JCPS see failing grades TRIPLE what they were at the end of 2020-21.
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https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/jcps-sees-failing-grades-more-than-triple-at-the-end-of-2020-21-compared-to/article_1031249c-e0cb-11eb-9b68-cb05d5341d60.htmlJCPS sees failing grades more than triple at the end of 2020-21 compared to prior year
Kevin Wheatley and Gil Corsey Jul 11, 2021 Updated Jul 11, 2021 Comments
JCPS Summer Backpack League hallway
Students in class at Marion C. Moore School's Summer Backpack League program.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The number of Jefferson County Public Schools students who failed classes more than tripled during the tumultuous 2021 school year, according to records obtained by WDRB News.
The surge in failing grades has JCPS bracing for years of interventions to help students who struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of both academics and developing positive relationships with their school communities, Superintendent Marty Pollio said.
“I have to think this is going to be much more impactful on kids in a negative way than the 2008 recession,” Pollio said during a recent interview.
“This is not a solution that we can sit down from six months from now and we sit back in this room and say, ‘We've solved the problem,’” Pollio said. “Yes, we want to be closer to solving that problem six months from now. This is what the stimulus funding will be for.”
JCPS saw a spike in the number of students who earned failing grades in the 2020-21 school year compared to the year prior.
Records obtained by WDRB News through a public records request show that 16,704 out of 90,048 students, or 18.6%, failed at least one course. By contrast, just 5,229 out of 91,095 students, or 5.7%, had failing grades in the 2019-20 school year.
Every grade level experienced significant increases in the number of students who failed at least one class, JCPS records show. The district’s end-of-year grades in 2019-20 were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the district noted in its response to an open records request.
At the elementary level, 3,042 of 38,725 students failed at least one course, a year after none earned failing grades. About 3,000 more students at JCPS middle schools and about 5,500 more high school students failed classes last year compared to the year prior, according to district records.
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“Our schools are still working hard to help recover standards for students, so I don't know exactly what that's going to look like,” Pollio said when asked about student retention rates for the 2021-22 school year. “But we'll do whatever it takes to make sure we get the support kids need moving forward.”
Pollio added that he believes JCPS will post its highest graduation rate ever, based on preliminary data.
Some students who struggled in classes during distance learning have brought up their grades while juggling the personal traumas and social uncertainties they experienced while learning from home in the midst of the pandemic.
Gabrielle Ponce, a rising junior at Marion C. Moore School, unexpectedly lost her brother, Luis, to a fatal vehicle crash.
That moment, she said, caused her motivation in classes to plummet.
“My grades started tanking, and I was just like, ‘OK, I need to get up and do something,’ so I decided to get up and do my schoolwork,” Ponce said.
Her revelation was around the time that JCPS reopened classrooms after several months of remote learning dating back to the end of the 2019-20 school year.
“That's when I started getting my grades up,” Ponce said, adding that she needed summer coursework to earn credits in chemistry and U.S. history.
JCPS grades gabrielle ponce
JCPS student Gabrielle Ponce shares her experiences of learning from home during nontraditional instruction.
She was among several students participating in the district’s Summer Backpack League program on a recent Wednesday at Marion C. Moore school.
“I'm doing my backpack program because my mom thinks it'd be a great idea for me to still keep myself up and ready to do work instead of just sitting at home and not being focused and worrying about my education,” Ponce said.
The Summer Backpack League, open to some 6,000 JCPS students in its second year after an initial offering for about 1,000 students in 2019, is one element of Pollio’s vision to help students recover academically in the coming years.
Another 650 students are involved in the district’s literacy and numeracy camps, which are under the purview of the Diversity, Equity and Poverty Department. JCPS also offers a program called Online Summer League, which was created last summer as in-person learning opportunities went virtual in the pandemic. Registration for that program remains open throughout its offering.
About three-fourths of the students enrolled in summer programming this year receive free or reduced-price school meals, Pollio said.
In all, the roughly 6,650 enrolled in summer learning programs represent about 40% of the students who received at least one failing grade at the end of the school year. It's not clear how many of the summer learners had failing grades.
JCPS summer backpack league roller coaster
A teacher at Marion C. Moore School's Summer Backpack League program helps as students create their own roller coasters.
Pollio says he ultimately wants about a third of the district’s enrollment – 30,000 students – to participate in some form of summer learning in the aftermath of the pandemic, which has abated in the U.S. and Kentucky but not ended.
It’s a number Pollio has mentioned before, including at his State of the District address.
“It is challenging at times to get kids who may not have high attendance during the school year or be engaged in (nontraditional instruction) to come into summer programming, but our team has worked very hard on that,” he said. “There is no doubt I believe long-term we've got to get 30,000 kids the opportunity to be engaged in the summer.”
Openings in the district’s more traditional summer learning programs were quickly snapped up. Staffing, particularly in classrooms and on buses, dictated capacity limits for this year’s offerings, Pollio said. One possibility, he said, includes adding more instructional days to the district’s teaching contracts to boost staffing for summer learning opportunities.
“We've maximized every single spot we can possibly bring kids into with the staffing that we have, the transportation we have, and so I'm proud of where we are,” he said. “It's not the end goal that I want. The end goal is every single kid has that opportunity.”
Cousins London Phillips and Diallo Byrd are among those taking advantage of such opportunities this year.
Both learned to navigate remote learning at JCPS with three other school-aged siblings and relatives under the same roof.
Like others, they confronted loss as their grandmother died during the pandemic.
Byrd, a rising senior at Central High School, saw his grades slip as he put off schoolwork in favor of other activities like video games. As he tried to get back to focusing on academics during the second semester, his grandmother passed.
“It was rough, but I did end up getting right back to where I was,” Byrd said, “and I passed.”
Phillips, also a senior at Central, is finishing work to earn her U.S. history credit.
JCPS grades phillips siblings
Siblings London and Dallas Phillips talk about their learning experiences during nontraditional instruction during a recent day at Marion C. Moore School's Summer Backpack League.
For her, maintaining focus during distance learning was also an issue. As one of five kids learning from the same home, trying to mesh busy school schedules was “very distracting and very hard,” she said. At one point, she needed to share a laptop with her twin sister, who attends Moore, while she waited for a new Chromebook from the district.
“There was a lot of things going on at once that we had to all like coexist with each other,” Phillips said.
Students who secured spots in the district’s Summer Backpack League like Byrd are thankful for the opportunity for a more traditional learning experience after the pandemic upended two consecutive school years.
“I’m glad I came here because it’s like school experience,” he said. “I’m back in school and see some friends. It’s fun, and we’re learning stuff I didn’t even know when I was going to school.”
Pollio acknowledges it will take more to help others who fell behind in their learning during the pandemic.
“This is not a one year or a one summer fix,” he said. “This is going to be a long-term, three- to five-year fix.”
