The COVID effect: Fewer students failing at end of 3rd quarter than at semester

The number of Du Quoin students who are in danger of not graduating or being promotion this spring has gotten smaller since the semester break in January, school officials said.

But there are still more students in danger of being retained in 2021 than in any other year.

More students have returned to in-person classes - and this week, all students were back in class five days a week. Students have also been taking advantage of the remedial classes being offered to help improve their understanding of the material and their grades.

Still, Du Quoin High School Principal Tim McChristian said he estimates there are 10 to 15 high school students who will not move to the next grade level. The sophomore class has the most failures, he said: "We're talking four, five, six failing classes."

There were 111 high schoolers who were failing at least one class at the end of the first semester, McChristian said, and of those only 34 are currently in credit recovery programs.

The 10 to 15 students in the worse shape have just "checked out." They don't come to school or participate online, and are completely disengaged, he said.

At the middle school, Principal Aaron Hill said as students return to in-school learning, their grades improve.

"As students have returned in the second and third quarter, we have seen a dramatic increase in the grades and a dramatic decrease in the number of students at risk of being retained," he said.

He added that the summer school curriculum will have to include a biology class and probably an English class to accommodate the number of students who are struggling with those subjects.

The middle school now has only 21 or 22 full-time remote learners, which he said is a significantly less number than when the school year began.

He estimates having 10 middle school students who will be retained, and others who will have to pass summer school courses to avoid that fate.

Among the 10 students who will not advance, Hill said there are three or four who have checked out, like McChristian said has happened at the high school. School officials have made calls, sent letters and had the truant officer make contact, but "those students and their parents are just completely unengaged at this point."

Du Quoin Elementary School Principal Diana Rea says that for at least 10 of her students, they have fallen so far behind, particularly in reading and math, that they no longer have time to build up the skills necessary to move to the next grade.

Altogether she has 21 students at risk of retention, and 11 of them have some hope of getting through. Some of those students have been in and out of class multiple times, as people in their families would test positive for COVID-19.