Academic Standards – Enforced!

New rule for Florida middle schoolers: Pass every essential class or repeat 8th grade

Eager to make sure middle-schoolers are prepared for high school, state officials have made it tougher for students to advance to ninth grade. Starting with this year’s sixth-graders, any youngsters who fail even one "core" course must retake the class or they will not be promoted to high school.

Core courses include math, science, English and social studies. Previously, Broward County students could fail one or two of those core subjects each year and still advance to the next grade.

I Like IT!

It is about time that when people set standards, they are enforced. What sense does it make, like the old saying of "kicking the can down the street", to do the same with kids? What sense does it make to promote a child to the next grade when it is demonstrable that they cannot do the work?

The fear is that the new state rule could lock eighth-graders in middle school for an extra year, when some would turn 15.

"You could have 14- and 15-year-olds interacting with 11- and 12-year-olds," said Diane Hall, principal at Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke Pines. "That’s not a good situation."

Often times, people of all ages will react to given, demonstrable, and enforced metrics. If people know that the standards are trumpted but don’t really mean much, then why bother with the charade of adhering them?

Students who are held back tend to get more discouraged about academics, Hall added.

Also, if they are so concerned with the kids, why aren’t the teachers of these kids, as well as those that had them beforehand, DO something about the impending slate of failure? Kids don’t fail "on a dime" – it takes time. And adults asleep (parents and teachers) at the switch.

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