Students in

grades three, five and seven who fail to pass the state's mandated Criterion-Referenced

Competency Test for moving to the next grade could still get promoted

"with conditions" under a proposal being considered by the Fayette

County Board of Education.

Pam Riddle,

Assistant Superitendent for Curriculum, told board members Monday that

the change in school system policy that allows for "promotion with

condition" was unique to Fayette County schools. Instead of automatically

retaining those students who do not pass the CRCT on the second try, the

school principal, parents and teacher will work with the child to come

up with a plan of remedial study, certified tutoring or summer school

work that puts them back on course for the next school year.

The "promotion

with condition" will be applied on a case-by-case basis, Riddle explained.

The revised

policy also reduces the number of days a child can miss in one school

year from 30 to 15, at which point a student "may be retained"

unless the absences are excused or the student otherwise proves mastery

of the subject matter.

Superintendent

John DeCotis said the new policy also addresses the retainment of students

who actually pass everything, saying many parents often ask for their

child particularly boys to be held back for "maturity" reasons.

In years past,

he said, it was common for male athletes to repeat a year in order to

improve their performance on the football field. The revision says students

"must fail to attain 70 percent mastery" on more than one subject

to be held back.

The proposed

revision in policy is available for public inspection at the School Board

offices, 210 Stonewall Avenue West. The board will vote on the change

later this month.

Riddle explained

that her office is late in bringing the proposal to the board because

it was hoped the state would drop plans to implement the third-grade reading

portition of the competency exam for next year. But the drawn-out legislative

session ended without any significant changes in the education reform

efforts implemented under former Gov. Roy Barnes.

"There

were concerns around the state that this was excessive and going to be

done away with," said Riddle. "But they didn't."

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