Hamilton County School Board Members Discuss Student Cell Phones and “No Grade Below 50” Policy
Image Credit: Hamilton County Schools / YouTube
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Some members of Hamilton County School Board’s policy committee are looking for greater consistency in the district’s policies regarding cell phone use by students and failing grades.
Board member Larry Grohn requested that a discussion be added to the board’s December meeting agenda regarding a policy that no grade could be given below a 50.
Grohn noted that many teachers use “extraordinary acrobatics” to make sure some students have that minimum grade to be able to do credit recovery for failed courses.
Grohn says the school board should determine where they stand on the practice and decide if it should be added as an official grading policy of the district.
Some argue that using this method could help graduation rates, as students would be able to use the state’s Edgenuity program to retake a course online and potentially gain the credit for that class.
Grohn has argued that the practice leads to inequity within the district and the school board should have to approve the policy because it is a grading policy.
Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson says it is a “procedure” that is up to a teacher’s professional judgment and is something that all teachers do differently, thus not requiring the approval of the school board.
Grohn said he had been asking since May for the district to provide data from the 13 high schools to show if this procedure was working. It was first promoted by the district in an October 2020 memo that went out to high school principals. He said Dr. Robertson had not yet fulfilled that request.
Robertson said, “It would require a lot of work for us to get this done.”
Regarding cell phone usage by students, the school board initiated a ban on cell phones during school hours. Principals and teachers could allow students to use them at lunch or for certain lessons.
Board members Grohn and Rhonda Thurman both stated that all of the high schools should have the same policy during lunchtime, removing that choice from the principals. Grohn also stated that some of the principals were not enforcing the district’s policy and were allowing students to be on their phones between classes or at the end of a class.
Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson needs to be replaced with someone Intelligent. I agree with Grohn. Sounds like another way for an ineffective education system to pretend to do something while they do nothing and cover up their inadequacies and failures.