Eligibility as it relates to marching band

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Jim Bunselmeier
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Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by Jim Bunselmeier » Thu Nov 06, 2014 7:56 am

This is most likely a touchy subject. 2.0 GPA. Do you use it for eligibility for your marching band? At Don Lugo grades are an ongoing issue. We average about 15% of our band students falling below a 2.0 each grading period. Our district uses 6 week grades for eligibility. With summer school as a safety net we had a few students eligible only because of it. After the 6 week grades came out we had 8 of 47 students ineligible. At that point we had to spend a lot of time reworking the drill to close in the holes.

Anyone else struggling with this type of thing?

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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by ODannyBoi » Thu Nov 06, 2014 8:06 am

I explained to my administration that since (unlike most sports) we don't have a bench and that CIF (or any other entity outside the district) doesn't regulate us, we need to view academic ineligibility as an opportunity for remediation. I came up with a compromise that a student who dips below academic eligibility (2.0, no more than 1 F) may have one progress report grading period (4-5 weeks) to bring the grade up, provided they submit, to me, satisfactory weekly progress reports, showing an upward trajectory in all underperforming (D or lower) classes. It's in my handbook, if you'd like to look.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/537 ... 014-15.pdf
Daniel J. Magallanes
Director of Bands,
Monrovia H.S. - Monrovia, CA
www.MonroviaMusic.org

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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by magicsax22 » Thu Nov 06, 2014 8:40 am

I've always been lucky, my department chair years ago (choir teacher who use to be a band teacher) convinced our admin that vapa classes are not extra curricular activities, because the students get grades for it, and as such we can't say kids can't go take their band test simply because they are doing poorly in their math class. His logic was that if a kid is failing English we aren't going to tell them they can't take tests in their Math class...that just means another grade is going to go down. He started calling band, choir, drama etc co-curricular and that is how I've always understand it to work at my school....and I'm not going to go asking questions....

Daniel's solution seems to be a good one though. I mean let's face it we don't want all the kids failing classes, but we also don't want the kids who aren't failing to get hurt in performance because of drill holes etc. I'm curious to hear what others do in these situations. I know some groups set up tutoring within the ensemble or set up rehearsal schedules with longer hours on less days to accommodate students being able to attend tutoring on campus.

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Brad
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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by Brad » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:16 am

I made the same case as magicsax, plus, because of No Child Left Behind, and California equal access law, student may not be excluded from class activities due to eligibility. Trips of a recreational nature, such as trips to Disneyland, would be excluded from this.
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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by Schimmy » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:26 am

I enforce the 2.0/1 F rule. We explain it to the kids early on and we follow up on their grades throughout the year. In our first grading period we had 2 students out of close to 100 not eligible, neither of which was performing with our group and it had zero impact on us except for the positive feeling you have when everyone is doing what they are supposed to do.
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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by magicsax22 » Thu Nov 06, 2014 11:18 am

Wait I just noticed something...how was summer school a buffer for eligibility?

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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by Tubajupiter » Thu Nov 06, 2014 11:27 am

Policy I adopted this year, approved by admin in my syllabus:

"The Marching Band class is an open enrollment course and will remain so at this time. In the past years we have encountered difficulty at the end of October when Quarter 1 grading finishes. Any student not meeting a 2.0 GPA is considered academically ineligible by CIF regulations and may not participate in any school activities outside of class time. To lose a marching member at this time of the season is devastating to the band as the competitive drill is not successful when there are large gaps between members where their classmates are missing. Every member counts! To counteract this negative experience we have instituted the following policy change for next school year:

In order for students to receive a marching drill spot for the 2014 season they MUST have a 2.3 or higher GPA at the end of Academic Year 2013-2014. Students will complete progress reports the last week of school and final grades will be checked before drill spots are written in the summer.
Students not meeting this requirement will attend all rehearsals and continue to learn the show music, choreography, techniques, fundamentals, etc. along with the rest of the band but will not receive spots within the competitive show until they have met and sustained the 2.3 requirement. To summarize:

2.3 or higher: Students will receive drill spots within the competitive drill, excepting special circumstances in which they are not meeting adequate progress in their marching, moving, and playing fundamentals and are moved to probationary membership until such time as they have improved to the satisfaction of the marching band staff.

2.0-2.3: Students will NOT receive drill spots for the competitive show. Students will attend all rehearsals and learn all fundamentals, techniques, show music and choreography,etc. Students will attend all football games and competitions in uniform and perform on the sidelines with the group.

Below 2.0-Academically Ineligible: Students will NOT receive drill spots for the competitive show. Students will attend all rehearsals and learn all fundamentals, techniques, show music and choreography,etc. Students will attend NO events outside normal class rehearsals."

My school has a one grading period "Academic Probation" period where students below a 2.0 for the first time are allowed to participate. This probation period lasts for one grading period only and is only offered to first time "offenders".

I had six students ineligible when the season began and five of them re-qualified at the ten week mark period. Three students are on probation and I can monitor them until next season and we didn't lose one student. I was "lucky" to have some open drill spots for students who had moved or dropped band and my re-qualified students are learning their spots now.

This policy seems to be working for now. There are tweaks to be made of course, but I feel much better about this year than the previous two where I lost 5-6 kids at the ten week mark.

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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by Jim Bunselmeier » Thu Nov 06, 2014 2:37 pm

Summer school...

In our district the GPA is recalculated with summer school grades. If an exact class is repeated the summer school grade replaces the second semester grade. If any other class is taken the class and grade are added into the second semester schedule and the GPA is recalculated with the extra class or two.

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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by magicsax22 » Fri Nov 07, 2014 8:20 am

How does this no drill but learn everything situation work for you in rehearsal? Seems like it would add another layer of difficulty to the teaching situation.

How does this 2.3 thing work with the freshmen students? Do you just go into it assuming they will all stay eligible? The problem I often have is that I get freshmen who have a hard time adjusting to the increased work load in high school, or their parents think they should be getting way better grades (because they think the kid is a genius when they aren't...) or they were put in honors level courses when they shouldn't have been etc. Usually by the time my students are sophomores they've figured everything out, but I often have to deal with freshman parents who feel band is the reason the kids aren't getting higher grades (even though the kid spends most of the time in their other classes playing with their phone...)

Just curious as my winterguard has issues with this often and we haven't gotten what they do to fall under the co-curricular thing yet.

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Re: Eligibility as it relates to marching band

Post by Schimmy » Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:53 am

Tubajupiter wrote:Policy I adopted this year, approved by admin in my syllabus:

"The Marching Band class is an open enrollment course and will remain so at this time. In the past years we have encountered difficulty at the end of October when Quarter 1 grading finishes. Any student not meeting a 2.0 GPA is considered academically ineligible by CIF regulations and may not participate in any school activities outside of class time. To lose a marching member at this time of the season is devastating to the band as the competitive drill is not successful when there are large gaps between members where their classmates are missing. Every member counts! To counteract this negative experience we have instituted the following policy change for next school year:

In order for students to receive a marching drill spot for the 2014 season they MUST have a 2.3 or higher GPA at the end of Academic Year 2013-2014. Students will complete progress reports the last week of school and final grades will be checked before drill spots are written in the summer.
Students not meeting this requirement will attend all rehearsals and continue to learn the show music, choreography, techniques, fundamentals, etc. along with the rest of the band but will not receive spots within the competitive show until they have met and sustained the 2.3 requirement. To summarize:

2.3 or higher: Students will receive drill spots within the competitive drill, excepting special circumstances in which they are not meeting adequate progress in their marching, moving, and playing fundamentals and are moved to probationary membership until such time as they have improved to the satisfaction of the marching band staff.

2.0-2.3: Students will NOT receive drill spots for the competitive show. Students will attend all rehearsals and learn all fundamentals, techniques, show music and choreography,etc. Students will attend all football games and competitions in uniform and perform on the sidelines with the group.

Below 2.0-Academically Ineligible: Students will NOT receive drill spots for the competitive show. Students will attend all rehearsals and learn all fundamentals, techniques, show music and choreography,etc. Students will attend NO events outside normal class rehearsals."

My school has a one grading period "Academic Probation" period where students below a 2.0 for the first time are allowed to participate. This probation period lasts for one grading period only and is only offered to first time "offenders".

I had six students ineligible when the season began and five of them re-qualified at the ten week mark period. Three students are on probation and I can monitor them until next season and we didn't lose one student. I was "lucky" to have some open drill spots for students who had moved or dropped band and my re-qualified students are learning their spots now.

This policy seems to be working for now. There are tweaks to be made of course, but I feel much better about this year than the previous two where I lost 5-6 kids at the ten week mark.
I really like this. Going to adjust and adopt it.
"The audience is always listening"

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