School combats students’ F’s with programs and support systems

Photo by Graphic by Lihi Shoshani

Although the average unweighted GPA has increased at the 12-week grading period compared to last year (from to 3.51 to 3.55), the number of F’s has almost doubled from about 75 to 139, according to registrar Robert Wise. 

In an effort to combat this increase in failing grades, administrators, teachers and the guidance team are looking to create new programs and resources for students. Every Monday, administrators and guidance counselors meet to review information regarding individual students. Teachers have also been holding monthly department meetings to review and discuss programs and approaches to helping struggling students. 

According to English 11 Honors teacher Natasha Ritchie, the weekly department meetings consist of teachers asking themselves important questions such as: “Are we noticing some patterns? Do all the teachers have similar approaches to accepting work for late credit so that students can kind of dig themselves out of the holes?” 

“Those aren't always easy conversations to have but we’re spending more time talking about these problems than we have in the past,” Ritchie said.

There is a disproportionately large number of F’s among freshmen, who she believes are having trouble transitioning to a new online environment.

“I think it's indicative of how hard it must be hard to start high school in remote learning,” Ritchie said.

The head of the English department Michael Tyler said that he believes some freshmen are having a more difficult time during this pandemic because of the snowball effect: They miss one assignment and in trying to make it up, they’re suddenly behind in another class. 

“It’s not so much for academic reasons but because they’re crashing in how they’re reacting to the pandemic and being in isolation,” Tyler said. “It's the social emotional issues that are hurting their academics.”

Especially with the shift into remote learning, freshmen are having more trouble keeping up with the rigor of high school since they don’t have the experience upperclassmen do.

“[Freshmen] may not have the coping skills or ways of compartmentalizing of 17 or 18 year olds,” he said. He added that this maturity is a result learning to put situations into different boxes. “I think that is a maturation that occurs with older students since they've been through more things,” Tyler said. 

Teachers of all grades have started encouraging struggling students to join office hours on days other than Wednesday. During in-person school, students had the opportunity to meet with their teachers during tutorial every day. With the removal of tutorials, both teachers and students have a harder time accessing each other.

Ritchie has tried to help struggling students during online school by finding out early on who is missing assignments and immediately reaching out to them through Canvas.

Aside from the work of individual teachers, the administration is looking for ways to help students with failing grades by introducing three new tutoring programs: Toga Times, Falcon Family Tutoring Program and the Mentoring Program. Admin and guidance counselors work with students and families to determine what program would fit their individual needs best.

Toga Times consists of a small cohort of 14 students working in the library on a daily basis. This program provides a stable environment for students to work, giving them a chromebook, dependable wifi, printer, technology help and an adult to answer questions and provide assistance as needed. 

The Falcon Family Peer Tutoring program allows students to attend a Zoom session from 3-6 p.m. where they’re placed into breakout rooms for help with different subjects. While this part of the program is open to all, there are also individual peer tutors for one-on-one meetings held outside of the public room.

Additionally, there is a more intensive mentoring program, where staff members communicate continuously with a small cohort of between three to five students. The students, along with their parents, have weekly meetings with the staff to track the student’s daily attendance and performance, and this direct communication improves students’ grades drastically. 

“If I notice something, I make phone calls or send text messages to the students.” Thompson said. “It’s like a buddy system, but, in actuality, a mentor program.”

The school is providing students with only one D or F with the opportunity to get tutoring for the specific subject area they are struggling with as part of the established mentoring programs. The administration is also looking to give opportunities to students from both Saratoga and Los Gatos with multiple failing grades by providing the option to work with an outside tutoring agency called Air Tutors.

Ritchie believes the administration has been taking the right steps to help students who are struggling to keep up with schoolwork from home and those struggling with mental health issues. 

“I've been impressed with what we've been able to create and come up with on the fly, especially since it's uncharted territory for everybody,” Ritchie said. “We just have to keep monitoring the grades: teachers need to really keep their eye on the students that have those D and F grades and the administration has to help us figure out how all these support systems work to make sure nobody slips between the cracks.”