St. Charles Dist. 303 sees increase in number of failing grades at high school level

St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 saw a dramatic rise in the number of failing grades at the high school level last semester.

At their meeting Tuesday, St. Charles School Board members heard a presentation on the findings and discussed the results. The report does not state how many students at each school received failing grades.

St. Charles North High School saw 306 failing grades, up from 211 in the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year.

The increase at St. Charles East High School was even more noticeable. St. Charles East saw 774 failing grades, up from 394 during the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year.

However, the number of failing grades at St. Charles North High School went down from 1,277 in November to 306 in January.

“That was due to the enormous work and outreach by our teachers and our students to get their missing work completed, to get some of the makeup tests done if they had been absent or ill and just to make sure that they became more proficient in the standards that were required to earn credit,” Dist. 303 assistant superintendent for learning and teaching and chief academic officer Denise Herrmann told school board members.

At St. Charles East High School, the number of failing grades had dropped from 1,934 in November to 774 in January.

“I want to celebrate the hard work of the teachers and the students for making sure that what could have been a very significant issue in terms of the numbers of failures was reduced to a much more manageable level,” Herrmann said.

The highest percentage of St. Charles North students receiving failing grades – 33% – are freshmen. The lowest number – 15.3% – are seniors.

“I know many community members and board members were concerned about 12th graders potentially not earning graduation requirements, but we see many of them were able to complete the work they needed to earn credit,” Herrmann said.

At St. Charles East High School, the numbers are reversed, with the highest number of St. Charles East receiving failing grades – 27.6% – being seniors and the lowest number – 22.9% – being freshmen.

In response to the increase in failing grades, Herrmann said staff at both high schools are dedicated to continuing to lower the failure rate at both schools, including through classroom instruction and extended learning sessions.

Other options for credit recovery include night school at Northeast Academy and summer school, she said.

“We are trying to make sure we are doing everything possible to help as many students be successful in earning credits in the courses they need for graduation and for post-secondary work,” Herrmann said. “So we are removing any grade level restrictions that may have been in place so that all students can have access to credit recovery options.”

In addition, she said the district will increase the use of pre-assessments in order to determine what skills and concepts they are already proficient in and plans to make summer school free for any student who needs to take that for credit recovery.