Learning they'll repeat third grade is hitting some youngsters - and parents - like a fist in the stomach.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published May 25, 2003
Marion Walker was waiting on her porch Tuesday when her grandchildren got off the bus and bounded up the steps. Excited that school was out for the summer, they presented her with their report cards.
Walker inspected her grandson's first. She smiled when she saw he had been promoted to the next grade. Then she looked at her granddaughter, Kwansha's.
"It said, "Your child is being retained. Your child's placement for the next school year will be third grade,' " Walker said.
"I asked her, "Do you know what retention is? It means you're going to have to repeat third grade.' She just went to pieces. I took her on my lap. She was crying so hard. I didn't know what to do. I felt so bewildered."
A group of boys huddled near their third-grade classroom door at Perkins Elementary Tuesday afternoon, their backs heaving with convulsive sobs.
Thinking they were upset because it was the last day of school, a parent who had come to pick up her son approached them and offered comfort.
"Darius failed the FCAT," they wailed, referring to one of their friends who had already gone home with his mom. Following their teacher's instructions to "be strong for Darius," the boys broke down only after he was gone.
"From the beginning of the year, he started thinking about the FCAT," Darius's mother, Denise Dixon, said the next day. "He wanted to pass because he didn't want to stay back. That's all he talked about, wanting to pass. It put a lot of pressure on him."
L.A. King was dreading her son Martin's arrival home from school on Tuesday. She knew the news she had to tell him would dampen his joy that summer vacation was starting the next day.
"I had to tell my 10-year-old child, who is well aware he is a year older than the other kids in his class, that he's going to be held back again," King said Wednesday.
Before he went to bed Tuesday night, Martin, who has a problem processing information the way other children do, told his mother his deepest fear: that he'll never be able to graduate from high school.
"He's 10 years old, and he's already thinking like that," King said. "We tell him, "Your disability does not hold you back. All you've got to do is work hard and you can do it.' But that's not the way it's going to work out for him."
Kwansha, Darius and Martin all heard the bad news on Tuesday, the last day of school, that they will be held back. They will repeat third grade.
They are among 1,858 Pinellas third-graders who learned earlier this month that they had failed the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. They are the first to suffer the consequences of a new rule passed by the Legislature that says children who are unable to demonstrate sufficient reading aptitude on the test must be held back, regardless of their classroom performance.
Under the rule, some of the third-graders can still earn promotion to fourth grade if they meet one of six "good cause" exemptions. One exemption is demonstration through a "portfolio" - a compilation of six tests - that the student is reading on grade level.
Neither Kwansha, Darius nor Martin were able to meet that criterion, so their teachers suggested they attempt one of the other exemptions: taking an alternative standardized reading assessment called the Stanford-9.
Students were given three options for taking the test. They could take it in May and learn the results before they left school for the summer. They could attend a four-week reading camp and then take the test. Or, they could wait until August to take it.
About 300 students, including Kwansha, Darius and Martin, opted to take the test right away. Their parents' reasons varied, said Elaine Cutler, assistant superintendent for elementary education. Some, like Marion Walker, felt that the reading camp could do little to raise their child's scores. They were hesitant to get their hopes up just to have them dashed again later.
Only 4 percent of the students who took the Stanford-9 in May passed, Cutler said. Kwansha, Darius and Martin were among those who failed.
Although officials in Gov. Jeb Bush's office claim the "no social promotions" policy is for the students' own good, and that it will prevent them from failing later on, parents and guardians of the children who are affected - and some educators - question the plan.
Deborah Turner is principal at Blanton Elementary School, where King's son and Walker's granddaughter are students. The majority of Blanton third-graders who failed the FCAT, including Martin and Kwansha, are students who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities, said Turner. Even with accommodations, such as additional test-taking time, children who have trouble processing information may not do well enough.
"One size does not fit all," she said.
Kwansha, who had been receiving special assistance for a language impairment, has shown great improvement since midyear, Turner said. She consistently earns B's and C's, thanks in part to the help at home from Walker, her legal guardian.
Martin, who was held back in prekindergarten at the advice of his teacher, scores B's and C's, but gets A's in writing, his mother said. Darius, who is learning to play the cello in Perkins' magnet program, earns A's in health and science and B's and C's in other subjects.
Jaya Eeten, Darius' teacher at Perkins, said the 9-year-old has shown significant progress since August despite his learning disability, and nearly passed the FCAT.
She said a team effort between parents and teachers can often be better than retention in getting a child up to grade level. Children who perform adequately in other subjects can often be placed in small reading groups with other struggling children so that they get the remedial help they need while still advancing in other areas.
In her six years of teaching, Eeten has previously held back one student. "In this case, we didn't have a choice," she said.
While the debate about whether retaining children is effective or harmful, adults who are watching their third-graders suffer the pain of not moving up with their friends cannot help but take an emotional view.
"I don't feel like you can keep passing them, but what are you going to do?" said Walker, Kwansha's grandmother. "What's going to happen next year if they can't pass? A lot of them are just going to give up."
