ANDERSON — It was known that the pandemic has negatively affected students’ academic achievement over the past year. A report presented Tuesday shed some light on how far some students have fallen behind.
Mark Finger, interim assistant superintendent of secondary instruction, presented the report to the Anderson Community Schools board of trustees.
The number of students who failed all their classes at the high school went up 19.1%. Across the school system that number went up about 12.7%. Kindergarten and first grade students don’t receive letter grades so they were not included.
The majority of F grades were due to nonparticipation.
“We knew that the numbers were high. That’s exactly what our teachers were reporting to us,” Finger said.
“We’ve got to get them caught up,” he said. “No fault of their own, they don’t have to feel bad. They’ve not been totally at fault in all this, but we’ve got to help them.”
Options to catch up include tutoring, credit recovery programs and summer school that begins on June 2.
It will last for four weeks and the last day to sign up is April 15, which is also the day for a second round of parent-teacher conferences.
“Right now we have over 1,000 students signed up for summer school and I think that number is growing every day,” Finger said.
He also presented a report on the mental health services offered in the schools.
Most buildings have a certified social worker and the few that don’t can bring one in as needed.
Students can be referred for services by staff, parents or themselves. The school also filters all emails looking for keywords associated with suicide ideation.
Both reports will be posted on the Anderson Community Schools website.
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