Failing schools

More than ever, Wasatch Front high schools are failing their students -- in both senses of the phrase. It's just one more sign that the education system can't just keep drifting along as it has been.

The Daily Herald gathered information from 20 high schools in the Weber, Ogden, Murray, Wasatch, Alpine, Provo and Nebo districts on the number of F's handed out since the 2002-2003 school year. In most schools, the number of failed grades has climbed steadily, sometimes appallingly.

Provo schools had the second worst record, after Ogden's. At Provo High School, over the last six years the percentage of classes that students failed has more than doubled, from 9 percent to 20 percent. At Timpview, the percentage more than tripled, from 4 percent to 13 percent.

The percentage of failing grades averaged out to 8.75 percent. Utah County high schools at which more than 8 percent of the grades were F's over that time span also included American Fork, Lehi, Mountain View, Orem, Payson and Timpanogos.

Think about it: At Provo High, one out of every five grades is an F. In many other local high schools, about 9 of every 100 grades is an F.

That's F for failure, flunked or flopped -- take your pick. Each grade signifies a student whose course work has come to nothing.

It is dismaying that this rising tide of failure hasn't been more widely discussed. All grades are on computers, and are endlessly analyzed. Surely it must have been obvious to the education establishment that more and more students are flunking. But little or nothing was done to alert the community.

Educators have an array of explanations. None are reassuring. Some blame the spate of F's on the difficulties faced by students for whom English is a second language. This may be valid, but it's not enough to explain the trend.

Some ascribed the poorer grades to tougher standards. Apparently some students can no longer hide by taking easy electives. Some teachers suggested that trying to cover all the material means that some students, ironically, get left behind. But stricter standards only reveal flaws that have been there all along. Stern educational benchmarks are supposed to raise the level of performance, not serve as an excuse for failure. We'll never be able to compete in the world marketplace with that attitude.

Other observers suggest that today's students are too busy, too distracted, or just don't care. "The number of F's is just a reflection that they're not trying, that they're not working hard enough," one school official said. "We don't see the kind of stamina that we saw in the past."

Has some biological mutation occurred, or has the whole system just become tolerant of laziness -- teachers and parents alike?

If that's the problem, it can only be described as grave. The decline of the United States of America may be further advanced than anyone thought. This problem raises anew the question of whether the schools in Utah, and in the United States in general, are letting their students down.

What can be done? The first step is to jettison for good any complacency over how much students are learning in Utah schools. Some high schoolers are doing splendidly, but too many, obviously, are failing. "Business as usual" isn't getting the job done.

Perhaps as important, maybe it's time to stop trying to nudge students into studying. For years, the schools have done their utmost to make textbooks and classwork alluring and exciting. Obviously, that hasn't worked. It's time to stop begging and pleading with them to learn. Maybe it's time to just make them work. Cut down on distractions in schools. Lose the cell phones. Cut off the electronic entertainment. Use textbooks that focus on academics, not glitz. Don't back down from higher standards.

At home, parents have to put limits on time spent playing video games and perusing Facebook. Maybe schools and parents could (gasp!) work together, drumming into students truths that underlie all success, in school or out: Buckle down, focus, try hard, don't give up. And work, work, work.

If that message can get across somehow, the A's will follow. Without it, the failures will go far beyond the next report card to the creation of a new underclass in America, and to the decline of the nation to second-rate.