Record Number of O.C. Students Not Promoted

By JESSICA GARRISON

Aug. 31, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

As children across Orange County stream back to school next week, a new state law banning social promotion will force at least 5,060 students to return to the same grade--far more than ever before.

Disturbed that too many California students were reaching high school without basic reading and math skills, state lawmakers in 1998 forced local school districts to draft new policies to end social promotion in the second through eighth grades. Many districts are also holding back kindergartners and first-graders.

A Times review of the 26 school districts affected by the mandate shows that while most of the 20,000-plus children at risk of failure improved enough during summer school and other special programs to advance to the next grade, thousands did not.

The picture is unclear statewide, because state officials say it is up to individual districts to compile their own numbers.

But in Orange County, officials said the numbers of children dramatically increased this year. For example, Anaheim City School District will hold back 200 students this year compared with just 27 last year.

Like many school officials, Cal Burt, alternative basic education principal of the 34,000-student Saddleback Unified School District, is ambivalent about the new policy. His district will hold back 420 students, compared to 225 in kindergarten through sixth grade last year.

“I think it’s good that kids are expected to perform and meet the standards, but I know it is a difficult thing for the children and their parents socially,” he said.

Bonnie Wong, a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School in Anaheim, said she agonized over her decision to hold back three students. Wong said one of her students began weeping when he learned he would have to repeat fifth grade. A second was more stoical and vowed to work hard to improve.

Trying to escape that fate, many spent hours in summer school classes, Saturday programs and after-school tutorials.

Most caught up enough that their teachers have approved them for promotion in the last few weeks. But others did not.

“It’s heart-wrenching,” Wong said. “You want to see them succeed, and they are trying. And it’s tough on the parents. They’re so proud of their kids, and some of the kids have more education than they do, so they can’t help at home.”

Wong said she had “a lot of reservations about the program. . . . You have to ask how they feel in that room, being the two older kids.”

She said some research shows that many children held back end up dropping out of school, and some fail to catch up.

But others disagree.

“I think it’s wonderful for children who need that extra year to catch up,” said Charlotte Sale, a second-grade teacher at Guinn Elementary School in Anaheim who held back two of her 20 students.

“It’s difficult for some parents to admit that their children need to be retained, but there are parents who are very glad to give their kids one more year to grow.”

Sylvia Martinez, a parent at Valencia Park Elementary School in Fullerton, said the news that her 8-year-old daughter Jasmine might have to repeat second grade was “a good wake-up call . . . and a huge shock for both of us.

“I’m a very involved parent anyway, but I have four children, and this helped me to be more in tune with her needs,” Martinez said.

After intervention programs at school and extra work at home, Jasmine “will be entering third grade, thank God.”

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Martinez said. “But I’ll tell you this much, I’d rather have my kid learning than have them moving up for social reasons.”

Districts Fall Into Line

Although state officials have no power to sanction noncomplying districts, a majority have implemented the new policy, said Wendy Harris, who heads education support for the California Department of Education. The state is also giving districts $105 million to identify lagging students and provide help before they drop hopelessly behind.

In most Orange County districts, children who are behind merely because English is their second language are exempt from being retained this year.

Officials in the county’s two biggest districts, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, said they are gradually introducing the program over 18 months to give students more time to catch up. That means Garden Grove is actually holding back fewer students this year than last, 107 compared with 157 in 1999. In Santa Ana, 1,893 students will be held back this fall, but officials there said the number would have been far higher had they fully implemented the new law.

Though many parents of held-back students are upset, district officials said, surprisingly few appealed teachers’ decisions.

Officials said for many, the news could hardly have been a surprise. In most districts, officials began notifying parents last October that their children were lagging. Students were referred to programs offering extra help, and parents were urged to help at home. For those children who were still behind at year’s end, Orange County districts offered summer programs that focused on building reading skills, the stumbling block for most.

In the Buena Park School District, 910 students were placed on a “watch list” last fall, and only 127 are being retained.

In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, 1,000 students were identified as in danger of failing, but only 50 are not being promoted.

Even school officials who favor the program bemoan the hassle and paperwork it has caused. Because many districts did not know until the very end of the summer how many students would be in each grade, many school officials said they had difficulty setting class sizes and assigning classrooms.

As a result, some of the 400 students who attend Cypress schools but live in other areas may be sent back to their local districts to make room for local students who are not being promoted.

In Anaheim City schools, officials hoped they would have enough textbooks and desks for the 200 students who were retained. So far they do, said Phyllis Reed, director of pupil services.

Teacher too have been burdened with paperwork. “This involves a lot more tracking, a lot more paperwork, a lot more testing and a lot more interventions,” said Suzanne Toms, a member of the teachers union in the Anaheim City School District. “It’s very stressful, but it’s a child’s future,” she said.

In the Anaheim Union High School District, which last fall began holding back hundreds of students a year earlier than most other districts, officials say the new policy works.

More than 500 students were held back at the end of eighth grade in Anaheim last year, and all but 130 are now going on to high school with better skills, said David Steinle, assistant superintendent for education.

“It has changed their lives,” he said. “They took it very seriously and will be well prepared in high school.”

Instead of staying at their junior high school, those who failed two years in a row will head to an alternative school, where they will study basic skills, be offered vocational programs and receive counseling.

Officials in other districts hope the year ahead, rough as it may be, will help in the long run.

Karen Colby, an assistant superintendent at the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, said 6% of kindergartners through sixth-graders are being held back, but “we feel this extra year will be a gift of time to these students.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ending Social Promotion

Anew state law banning social promotion will force more than 5,000 students in grades 2-8 to return to the same grade they were in last school year. Number of students held back by school district:

ELEMENTARY DISTRICTS

Anaheim City: 200

Buena Park: 127

Centralia: 28

Cypress: 130

Fountain Valley: 12

Fullerton: 327

Huntington Beach City: 40

La Habra City: N/A

Lowell Joint: 30

Magnolia: 62

Ocean View: 604