Teachers have derided the new rules as being too lenient on lazy students by requiring teachers to accept late work, give retests to students who fail and force teachers to drop homework grades that would drag down a student's class average.
But Dr. Hinojosa asked teachers and parents to consider that in the long run the rules will help more students succeed.
"We want to make sure that students are mastering the content [of their classes] and not just failing busy work," he said.
... If that means teachers will be required to extend an assignment deadline, or let students retake exams, so be it, he said.
Trustee Jerome Garza also saw much in the new protocols to like.
... Mr. Garza also praised the rules for requiring teachers to take preventive steps, like conferring with parents, before giving students little or no credit for missed assignments.
"If we've got somebody who is beginning to fail, we've got to bring parents in before it is too late," he said.
Trustee Nancy Bingham, a former teacher, said she does not agree with the requirement that teachers accept late work with no power to impose a penalty, but she does think that students sometimes need "a safety net" that some teachers are unwilling to provide.
... Dr. Hinojosa said the new rules are aimed, in part, at helping curb the district's alarming ninth-grade failure rate. Each year, roughly 20 percent of the district's high school freshmen fail to advance to the 10th grade. Many eventually drop out.
... "Our mission is not to fail kids," he said. "Our mission is to make sure they get it, and we believe that effort creates ability."
Teachers, though, argue that the high school failure rate has less to do with the first six weeks of ninth grade than it does with most DISD freshmen struggling to read. In 2007, 80 percent of them scored below the 40th percentile in reading on the Iowa Test of Educational Development. Yet the promotion rate out of eighth grade for that class was 98 percent.
... Aimee Bolender, head of the Alliance/AFT teachers' organization, said most teachers will not support the new grading protocols.
"There is a constant shift of accountability away from the students and onto the teachers," she said.
... They're the latest step in DISD's effort to standardize instruction across the district. Last school year, the trustees reaffirmed a policy that prevented teachers from giving students a grade lower than a 50 for any one grading period. The reason given was that students who fall below 50 have no hope or motivation to bring up their grades and just give up.
... "I'll be interested to see how teachers advertise these rules ? I'm sure they won't be promoting them," said Skyline High School senior Aileen Mokuria. "This seems to teach procrastination."
Ms. Mokuria added that she found the requirement for teachers to accept late work especially odd. She recently volunteered at Skyline to mentor incoming freshmen about the ins and outs of high school.
"One of the things I told them was that it was very important to turn in your work on time," she said.
She added that students are too passive about their education.
"Students need to take the initiative and go to the teacher and ask for help," she said. "Let it come down to the student-teacher relationship."
Our children are being raised to never hurt, to not ever be disappointed, to never lose. This new DISD policy is more of the same.
Policies like this help to kill the needed success of southern Dallas, where most people can?t afford private school and therefore their kids must attend DISD.
I am the consumer that the DISD wants back from private school. I hope to start a family soon. I need compelling reasons to entrust my future kid to this district. If the middle-class residents don?t come back to DISD, it?s toast. I want my kid to study in an environment where the competition is tough and an ?A? means something. And oh yeah, where on-time HOMEWORK means something too.
Example: Say your kid works hard and gets A?s & B?s. But some other kid half-steps, turning in work late and gaming the system but both of them earn the same GPA. How is that fair?
I want the DISD to succeed, but policies like this seems counterintuitive to any progress.
Is it too late for this policy to be rescinded? Come on Dr. H, help us out here.