Over 1600 students were failing classes near the end of the first quarter according to Principal Mike Hinze. Students and teachers cite different causes, including lack of motivation and workload. In response, actions were taken to improve grades, including extending the deadline for late work for quarter one.

“At one point, 336 students were failing four or more courses,” Hinze stated. “Of course that is a bad situation.”

Teachers and students weighed in on what they thought could be causing these failing grades. “The biggest thing I’ve heard from students is that they get easily distracted when they are home. Sometimes it’s really hard to just get started,” Social Studies teacher Eric Calland stated.

There are students who support this view, such as one anonymous* senior who stated, “A lack of work ethic combined with everything else in the world making it 20 times worse, as well as finding online school very hard to do on the off weeks.” 

However, some students attribute the failing grades to different causes.  Students typically have from five to seven classes. “I think there’s a bit much for a workload when students are at home,” Senior Jillian Robinson-Voigt stated.

 “Unmotivation, and so much work given day to day,” Sophomore Jade Caldwell stated.

To boost grades, deadlines were pushed back, and teachers have begun offering extra credit. In a Schoology post Hinze stated that all staff would be accepting late work through Monday, Oct.19, and that teachers would be ready to work with students to create a path to passing grades.

“After my teachers offered these plans, my grades improved. I think they’re doing a great job,” an anonymous* senior stated.

“Some grades are improving, but it will take awhile,” Caldwell stated.

Along with deadlines being pushed back, teachers are also doing their part to help students. “I’ve just really tried to be flexible from day one. I’ll send messages here and there to students that may be lagging a bit,” Calland stated. “I want them [my students] to know that I understand that this isn’t normal and it’s ok that they may have been struggling.”

The measures put in place to raise grades seem to have worked to an extent. “It wasn’t perfect, but we were able to drastically improve our students’ grades in the last two weeks of the quarter,” Hinze stated in a newsletter sent out to South families. “We spent much of the week working on ways to not be in the same position in December.”

“We still have a bunch of grade change forms so the final number is not here yet. . .it looks like we will be at about 700 [failing grades] when all the grade changes are done,” Hinze said.

Students also offered ideas on what they think could be done to further raise grades. “Offering a plan to get my grade up, either by making the workload smaller overall, or giving a few assignments that they will just take for a large portion for the grade,” one anonymous* senior said. “Both of these work well, but the latter option is the most convenient,” he said.

The deadline for assignments being pushed back was only for the end of the first quarter, a temporary fix. There is a possibility that this could happen during second quarter as well. “We hope it doesn’t. It will take all of us to work together though,” Hinze stated. “We need our students to engage and do the work on remote weeks, even if it is difficult to get motivated.”

Students have their opinions on what should be done if this problem occurs during second quarter. Another anonymous* junior stated she feels that teachers can help by ”letting me know what’s missing the day after it’s due, or something similar so we have some time to complete it.”

“The best things to do are to set an alarm for the same time you get up during in-school weeks.  Do math work at the same time you are in math class.  Do history during history class, and so on,” Hinze stated, “Keeping a regular schedule is a great way to keep the motivation.”

*These students chose to remain anonymous because they did not want to disclose that they were failing classes, and the Scribe honored their request for academic privacy.