Guidelines and Options for Failed Courses

Students who have signed the School Choice and  DeBakey HS for Health Professions entrance agreement have agreed to maintain a passing grade in all courses and complete the required courses successfully each semester.  If a student is not successful during a cycle or semester in any course, the student will be placed on a growth plan and probation until the deficit has been removed.  A student who is not successful in any course at the end of a semester will be given the opportunity to “whole course” average in order to receive credit.  The HISD guidelines are as follow:

Whole Course Credit (Composite Grading)
The TEKS for many courses include objectives covered throughout both semesters the course is offered. Whole course credit applies to all HISD two-semester sequential high school courses (designated “A” and “B” including distance learning, original credit, credit recovery, and summer school) and not to one-semester courses. Credit by Exam (CBE) may not be considered for composite grading. Should a student fail one semester and pass the other semester of a two-semester course, the student will earn one whole credit if the average is a 70 for both semesters combined. A remainder of 0.5 will be rounded off to the next highest number, including 69.5 -69.9; thereby equaling a grade of 70, for example, 139 grade points = 69.5 which rounds up to 70. These rules apply to courses taken and completed in HISD only and may not be combined with courses taken out of district. Students moved from a Pre AP, Pre IB, AP, or IB course into a corresponding regular course will only receive quality points for the advanced course if the student successfully completes the advanced course with a grade of 70 or above.

Examples: 

• If a student completes one semester with a “50”, the student must complete the other semester with a “90” in order to receive a “70” average for both semesters.
• If a student completes one semester with a “60”, the student must complete the other semester with an “80” in order to receive a “70” average for both semesters. And so on...

If a student attempts to complete failed courses during the summer, the summer courses must be taken in HISD to utilize whole course average (composite grading).   

Students may retake courses in HISD summer school (if available) at no charge – the tuition fee is waived.  For example, if a student passed “A” in fall and failed “B” in spring, the student may retake “B” at no charge in summer.

Students may take a course for the first time during summer school (known as Original Credit), but the student will have to pay any applicable summer school tuition fees. For example, if a student failed “A” in the fall, then re-took and passed the “A” in the spring, that student must now take the "B" in the summer. Since this is the first time the student will have taken the "B" (Original Credit) they will have to pay summer school tuition fees.

Students are only allowed to take two semester courses in HISD summer school. If a student fails three or more semester courses during the school year, they will not be able to make the courses up in HISD summer school. 

Please contact the counselors or administrators for additional information.