, with Commissioners Mary Tyus Brown and Janet Clark dissenting.
This amendment reduces the credit requirement from 29 to 24 for schools with a 4x4 class schedule. The graduation requirement for schools with six period days was already 24 credits.
The 4x4 schools have four classes a day for 85 minutes, versus the six period days of other high schools which have six classes a day for about 50 minutes, said Harry Brown, deputy superintendent.
Full credits at 4x4 schools are completed by December or January rather than at the end of the year like six period schedule courses, so students have the opportunity to earn more credits, the deputy superintendent said. Therefore, they had been held to a higher standard.
Commissioner Brown said she voted against the amendment because she disagrees with the timing being so close to the end of the school year, not because she disagrees with the policy. Clark said she’s concerned this will lower the county’s standards. Not all kids are highly motivated, she said.
“When they have achieved their 24 credits, they’ll say, ‘Hey, I don’t need this class, why am I going to go out and take more?’” Clark said. “You’ve got to have a carrot and a stick, and I think telling kids they’re going to take classes because they’re good for you is not going to be a good enough argument for our teenagers.”
Commissioner Carol Cook said that was her initial reaction too, but said she changed her mind when she realized Pinellas County has been holding students to higher standards than the rest of the state by requiring 29 credits. She said the timing had to be now because otherwise students could be disadvantaged next year.
“If we go ahead and put it into effect next year,” Cook said, “we might have a student who comes back because they thought they needed more credits to graduate, and then they come back the first day and the new policy’s in place and now they qualify to graduate, where they couldn’t walk with their classmates.”
High school students still need to attend school for four full years if they choose the 24 credit program when they enter high school. If they choose the accelerated 18 credit college preparatory or career preparatory program, then they have three years to graduate and must meet specific benchmark goals along the way, according to a school policy.
The School Board also unanimously passed an amendment to the policy regarding reporting high school students’ progress and class ranking. This policy states students will not be required to take a final exam if they have a provisional course grade of “A” or “B” based on grades from a designated point in the term. The policy also includes guidelines for how students may retake courses to replace grades of a “D” or “F” with higher grades.
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Article published on Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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