Star Tribune
Rochester schools to allow students to fail classes again
ROCHESTER — Underperforming secondary students here will once again be at risk of getting a dreaded “F” on their report cards, with the school district announcing the end to a pandemic-era policy that had replaced failing marks with “no credit” grades.
The no credit, or “NC,” grading guidelines dated back to 2020 as a way to soften the blow for students who were struggling to meet the demands of virtual learning. District officials felt it was unfair to give kids failing marks when teachers were developing forms of at-home academic curriculum on the fly.
Since then, however, the drawbacks from the policy have become “increasingly clear,” Rochester Public Schools Superintendent Kent Pekel said in an email to parents this month.
For one, the NCs did not provide students or parents with a clear assessment of how the student is performing in class. For high schoolers, the NCs also did not count toward a student’s overall grade point average, improving college readiness opportunities, such as enrollment in the district’s postsecondary educational program.
Pekel, who took the job as superintendent in 2021, said the lack of accountability sent “the wrong message about the student’s overall performance in school.”
“Deciding that basic levels of effort were not necessary — because it wasn’t going to show up in their GPA and they never got the very recognizable symbol of an ‘F’— there was a subset of kids who were seeing that possibility as a reason not to meet some level of basic requirements,” Pekel said in an interview Monday.
In a recent survey, RPS educators mostly agreed with the policy change, which takes effect this coming schol year. According to the district, 65 percent of secondary teachers and 70 percent of secondary administrators supported reinstating Fs for failing students.
The grading change is the latest in a series of moves Pekel has taken to repeal policies put into place by the former Superintendent Michael Muñoz, some of which predated the pandemic. Under the previous administration, the district had implemented the so-called Grading for Learning plan, which prohibited homework and classroom participation from factoring into grading. The approach also allowed for students to take unlimited retakes for most quizzes.
For the 2023-24 school year, RPS leaders changed course — allowing teachers to base up to 30 percent of a student’s final grade on learning behaviors, like pop-up quizzes and homework. Pekel said part of the district’s rationale was based on lessons learned from the pandemic about the need for regular academic engagement from students.
“If you give kids no credit for being ready for a test, and instead they take a test and then study it because they can take any number of retakes; or you never give points for class participation or homework — especially in a pandemic when kids were disconnected from school and a lot of social norms broke down — you had a disincentive to engage in the practice side of learning.”
Pekel said even with the new grading requirements, the district is not trying to signal a readiness to let students fail. The goal, he emphasized, is for students to take greater responsibility for how their participation and grades may impact opportunities post high school.
“As the school year gets underway, we will take steps to ensure that all students understand this change and the implications that it has for their coursework next year.”
Star Tribune
Sentencing set for Monday morning for a Minnesota man who was drunk and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV and killed her.
A man with a history of driving drunk received a four-year term Monday for being intoxicated and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV on a southern Minnesota highway and killed her.
John R. Deleo, 54, of Lake Crystal, Minn., was sentenced in Brown County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Aug. 17, 2023, in New Ulm at Hwy. 68 and S. 15th Street that killed 82-year-old Sharon A. Portner, of New Ulm.
With credit for the two days he was in jail after his arrest, Deleo is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
A week ahead of sentencing, defense attorney James Kuettner asked the court to spare his client prison and put him on probation for up to five years.
Kuettner pointed out in his filing that Deleo stayed at the crash scene and attempted “to aid Portner, and he left [her] side only when directed to by law enforcement.”
The attorney also noted that Deleo has been sober since the crash, and therefore, at a particularly low risk for reoffending.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police arrived to find the two damaged vehicles near 15th and S. Broadway streets. Emergency responders took Portner to New Ulm Medical Center, where she died that day.
ROCHESTER – The defense for Shane Roper, the former state trooper charged for his role in a crash that killed Owatonna teenager Olivia Flores, has asked the court to dismiss eight of the nine charges against him.
In a motion filed Oct. 24, Roper’s attorneys said the state has “failed to meet its burden of offering direct evidence tending to demonstrate that [Roper’s] actions, or negligence, were the proximate cause of death or bodily harm.”
Roper, 32, faces nine criminal charges related to the May 18 crash, including felony charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide. Both charges carry maximum sentences of 10 years in jail.
The only charge the defense did not ask to have dismissed is a misdemeanor for careless driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail.
Among the other requests made to the court, Roper’s defense asked for a change of venue outside of Olmsted County, citing the extensive media coverage of the case. The defense said “jury pools have surely been tainted and a fair trial cannot be had” in the county.
Roper’s attorney, Eric Nelson of Halberg Criminal Defense, also argued that any evidence related to Roper’s prior speeding or traffic incidents should be precluded as evidence in the case.
In the five years leading up to the crash, Roper had been disciplined by the State Patrol on four separate occasions for careless or reckless driving, including a February 2019 crash that injured another officer.
District Judge Christa Daily has not responded to the motions. Roper is scheduled to be back in court Nov. 21 for a pretrial settlement conference.
Star Tribune
Who is comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who insulted Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally?
NEW YORK — Of the nearly 30 speakers who recently warmed up the crowd for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe got the most attention for racist remarks.
”I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said, later including lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jewish and Black people.
The comments have led to condemnation from Democrats and Puerto Rican celebrities, with Ricky Martin sharing a clip of Hinchcliffe’s set, captioned: “This is what they think of us.”
The Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. ”This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Here’s what to know about Hinchcliffe, his comedic styling and the response to his Madision Square Garden comments.
Hinchcliffe, raised in Youngstown, Ohio, is a stand-up comedian who specializes in the roast style, in which comedians take the podium to needle a celebrity victim with personal and often tasteless jokes. He has written and appeared on eight Comedy Central Roasts, including ones for Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.
Even fellow comedians aren’t immune. At the Snoop Dogg roast, Hichcliffe made a joke referencing comedian Luenell, who is Black, being on the Underground Railroad. Of the honoree, he said: ”Snoop, you look like the California Raisin that got hooked on heroin.”
