8th Grade Promotion
Today, the eighth graders promoted to 9th grade. This is a big, big, big deal here on the rez, and it's been a stressful few weeks for the Language Arts department. School policy dictates that if the students do not turn in research projects, they may not promote.
In the past few days I've had to make some tough and controversial calls. I passed a student who suffers from unlabelled, yet severe, learning disabilities who worked hard but almost gave up in the end, turning his paper in late; I also passed a girl who is abused (emotionally, physically, and probably sexually) at home and while she worked slowly and diligently in school, her home life, absences, and the times she ran away prevented her from finishing. She didn't turn in her paper (rough draft) until yesterday afternoon (after the rehearsal for the promotion ceremony). I also passed two students who turned in the same paper; these girls have been my students all year, and I know their abilities and characters fairly well. I made them each write an essay on plagiarism (how cheesy is that?) and gave them each a C- (the highest grade possible to pass).
Anyway, it's over, and today, they promoted. Promotion is mostly frowned upon by the teachers. Statistics show that schools that have large 8th grade promotion ceremonies have a higher drop-out and failure rate in high school. So many of the students' parents and grandparents never made it that far in school; the end of 8th grade is seen as the end of education. Half of them (as statistics would foreshadow) will not graduate from high-school. Around 15-20% didn't even promote and will attend summer school. And there were many more that squeaked by for the sake of a promotion ceremony rather than going to get some extra help at summer school.
Fortunately, promotion's been toned down a bit. Last year, it was at night, bleachers in the activitiy center full, limosines, parties in the parking lot. From the descriptions I've heard, it sounded like a mob scene. There was even a key note speaker (whom no one paid attention to). This year, it was at 10 a.m., hosted by the Student Body President, and it was over in an hour. I didn't see any limos and I didn't see any traffic jams. That's a good sign. I did see a lot of expensive dresses (some that looked like 80s prom dresses and some that looked like wedding gowns). But I also saw some kids in cute, appropriate dresses, or even one of my favorite skater kids in jeans, a black shirt, a tie, and a cowboy hat. When a teacher asked him about the jeans, he shrugged and said, "This is no big deal." Exactly right.
Hopefully next year we can reduce the whole tradition to a class picnic, and focus on getting these kids through high school and on to college.
In the past few days I've had to make some tough and controversial calls. I passed a student who suffers from unlabelled, yet severe, learning disabilities who worked hard but almost gave up in the end, turning his paper in late; I also passed a girl who is abused (emotionally, physically, and probably sexually) at home and while she worked slowly and diligently in school, her home life, absences, and the times she ran away prevented her from finishing. She didn't turn in her paper (rough draft) until yesterday afternoon (after the rehearsal for the promotion ceremony). I also passed two students who turned in the same paper; these girls have been my students all year, and I know their abilities and characters fairly well. I made them each write an essay on plagiarism (how cheesy is that?) and gave them each a C- (the highest grade possible to pass).
Anyway, it's over, and today, they promoted. Promotion is mostly frowned upon by the teachers. Statistics show that schools that have large 8th grade promotion ceremonies have a higher drop-out and failure rate in high school. So many of the students' parents and grandparents never made it that far in school; the end of 8th grade is seen as the end of education. Half of them (as statistics would foreshadow) will not graduate from high-school. Around 15-20% didn't even promote and will attend summer school. And there were many more that squeaked by for the sake of a promotion ceremony rather than going to get some extra help at summer school.
Fortunately, promotion's been toned down a bit. Last year, it was at night, bleachers in the activitiy center full, limosines, parties in the parking lot. From the descriptions I've heard, it sounded like a mob scene. There was even a key note speaker (whom no one paid attention to). This year, it was at 10 a.m., hosted by the Student Body President, and it was over in an hour. I didn't see any limos and I didn't see any traffic jams. That's a good sign. I did see a lot of expensive dresses (some that looked like 80s prom dresses and some that looked like wedding gowns). But I also saw some kids in cute, appropriate dresses, or even one of my favorite skater kids in jeans, a black shirt, a tie, and a cowboy hat. When a teacher asked him about the jeans, he shrugged and said, "This is no big deal." Exactly right.
Hopefully next year we can reduce the whole tradition to a class picnic, and focus on getting these kids through high school and on to college.
Labels: First year in retrospect
posted by Jessica at 12:07 PM
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