Cardinal?s Ketchup Program improves grades

Cardinal High School?s zero tolerance for missed homework assignments, the Ketchup Program inaugurated at the beginning of this spring semester, has data showing the program?s results.

?I truly didn?t know what this new program would do for our students,? said superintendent Joel Pedersen. ?Wow, the initial data is in and look at these numbers.?

Cardinal, grades nine through 12, has 229 students.

Pedersen reports 63 percent of students increased their grade point averages from the end of Quarter 2 to the end of Quarter 3 this school year.

The number of F grades assigned during those same two quarters also dramatically changed.

Cardinal had 138 F grades among students at the end of Quarter 2, which also coincides with the end of the first semester. At the end of Quarter 3, with the Ketchup Program in place, the number of F grades assigned shrank to five.

Contrasting last year and this year, Cardinal had 124 F grades at the end of Quarter 3 in 2011.

?We?re researching this because we can?t control all the variables such as clinical research does, but we are shocked by this initial data,? said Pedersen. ?My teachers, students and parents get all the credit.