Records Access Denied
By: Rachel W., Junior Staff Reporter

National Schools Put the Letter “F” to the Test
By Amanda T., Senior Staff Writer

Schools around the U.S. are considering taking the infamous grade letter “F” and not using it to grade students anymore.
Many teachers believe that giving a
student a failing grade makes them feel
like they are failures and that they might
as well give up.

Mr. John Sardo, special education
teacher inNew York City, said, “If you give a student
an F…then you have a good chance of losing that student for the rest of the year…”

However, if a student is not willing to do their part and work hard for good grades, then others believe they should be failed. However, if students are willing to make up their work and they are sincere about getting a better grade, some believe they should be able to take a couple days and try to get the best grade they can. Otherwise, they need to “face the music” and accept the consequences of their actions.

Principal Mrs. Boots said, “I am a big believer in finding ways to make students successful, but in the end (and in the real world) our actions have consequences. ”

Some feel that students who have chosen to do no work have already made the decision to fail and should deal with the costs that come with that decision. Also, when failing students are allowed to make up their work from over a long period of time, it is unfair to those who actually to their work. Those students who study, do their homework, and earn high grades work very hard. They make sure they do everything when they are supposed to and turn it in on time. It is not right for students who never do their work to potentially make the same grades as the other hard-working students who have done everything they were supposed to.

One viewpoint is that it is understandable for failing students to make up a couple of assignments or re-take a test for more points. However, another side is that these students should not be able to take weeks to do this. They should earn the grade the correct way like everybody else.

If every student did their work, then failing grades would not be a problem. All students, if they choose, have to opportunity to succeed, and hopefully every student will take advantage of that.

The Open Records Act in Kentucky states that not everyone can get their background information. However, administrators have full access, as far as a student's educational background.

This contains any information that was given to them from parents at the beginning of the year when they filled out the enrollment papers. When concerning students' records, administrators have to practice confidentiality. This means that an administrator can not talk about a student outside of school.

“Anything that is personal to you we have to keep confidential,” says Associate Principal, John Hardy. “Open Records means anything that we do here, besides the data, any type of business that we do here.”

This includes CATS scores. People can see what the average score was for the whole school but not a student's individual score.

“If someone wants to know about how much textbooks are, that is part of open records,” Mr. Hardy explained.  “We have to give them that information. But we can't tell them how much you spent on textbooks.”

.......... “I am a big believer in .....finding ways to make students ...................successful…”