How to cut class and still get an A

Despite policies for unexcused absences set by many school districts, Valley educators say teachers rarely hand out 'attendance F's.'

Published online on Tuesday, Feb. 03, 2009

News that a star Edison High School football player got an A in a math class he rarely attended sparked outrage last fall.

How could anyone miss 66 out of 90 classes and still pass, let alone earn an A?

It turns out that local districts rarely punish chronic truants by flunking them. And the Edison athlete isn't the only often-absent student with good grades.

Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson has said hundreds of Edison and Bullard high school students also received A's and B's despite many absences. The district analyzed records at the two schools after questions surfaced over the football player's grade in October.

The state Education Code permits school districts to link grades to attendance. But an examination of policies by The Bee shows that many don't. Some educators say flunking students for poor attendance alone is unnecessary and even counterproductive.

The Fresno Unified School District goes further than some districts with a regulation that at least recommends a failing grade for high school students who have seven or more unexcused absences.

But teachers -- under state law, the ultimate arbiter of grades -- report they hardly ever hand out these "attendance F's." They say the practice doesn't help students get back on track academically.

"It worked for a certain segment of students where grades were important, but students who didn't have the best study habits anyway, it wasn't a motivating factor," said Bob Reyes, principal at Fresno High School.

Educators also said punishing a student for absences is unnecessary because in most cases their grades already suffer from missed classes. Clovis Unified and Central Unified, for example, don't recommend that teachers flunk students with excessive absences.

Fresno Unified officials won't say whether the attendance F could have applied to the football player, who missed most sessions of his algebra-geometry class last spring. Officials haven't said whether his absences were unexcused.

But charges of grade-tampering sparked a scandal.

Teacher Jeff Powell said he flunked the student; he contended the grade was changed by someone else. A district investigation concluded only the teacher could have issued the grade.

Hanson said last fall that the grade would stand because there was no evidence showing the student didn't earn it. Hanson did not respond to interview requests for this story.

Powell remains on paid administrative leave based on a separate allegation involving students in his fall semester classes, district officials say.

Many remain skeptical of the athlete's A.

"If you miss 60 days, there's no way in heck that kid can get a passing grade," said Chris Williams, an assistant superintendent at Central Unified.

Kathy Christie, chief of staff at the Education Commission of the States in Denver, said students who skip school should miss something valuable in class. So they shouldn't have good grades.

"If you can do that, then the class is too easy," she said. The nonprofit commission helps identify and develop policies to improve student learning.

Fresno Unified's investigation into the Edison athlete's A revealed that many often-absent students earned top grades. Over a three-year period, more than 400 students at Bullard and Edison got A's and B's despite 30 or more absences in a class.

Officials sampled Bullard in northwest Fresno, as well as Edison in southwest Fresno, to broaden the investigation.

John Marinovich, Fresno Unified's chief academic officer, said some students can go to school every day but still struggle academically.