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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (140134)	7/13/2004 2:48:13 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

OT Speaking of learning curves, what do you think of this? School’s out for kids who can’t get F+ By Kevin Rothstein Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Dozens of Hub [Boston] students just found out their grades were too bad for summer school after learning last week the district had changed the eligibility requirements. Would-be junior Alex Bush, 18, of Dorchester, now fears he will be held back a grade for the chemistry and world history credits he had been told until recently he could make up in summer school. ``They should have told us before we started,'' said Bush, who studies carpentry at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. Bush is angry. He says he would have tried harder if he knew about the minimum. Students now must score an ``F-plus,'' or 50-59 percent, and be absent fewer than 40 days to qualify. The idea is to crack down on students who blow off the school year, said Maureen Harris, who heads the district's summer school program. ``We heard that kids just sit there and in six weeks they make up a course they had failed in the school year,'' she said. The new policy trimmed about 200 students, leaving 900 enrolled. Principals and guidance counselors were told of the change in December and again in June. But Harris acknowledged problems. ``I know in some schools it was clearly communicated to kids and in other schools it was not,'' she said, noting many Madison Park students were not told. Students with grades too low for summer school can make up the class at night school or by repeating a grade. Bush's mother, Vilma Ortiz, was outraged that no one bothered to tell her or her son. ``This is unfair and ridiculous,'' she said. As recently as June 4 the head of Madison Park's vocational unit, Simon Hess, told Bush that summer school would give him the credits he needed. He still has Hess's handwritten note to him: ``To get into GR. 12, must take Summer School for: WORLD HISTORY, CHEMISTRY.'' Bush says if he had known about missing summer school, he would have started his summer job as a carpenter earlier. ``I help my mother because it's just me and her,'' he said. news.bostonherald.com