As part of WA’s School Improvement Plan, a document created by the WA School Advisory Council outlining administration’s goals for the new school year, conversations have occurred during the past month within the History and English departments exploring the possibility of deleveling certain grade 9 courses. This would eliminate the option for freshmen to take honors or CP for these classes, as all students would be placed in one standard course.
The conversations are part of a larger exploratory phase for this plan, and if administration feels it is something that they would like to pursue, a proposal will be put forth next year. This model is only focused on deleveling freshman year English and History courses.
“Those decisions would be big structural changes, but if we feel like it benefits the students, then that’s something we should explore,” principal Dan Twomey said.
In the Improvement Plan, this goal is listed under assessing WA’s organizational structures to ensure equitable learning environments for all students. According to Twomey, students in a CP class who may be on the cusp of being in an honors level class may benefit from being with both types of students in a different setting. Additionally, this type of course may also remove other barriers students experience in the course selection process going from middle to high school, including teacher recommendations and the need to override to get into certain classes.
Furthermore, this structural change may also assist in the scheduling process, which became more difficult with the cuts caused by the budget deficit last year. As WA aims to be an efficiently scheduled school, an emphasis is placed on placing students in appropriately leveled classes while also having opportunities for students to challenge themselves by taking a higher level course.
However, according to Twomey, as many students utilize the override process during freshman year to take higher level classes, or switch their class level at the beginning of the school year, scheduling could be made easier with the deleveled courses.
Even so, several teachers feel that this model would prove to be a disservice to students rather than promote equity within the classroom.
The English department, prior to meeting with Twomey, created a document detailing their concerns about the new structure. According to freshman honors English teacher Rebecca Shaw, the department is opposed to the idea as a whole. Shaw has taught the course for 16 years and believes that having mixed skill levels in a classroom will not lift everybody up, as some students may feel intimidated by students who are prepared for a harder curriculum, and others may feel not challenged enough.
“I feel like I am preparing those students for AP, whether they take it or not, they’re getting skills that are sending them on a trajectory,” Shaw said. “Without any honors [in] freshman year, those kids aren’t going to be where the sophomore honors teachers want them to be, and they’ll have a harder time getting their students to where the junior honors teachers want them to be, etc., so there’ll be this ripple effect that will be possibly detrimental to students’ performance. I think [it] would be detrimental to the program that we’ve worked so hard to create.”
Freshman CP and honors World History teacher Heather Carney came into teaching at WA with students only having the ability to take one standard level class, and no option of CP or honors. She remembers that the reason the honors level was put in place was due to students and parents requesting it. After years of teaching CP and Honors as separate classes with defined changes, the idea of going back to merged classes concerns her.
“I think it’s one of those things where we’re not unfamiliar with it because we’ve done it before, but we’ve also done it this way for a while, and it seems like it’s working well,” Carney said. “So I guess I would have to be convinced to go back. Not that it’s my decision, but I’m leaning toward leaving it [alone].”
Additionally, Carney is concerned that since leveling was previously changed because students and parents requested an honors World History course, the same will happen in this scenario as well.
Replacing the current structure to this type of model would mean a change in the curriculum being taught by teachers, and modifications to the lesson plans that have already been created. According to Twomey, though it will take time to adapt to the change, there would be professional development and training for teachers and educators.
“I think we have wonderful educators in all of our departments here, and I think they’re all highly capable of doing that, to finding that balance of, ‘how do I make sure my traditional honors students feel challenged?’, and ‘how do I challenge my CP students to give them an opportunity to be an honors-type student?’ as well,” Twomey said.
However, this thought still seems overwhelming for many teachers. Having to balance a variety of skill levels in the classroom can look different in many ways, such as spending extra time with some students on material and providing alternate assignments for students. Shaw states that if this new model occurs, she would have to re-do her entire curriculum and lesson planning to not only cover all the material, but also to ensure all of her students are being supported.
“We’re being told to do something without any guidance or modeling, any clear directions, and none of us think it’s a good idea,” Shaw said. “I certainly feel like so much of what I’m able to do with my freshman honor students, I would have to seriously revamp, or maybe cut, to have to deal with so many different levels in the same classroom, and that would be hours and hours and hours, and also it would be very frustrating.”
