For some high school freshmen, staying on track to graduate may prove to be difficult.

Sequim High School counselors Erin Fox and Melee Vander Velde reported during their freshmen intervention and graduation update presentation at a school board meeting on May 1 that 29.4 percent of Sequim High School freshmen are not on track to graduate due to failing one or more classes.

Fox and Vander Velde said, “The number this year is slightly higher than last year.”

The counselors said the Classes of 2019 and 2020 are on a 24-credit diploma, meaning students need to pass all of their classes — six periods a day for four years— to be considered on track. Prior to the Class of 2019, the diploma was only 22 credits, meaning students could fail one or two classes and still be considered on track to graduate.

Assistant Superintendent Ann Renker said freshmen failure is one of the biggest predictions of students not graduating high school.

“It’s always a concern,” Renker said. “Anything we can do to decrease that number and prevent students from failing freshman year.”

Renker said part of the problem is making students more aware of the consequences of failing a class. She said many students were vocal about “an A and an F being treated the same way” in middle school and were “horrified when they got into high school and realized that was not the case.”

She added in the past if a student failed a middle school class, he or she would continue to move on, but that standard is being changed so that students who fail a class will need to remediate either by summer school or doing content remediation instead of an elective.

For eighth-graders, a student failing a class may have to do content remediation in place of an elective class freshman year of high school.

“High schoolers earn credits, middle schoolers do not,” Renker said. “You have a bunch of freshman who may not have been keeping up on content; by the time you get to high school you don’t have the time.”

Fox and Vander Velde said there are many programs in place to help students who are falling behind, such as Opportunity to Excel, Sequim Options School — credit recovery for 11th- and 12th-grade students — , zero hour classes, Intensified Algebra, DEN, Link Crew and Freshman Friday, a program where ninth-graders are paired with 11th- and 12th-grade mentors, Kids at Hope, Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, Summer School, Parent/Student Meetings and Hope Academy.

“We think that the transition from middle school to high school can be difficult for some students,” Fox and Vander Velde said. “We are working with the middle school to help ease this problem, including a targeted summer school program.”

English Language Arts Adoption

Renker said the Sequim School District is in the process of adopting an English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum for 6-12 grade students, a factor that could help students make the transition from middle school to high school.

“There are so many things a freshman needs to learn when transitioning to high school,” Renker said. “Common curriculum in the middle grades and ninth grade is one way to ease that freshman transition.”

Renker said the district has not adopted an ELA curriculum with the new Washington State Learning Standards and the adoption is geared to having an aligned, research-based ELA curriculum to help meet the primary goals of the state and help all students to graduate from high school career, college and community ready.

“A curriculum with a reliable format, once learned, becomes a reliable pattern and kids can think about the content rather than how to do assignments,” Renker said.

The curriculum adoption process in the district is governed by Board Policy 2020. The Instructional Materials Committee chose two curricula to field test for adoption: Springboard and Expeditionary/Engage.

As stated on the district’s website, “both curricula are aligned with the Washington State Learning Standards and have been used successfully in districts in our state and across the nation.”

“Both curriculum series integrate technology into the fabric of the lessons and emphasize career and college readiness.”

These two curricula were field tested during the third quarter of the school year and the district held parent and community feedback sessions from March 1-19.

It will cost the district an estimated $30,000 to adopt one of these curriculum. The curricula will come to the School Board of Directors in June to choose one of the two products to be implemented starting the fall of 2017 school year and will remain for three years.