Document text
Many Medford eighth-graders struggle to pass Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Hedrick Middle School teacher Sandy Turner keeps her math students engaged during her eighth-grade class Monday morning. Teacher says many students believed grades in middle school do not matter By DAMIAN MANN Mail Tribune Medford's two middle schools helped save about 125 eighth-graders from the brink of flunking English or math last quarter. Despite this all-out effort to motivate students, about 15 percent of the 976-member eighth-grade class - 152 students - ultimately failed one or both courses. Teachers try to motivate as spring fever hits sixth-graders Some sixth-graders in Medford elementary schools have also decided to shrug off their academic duties this year. "We have the same problems," said Wilson Elementary Principal Pam Zaklan. "We start to see some slacking off as spring arrives." Teachers try to get students to fill out their daily and monthly planners, in which they are supposed to write down all assignments and their due dates. "Kids sometimes don't follow through with that," she said. On a recent field trip, Zaklan held back 12 of 56 students because they hadn't completed major projects. After contacting each of the student's parents, Zaklan said she ended up being the students' substitute teacher for two days. She made each of them complete a research project on Bear Creek. "It was too late to save them for last quarter," she said. "But it will help them on their grades for this quarter." Zaklan has noticed behavior differences in students from one year to the next. "There's always a small group that for one reason or another is lax about turning in their work," she said. "We really have to put the pressure on them to keep them motivated." Roosevelt Elementary Principal Anne Mitchell said older elementary students, particularly adolescents, sometimes put their peers and activities before their school work. "I've been teaching for 25 years, and it's not necessarily a new problem," she said. "When springtime comes, it is difficult for some to keep their nose to the grindstone." Mitchell said the problem is one that schools across the country face, particularly in the upper grades at elementary, middle or high school level. To help ensure student interest, Roosevelt began a "care calling" program in January, where for an hour or more a day, someone calls home to check with the parents about their children. Since the program began, Mitchell said attendance has improved by 1.4 percent. At Hedrick, 160 of its 508 eighth-graders were in danger of failing last term, but that number was reduced to 78. "That's really a 50 percent drop," said Principal Marjorie Lininger. McLoughlin Principal Craig Barabash said 74 out of 468 eighth-graders finally ended up failing or having an incomplete. After a progress report last term, 117 letters were sent to parents warning them their children could fail. "We had our teachers meet with the kids and talk about how they got into the situation where they got an 'F' and how to extricate themselves from the 'F,'" said Barabash. Both Hedrick and McLoughlin have warned students that they might end up in a new two-week summer school program if they fail either of these two required courses. Lininger said some eighth-graders had the mistaken belief that their grades in middle school don't count, and they initially didn't take the threat of summer school seriously. Attendance has been a problem, she said, with the school counting 15 students who missed 30 days, with a few who missed 60 or more days. "There is not much of a way that people who come to school that irregularly will ever learn anything," said Lininger. She said parents who are contacted offer a number of reasons why their children don't go to class. Some say they can't control their child; others say their child has been sick, but refuse to offer a doctor's slip as proof. The school made repeated attempts to contact parents and met frequently with students to find out why they're failing. "It's not as though we're not doing our jobs," said Lininger. School officials finally turned the tide on failing students when teachers had a series of meetings with each of the eighth-graders. Even so, Lininger remains dismayed by the large number of flunking students. "We have these 78 students who simply won't respond," she said. Of these, 25 flunked both English and math. Barabash said 46 of his students had one 'F' and 28 had two. While he applauded the efforts of teachers to get some students back on track, he said, "There are just some kids who aren't going to make it." A combination of factors leads to a student's poor performance, said Barabash, including the perception that eighth-grade doesn't matter as well as ongoing problems with study habits. McLoughlin students aren't out of the woods yet, because eighth-graders still must pass their classes in the last quarter or risk being added to the summer school list. "We're hoping we won't get a dramatic increase," he said Barabash isn't sure how the large number of failing students will affect the school's assessment scores announced later this year. "The interesting thing about the assessments is it's a one-and-a-half-hour snapshot of the year," he said. "I hope they would take the test and do their best." Teachers on the front line of the failing student problem said it was hard to turn the tide. Sandy Turner, Hedrick mathematics department coordinator, said, "We have seen a positive upswing. Their attitudes seem to have improved." Sally Killen, Hedrick English department coordinator, said that after the school announced the summer school program, many students initially reacted with an air of bravado and didn't take the threat seriously. Ultimately, the students realized there would be a consequence to their actions and suddenly the bravado became a stigma. But getting these students back on track has been a Herculean effort for teachers, who have spent lunch and after-school time providing more personalized help to as many as 12 students at a time. Some of these eighth-graders have required a lot of hand-holding to get them over this hump. "In some cases, we gave them the list of missing assignments six times," said Killen. Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.