Parents Protest Compton Schools’ Proposal to Hold Back Students

About a dozen parents protested Monday against the Compton school district’s plans to keep their children back a year because of poor scores on a standardized reading test, despite the students’ good evaluations from teachers earlier in the year.

The parents presented student grade reports that they said showed teachers recently doctored earlier class grades to bring them in line with poor results on reading tests announced in June. In some instances, A’s given throughout the year were changed to Cs after release of the test results, they said.

A school district spokeswoman said the problem of grade doctoring was limited to one inexperienced fifth-grade teacher at Caldwell Elementary School who failed to follow school policies when evaluating students. She said the issue has already been discussed with the teacher, whom she declined to identify, but would not give details. Parents, however, said that the problem went beyond that one teacher.

In September, Compton schools are scheduled to end social promotion for students who last month finished the third, fifth and eighth grades. District officials have told parents of about 1,200 students that their children are in danger of being retained.

School district spokeswoman Vivien Hao said schools have looked at results from four separate tests and evaluations from teachers, counselors and principals before recommending any student for retention.

Students have a chance to escape retention if they show improved grades during an eight-week summer school program now underway, she said. Those who fail to meet minimum reading standards will be enrolled for a year in an advanced learning program, she said.

Hao said all parents were warned in February of the district’s plans to end social promotion for students from one grade to the next.

But protesters said their children were being retained based on the results of the California Achievement Test Form 5, known as the CAT/5. They accused school and district officials of failing to provide adequate warning that their children were in danger of being retained.

Angry parents and students waved report cards in front of them and chanted, “We did not fail; they failed us!”

Stacye Harvey clutched a card belonging to her fifth-grade daughter, Andrea Dupree, who attends Caldwell Elementary. The card, she said, had been doctored; the three A’s awarded for reading during the year’s first three quarters were blacked out and changed to Cs after the test.

Andrea’s fourth-quarter grade was an F. Harvey said she went to see her daughter’s teacher and insisted he reinstate the A’s. The F was later changed to a D on a new report card completed by the principal.

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Nearly all the parents at the protest said their children were in fifth grade at Caldwell. Although school officials said the problem was isolated to a handful of students in one class, the Rev. Herbert Rice said his daughter, Patrice Bosley, a Caldwell third-grader, also had her report card doctored.

“We knew that there would be parents who aren’t happy, but out of 1,200 students, we had only a dozen protesting today,” Hao said. “I think that’s pretty good.”