The Plainedge School District's new policy of promotion and non-promotion will go into effect in the 1999-2000 school year at Sylvia Packard Middle School, the Board of Education decided at its Oct. 6 meeting. Schools Supertintendent Gene Grasso said he hopes the criteria by which grade promotion will be determined will be developed within the next two to four months, thus allowing parents, students, teachers and principals ample time to learn the new rules of the game.

In response to higher standards being set by the state, the new policy places a great deal of emphasis on student accountability. According to Grasso, while the current policy makes it fairly easy for students to pass to the next grade without having mastered all the basics, the new one will raise the standards for academic achievement. The new policy also contradicts the old notion that students who haven't met certain academic standards should be passed for the sake of keeping them with their class. The old policy was developed out of the theory that holding a child back would damage his or her self-esteem and was not effective.

Still, the district intends to avoid both the pitfalls of social promotion as well as the damaging effects of traditional retention by developing alternative programs where students would be expected to raise their levels of academic achievement and rejoin the mainstream. The programs may include anything from summer school to half grades such as grade 8 1/2 to support those students who had not met the eighth grade standards.

Both the criteria for judging students and the programs to support the policy will be developed by site-based decision-making teams consisting of school administrators, parents and teachers.

Although the policy was set in August, the board and superintendent agree that everyone involved needs time to get familiar with the new rules before its implementation.

"In order for the school district to engage in a full-blown non-promotions system, the community must be fully aware of what we are talking about," said Grasso who anticipates that many parents and students will have difficulty swallowing the new, stricter policy.

The district's public information officer, Alice Mateos, said that after the criteria is developed, the district will take the remainder of the year to communicate the changes to staff, parents and students, so that by next September, everyone will have a clear understanding of what the guidelines are.

While, Grasso said he predicts it will take years to phase-in the policy throughout all the district's schools, students in grades six, seven and eight in 1999 will be the first subject to the new policy. The middle school is considered to be the "hub" of the school, said Grasso. He said the policy change will have a trickle down effect from the middle school. The elementary schools will look to the middle school to find out what they need to do in order to prepare students for middle school standards. Packard will also be looking to the high school to determine what it needs to do to prepare students for the upper grades. Mateos also pointed out that the current sixth grade will be the first class required to pass all the all the Regents exams including English, Math, Social Studies and Science.