Seattle schools may delay decision on grade requirement for graduation

The Seattle School Board may delay a decision on whether to allow high-school students to graduate with a D-average, which would give the board more time to discuss an issue that's drawn strong opposition from across the city.

Many parents and other community leaders think removing the existing C-average requirement isn't the direction the school district should be headed.

"It sends the wrong message to every single person I can think of," said Lisa Macfarlane, a longtime Seattle schools advocate and co-founder of the statewide League of Education Voters.

The School Board is still scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday, but it now looks like board members may postpone their decision until Oct. 21 to allow more time for discussion.

"I think everybody would feel better if we had a little more information before we make this decision," said School Board President Michael DeBell.

Seattle school leaders acknowledge the removal of the C-average requirement appears to contradict their goal of raising student achievement. But they say the change is just one part of a larger package that would clean up complicated and confusing policies and give students reasons to try harder.

"Clearly we want to increase incentives for students to excel, but I don't know that a GPA requirement is going to do that," said Chief Academic Officer Susan Enfield. Along with eliminating the C-average for graduation, district administrators want to allow A-minuses and C-pluses rather than just straight letter grades, and to give a GPA bonus for honors and other advanced courses.

They also are recommending removing the policy that requires athletes to maintain a C-average to participate on school sports teams.

Most high-school principals and counselors support the changes, saying the C-average policy hurts students who can't catch up if, for any number of reasons, they have a bad year or arrive in high school performing well below grade level.

It's hard to tell students that they may have passed a class with a D but still can't graduate, said Ken Courtney, head counselor at Garfield High.

Yet in Federal Way — one of just a few nearby school districts that also require at least a C-minus for graduation and to participate in sports — the change hasn't led to big problems. Superintendent Tom Murphy said he was skeptical at first and still worries that change might cause grade inflation. But overall, he says, it seems to have a positive impact, especially for athletes.

"It has shown kids that they can meet higher standards when they really want to and when they have to."

The C-average requirement went into effect in Seattle in spring 2001. As that date approached, it looked like nearly one-quarter of Seattle students might fall short. That never happened, in part because the district quietly stopped counting failing grades when calculating grade-point averages, and also allowed students with lower than a C-average to apply for a waiver to graduate.

The district started counting failing grades again last year, except in cases when they would keep a senior from graduating. One piece of the larger grading proposal is to remove that last exception. That's one reason why staff argue that removing the C-average requirement wouldn't be a step backward.

"We want to make sure our students aren't put at a disadvantage as we make that change," Enfield said.

The proposal to remove the requirement that athletes earn a C-average has drawn mixed reactions, but opposition to doing away with the C-average for graduation is nearly universal.

One of the first to speak out was Juanita Galloway, who showed up at the last School Board meeting to urge the board to keep a tool she's used to persuade her children to work hard.

"There are a lot of students that don't have that push from home," she said. "If the school district is not going to give it to them, they won't get it."

It's also opposed by Ramona Hattendorf, president of the Seattle Council PTSA and James Kelly, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

"It's certainly a nice way of having more kids graduate but ... it's heading in the wrong direction," Kelly said.

Seattle School Board members are asking questions, too. One is how many students now fall below a C-average, which the district is working to determine.

Another is whether the proposal would do struggling students any favors.

"One of the troubling aspects of the proposal is that it doesn't address the real issue, which is what we do with these struggling students who are bumping along at the GPA bottom," board member Peter Maier said.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com