Defining Overall Progress (UPDATED December 2020)

We want you to understand what Monthly Progress means at LILHS...

We have made a decision to change the Overall Progress criteria, with Parent guidance, that we think makes sense especially right now.
We are only talking about what it will take to receive Overall Satisfactory Progress in for the month - CLASS grades and the earning of credits will remain the same.

The rationale (or the short version anyhow) is to remove procedural hurdles and paperwork blocking our kids that are actively struggling, allow certs to really focus their time and energy on helping kids, and to remove one more 'fear factor' for those kids truly scraping by in legitimate efforts.

Our commitment to help struggling students will remain the same.
Our commitment to reach out to struggling students will remain the same.

The only thing that will be different is what it will take for a student to receive overall satisfactory progress for the purposes of our auditing requirements.
As long as a student is making satisfactory progress in at least one class (NOT half - just one) for the purposes of the learning plan and audit and compliance they should receive satisfactory progress.

Does passing just one class mean we think the student is doing well necessarily? No.
Does this mean we aren't going to follow up in the office and see what the student needs to be successful? NO!
What it DOES mean is we will not have to spend all of our time and energy playing "Beat the Clock" with Intervention Plan forms for the state.
Instead of focusing our efforts on compliance, we will be freeing ourselves to just help kids and families, especially right now.

I want to be clear that we are not saying making progress in just one class is "good enough."
In some few cases, it may be. We are all going through a lot right now, our kids included.
But we ARE saying we don't want our time tied up in paperwork when we could just be meeting with kids and parents and coming up with a plan that makes sense - without the constraints of audit.
So yes - for December, and moving forward, if a student is making progress in at least one class, then they will be determined as making Overall Monthly Progress.

Again, to be clear: This does not change how individual teachers do progress for their individual classes. CLASS progress is decided by the classroom teacher. And this does not change what high school students need to do to earn credit, for example.
But it does extend grace, and acknowledge during this difficult time that anything we can do to lighten everyone's load is a good thing.