Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

How can we decrease the number of students who are losing credit in Geometry?  This is a question I’ve watched my district face for the last thirteen years.  Students are failing Geometry at an alarming rate.  When they fail Geometry, the students must repeat the course for credit.  Many of the students are choosing not to take summer school.  They are choosing to wait a semester to retake the second semester of Geometry.  This puts the district in a position where the student must be placed into Algebra 2 before they have received full credit in Geometry.  This seems to set the student up for failure of another required math course – Algebra 2.  The same thing is happening for students who fail a semester of Algebra 1.  If they only fail one semester and do not take summer school, they are being placed into Geometry, etc.  It’s a travesty.  Ultimately, if a student fails any semester of a core course, they should make it up in summer school.  But for some reason, whether it is financial, lack of motivation, or decreased parental involvement, this is not happening. So the school system is faced with a mess.  How can you help this type of student be successful?

I’ve watched my district make many attempts to help alleviate this situation.  We’ve tried offering “trailer” courses in the fall.  This is where the student can take the second half of Geometry in the fall, as an extra course, while taking the fall semester of Algebra 2.  This helped a few students, but ultimately it was unsuccessful because you were forcing a weak math student to take two different math courses in a day.  They became tired, classes became unruly, and both students & teachers gave up.  We then tried offering a trailer course in the spring.  In this case, students who failed the fall semester of Geometry signed up for a double block of Geometry in the spring.  They too spent two hours in the class room. The first half of the semester they received credit for the fall, the second half of the semester they received credit for the spring.  This was somewhat successful, but the students who didn’t pass the fall part (again) gave up and were a nuisance for the remainder of the semester to those who were trying to receive credit for the spring.  Courses like these are very difficult to teach because you are taking a weak math student and giving them twice as much math and they hate it. 

Last year two of our schools offered a Geometry Recovery School. If a student failed a six weeks, they were allowed to participate in an after school program for tutoring and retesting twice a week.  It was somewhat successful.  After we weeded out the students who just felt like attendance was enough, the workers persevered.  This recovery school was held for the first, second, and third six weeks.  This year we offered it for the first six weeks, but since then it has been “tweaked” to be a re-test policy.  When a student fails a test, they must fill out a contract, attend two tutoring sessions and then retake the test for a high grade of a 70.  This 70 can replace the test, and any daily grades associated with the test. 

My vision for this action research study is that the retest policy can be accepted district wide for all Geometry courses.  If it is successful, it can also work for many other core courses to help with their success also.  I will be the sole and primary person conducting my action research.