Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Matt Dulin    Barrett Goldsmith    Zach Lee 
                Jim Parsons            Christian Schmidt           Blake Whitaker

Failing

HISD's Executive Deputy Superintendent Abe Saavedra says it's not social promotion.

Maybe he should go back to school, because he's dead wrong.

A proposal being considered by HISD trustees today would overturn a policy set in place last year that barred promotion of students who have not mastered basic skills. The new policy would let students move on to the next grade with failing grades in English, math and other core courses.

Which leads one to question what it is that distinguishes a 10th grader from a 9th grader. Surely it's not just age.

The idea behind the plan draws on a Texas Education Agency report that found students who are retained are less likely to stay in school. About 90 percent of students who had to repeat a grade level twice dropped out, the report found. 

And for all the criticism the district has received over dropout ratings, HISD is keen on correcting the problem. But a change this severe only creates new problems.

Allowing failing students to move up with their peers does nothing to encourage them to perform better, acquire skills and graduate. The proposal still requires that students pass the core classes to earn a diploma, but what's going to stop a student from dropping out his or her senior year?

The truth: it is social promotion, and it's going to fail Houston students when they're already failing.

Shouldn't the district focus on, say, improving the quality of instruction or finding out why some students fail, and attacking the real source of the problem?

That would require planning, insight and a little vision -- three things that have apparently dropped out of HISD's operating philosophy.

Other school districts, like Spring Branch, Pasadena and Cypress-Fairbanks, require students to pass core courses in order to be promoted, yet these do not experience the dropout problem HISD does.

Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu