House approves “academic intervention” bill

Students with poor grades may have to buckle down on their studies before they can play in the football game or dance on the cheerleading team if a bill approved by the House on March 4 becomes law.

HB2144, which was approved on a 34-22 vote, would take a program started in the Scottsdale Unified School District and apply it statewide to trigger “academic interventions” for students who have less than a C average grade.

Specifically, the bill would require school district governing boards, beginning in the 2016 school year, to maintain a confidential list of students with a grade point average of 2.0 or lower on a 4.0 scale, or the equivalent. It would require the school district to provide academic interventions to the students on the list until their GPA exceeds 2.0.
Though the language of the bill leaves it up to the school district governing board to determine how to handle the interventions, it suggests tutoring, additional class time or sessions with a specialist in the subject matter.

Democratic Rep. Eric Meyer of Paradise Valley, who sponsored the bill, admitted the bill is an “unfunded mandate” with an unknown cost, but said in Scottsdale, tax credit dollars were used to pay stipends to the teachers for their additional tutoring time.

He said Scottsdale Unified School District also started changing the dynamics of parent-teacher conferences, and now only contacts the parents of students who are in need of an academic intervention, instead of all students.
“We were able to do those things without any (additional state) funding,” he said.

Meyer, who sat on the Scottsdale school district governing board for eight years, said that district has also barred students with GPAs below 2.0 from participating in extracurricular activities such as participating in sporting events, which has helped motivate students to improve their grades.