“No Grade Below 50” Policy Creates Tension Between Hamilton County School Board Members

Image Credit: Hamilton County Schools / YouTube

The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –

A recent Hamilton County School Board meeting was quickly dismissed after tensions were aired out in front of the public concerning the district’s “no grade below 50” policy and a Letter to the Editor published earlier this month, written by Board Member Larry Grohn.

The controversial grading procedure requires teachers to assign students a minimum or baseline grade of 50 regardless of the grade they earned. While the policy does not make it impossible for a student to fail, it does make it far easier for a student to catch up.

If it’s easier for students’ grades to go up, it’s easier for school district success rates to go up.

After repeated attempts to get an explanation from Hamilton County Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson, Grohn resorted to sharing the information he had with the public via his Letter to the Editor.

This discourse came to a head during a July 20^th board meeting, when board members claimed they were blindsided by the publication. 

Grohn reiterated that county grading policies should be uniform, system-wide, and that the Tennessee Department of Education requires that the school board, families, and students be notified of changes to grading procedure.

In response, Dr. Robertson argued that the grading procedure was an administrative procedure, not a grading policy, so it didn’t require school board approval. 

“What the board policy nor state board policy does, it does not set things like saying there is a baseline grade. That is a procedure. That is an administrative decision,” he told board members. “I don’t want to get into those things because you guys are a policy making board.”

Robertson went on to explain how the grading procedure has worked so far.

“The principal at East Ridge High School had a very clear procedure in place to earn that baseline grade. He was using and they were using, second chance contracts, and they were also using what we call grade repair,” said Dr. Robertson. “Meaning at the end of the first quarter, if a student has a 30 on their final grade, what they were doing is putting in PowerSchool a 50, and then in a comment section a 30, and that student worked on grade repair until [they] earned a 50.”

He clarified that “there’s nobody that is trying to do anything that is outside of the boundaries, specifically of state board policy, but more importantly this board’s policy,” and suggested that the board conduct a work session if they wanted to dig into the district’s grading procedure. 

This is when other board members took the opportunity to criticize Grohn and his public opinion piece. 

“I just think it was in bad taste, to like, put it out to the world and then now you [Grohn] want to come back and talk to us about it.” said Board Member Karitsa Mosley Jones.

“You put this board in jeopardy by doing what you did,” stated Board Chair Tiffanie Robinson, who went on to accuse Grohn of an “ethics violation” before announcing that she was going to “terminate” the conversation because it wasn’t going to be productive.

“If you have specific comments for Mr. Grohn, I think you should talk to him about it directly,” Robinson said.

However, Board Member Rhonda Thurman managed to interject on Grohn’s behalf. 

“Being a board member who has taken on many superintendents for many things… Not everything that I disagreed with the superintendent on was a policy matter. […] But never has anybody said they were ‘gonna get you for ethics’ for questioning a superintendent. I think that is just crazy. I mean, you do what you want to but that is nuts.”

Mere seconds later, Chairwoman Robinson adjourned the board meeting.

About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.