|
The Small Business
Resource Center (not affilitated with any other SBRC)
|
|
Wyn Lydecker writes articles on educational issues for The Darien Times. Some sample columns on the issues of honors courses and tracking are below. steppingback@Yahoo.com
STEPPING BACK The Emotional Issues of Tracking and A. P. Courses By Wyn L. Lydecker
If you think emotions run high among parents at a kids’ soccer game, try discussing the stringent requirements for entry into the honors track and Advanced Placement classes at the high school. I have hesitated for years to write about this topic because it is so controversial, but I have finally decided to brave the potential slings and arrows. The question is this: should Darien High School open its classroom doors to any student who wants the extra challenge of honors and Advanced Placement classes? Or should it stick to its "by invitation only" policy? Students who yearn for the challenge but are denied the opportunity can feel frustrated, crushed and bitter. On the other hand, those who are invited to join the honors and Advanced Placement (AP) track have earned their placement through superior performance on exams and in class, and they don’t necessarily want to share their high level courses with any student who might hold the class back. Therein lies part of the debate. Although parents of older students alerted me over five years ago that the selection requirements for honors and AP classes were becoming stiffer, it took our family’s college tour during Spring vacation to make me want to bring the discussion public. Admissions literature and officers at every selective college we visited made the same statement, "We are looking for students who challenge themselves by taking as many honors and Advanced Placement classes as possible." This made me wonder if our school system is putting too many of our students at a significant disadvantage to those who come from schools with open admission to honors and AP Two Newsweek articles published in March 1998 and March 2000 and research by the U.S. Department of Education would suggest that we are. The first Newsweek article criticized Darien High School for failing to challenge enough of its students by discouraging all but the top ones from taking the AP courses or exams. This article caused quite a stir in town, if you recall. But it was quickly brushed aside by our former superintendent, who pointed to our excellent record of high scores on the AP tests. When I recently contacted the article’s author, Jay Mathews, to discuss this issue, he explained that many elite school system administrators believe that a high passing rate on AP exams -- Darien’s is 94% -- boosts their reputation. But he says that they are mistaken. It merely reflects restrictive policies, as most top high schools typically have about 70% of their students pass. He further claims that colleges ignore the passing rate statistic. Mathews, who is also an author of several books and an education writer for The Washington Post, believes that the measure of a great high school is whether it provides students with every opportunity to realize their full potential. Those like Darien, which restrict honors and AP enrollment, are failing to do this. He arrived at this conclusion after years of research gathered by visiting high schools and talking with students, administrators, teachers, educators and parents. He then wrote a book, Class Struggle, which delved into this and other issues concerning America’s best high schools and introduced his "Challenge Index." The Challenge Index divides the number of Advanced Placement tests given by the school in a year by the number of graduating seniors and ranks the schools by the resulting score. Mathews admits that all ranking systems are flawed in some way but developed this one because he believes that Advanced Placement courses and tests are the best standard by which to measure curricular strength nationwide. In 2000, Darien’s challenge index of 1.034 gave it a ranking of 461, out of 493 high schools earning a rank of 1.0 or more. Although this score puts DHS in the top 3% of the nation’s 22,500 public high schools, it places our school significantly behind 460 others including number one ranked Stanton College Prep in Jacksonville, Florida, which had an index of 4.324. Bronxville High in Bronxville, NY ranked fifth with a 3.147; Langley High in McLean, Virginia was twenty-fifth with 2.490; North Hollywood High School in Hollywood, California ranked twenty-ninth with a 2.420; Stevenson in Lincolnshire, Ill landed in 57th position with 2.065; Farmington in Connecticut was 90th with an index of 1.837; and Chapel Hill in North Carolina, index 1.793, was 100th. . Information like this is included in corporate information booklets, like one I saw from AT&T, that are published to help homebuyers find the best school systems. Mathews blames Darien’s "gatekeeping" practices – restricting access to AP -- for its poor ranking. A perusal of the Course Sequence section of the DHS catalog clearly shows how the accelerated and honors track leads to the capstone AP courses, while regular courses don’t. The course description sections and separate registration materials detail requirements for inclusion in the top track, which vary by department but can include some combination of high grades, high standardized test scores, strong teacher recommendations, and in some cases passing scores on specialized exams such as hour-long essay tests. What the DHS catalog doesn’t say is that entry into the math track, which leads to AP Calculus and also affects placement in the science track, begins as early as sixth grade. If a student misses any of the requirements in a department, he or she must take the regular class. It doesn’t matter if a child is a history buff or wants to be a scientist when she grows up. Parents who ask for their teenager to be given the chance to try the harder class and to possibly fail are told that the requirements were arrived at with much study and work for the benefit of all. Most of the high school faculty firmly believe that students who do not make the grade will crumble under the demands of the harder classes and that their self-esteem and grades are better served in the regular classes. Mathews takes issue with this. He says that it is more damaging to a teenager’s fragile ego to tell him that he is not good enough for the top classes. Furthermore, Mathews writes that it is wrong to keep kids out of more challenging classes that will help them succeed in college. Clifford Adelman, an educational researcher with the U.S. Department of Education, agrees. He has released a study, Answers in the Toolbox, that supports and quantifies this contention with hard facts. This study followed 13,000 students from the time they were in tenth grade until they were 30 years old. It reveals that the strongest predictor of college completion is not grades, SAT scores or class rank, but how intense the students’ high school courses were. In fact, Adelman’s study shows that no matter what grades, race or socio-economic backgrounds students had, those who took the toughest classes were the most likely to succeed and receive their bachelors degrees. Students who took calculus in high school had the single highest success rate, whether they achieved a high grade or not. Mathews says that educators who are aware of the multiple benefits of unrestricted admission to AP are making changes. Two years ago, despite predictions of doom, the superintendent and school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, opened honors, AP and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses to all who wanted the extra challenge. They also required students to take the associated exams and covered the costs. The next year, the number of students taking AP exams doubled. While the passing rate fell to about 62% from 75%, it is climbing back up. More importantly, there has been a trickle-down effect, as the middle schools have responded by encouraging 8th graders to take algebra and by strengthening their science courses. This sounds like very positive results to me. Should Darien consider taking a similarly intrepid step to make our high school and our students more competitive? Should students who want to challenge themselves by taking honors and AP classes be allowed to do so? I would love to know your opinion. Please write to the editor, call Dial Darien or e-mail me at: steppingback@yahoo.com.
(Answers in the Toolbox can be found online at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Toolbox/toolbox.html. Class Struggle is available at the Darien Library, and the Newsweek articles are in the archives at the New Canaan Library.) -----------------------------------------------------
STEPPING BACK Frustration and Fear Surround Tracking Issue By Wyn L. Lydecker
"I was close to tears when I read your article because my daughter had just been turned down for accelerated eighth grade English," said a mother who called me in response to my May 17 column, which dealt with the emotional issues of tracking and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. This woman went on to explain that her daughter had scored in the top 3% of the national pool of students who took the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) exam, qualifying her to take the SATs in seventh grade as part of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth search for the academically precocious. She did well on the SATs. "How could someone who scores high enough on the ERBs and SATs to qualify for the Johns Hopkins program not be allowed in the accelerated track?" this mom wanted to know. Because of our schools’ policies, this very bright pre-teen is now completely demoralized. Her mother can see the difference in her daughter already. Unfortunately, situations like this are far too common. Several other parents called to tell me that their young teenagers had scored well on the seventh grade SATs or that their children were in IDEA (the gifted program) but that the schools were telling them that they were not good enough for the most challenging classes. This news had severely dampened their children’s zest for learning. These comments, the letter to the editor that appeared in last week’s edition and phone calls to the Darien Times are examples of the tremendous response I have had to my column on tracking. Each person who contacted me did so with the stipulation that their anonymity be protected, as they feared retribution from teachers and administrators. I found such comments to be shocking and sad. Do we mistrust our schools that much? How can an effective dialog on this subject take place unless people are willing to make their views known? And the views expressed to me clearly communicated a high degree of frustration. Here is a sample: A mother whose child was denied honors courses in tenth grade: "How is it that my daughter is on the high honor roll, loves history and English, but is not being allowed into the honors sections? What does the school want? I just don’t get it." A parent of a sophomore: "Three generations in our household read your article, and we all agreed. Students who want the challenge should be able to have it. But please, don’t dummy down the classes." A student who was turned down for 12th grade AP English: "How can one little test keep you out of AP? Doesn’t all my work over the year count for anything? In my old high school, anyone who wanted AP could take it. All my friends in my old school are in it, and I’m not." A mother of three: "We moved here for the schools. But all the kids’ friends in our old school are all in honors and AP. They don’t understand why my kids aren’t. I have to explain to their parents that Darien only invites certain kids in." A student denied tenth grade honors English and history: "I don’t think the teachers like me. They don’t agree with my ideas. I have a 98 average in history and a B+ in accelerated English, but they won’t let me take honors." An older resident: "It seems as if the schools are so set on preventing children from failing that they never even give them a chance to try. Why can’t a kid just be given a chance to take a harder course if he wants to? What is wrong with that?" And these comments from five different former board of education members: "The school keeps asking our students to ‘step down’ instead of up to the challenge." "Darien really missed the boat on this one…By setting standards as early as 6th grade for math we are deciding which colleges those students can consider before they hit puberty! " "We are effectively deciding for children at age 11 whether or not they will be eligible for selective colleges." (This is very ironic because most towns like Darien pride themselves on what colleges their high school graduates attend.) "The faculty says they don’t want to have to water down the classes by letting in kids who aren’t capable of the work and will hold back the class. They keep making the requirements more restrictive. It’s like they don’t want to have to answer any questions from kids who don’t ‘get it’ right away. " But the argument is not all one-sided. Some parents told me that the level and amount of work are almost overwhelming in the honors classes. In fact, one student described honors physics as "a course that took over my life." A dad told me that AP calculus was so tough and that his son struggled so much that he decided to drop down to regular calculus. When he did that, he started getting A’s. It seems that potentially bad grades plus the specter of lowering the very high level of discussion and work are the two main reasons that the faculty at DHS has made the requirements for the accelerated, honors and AP courses steadily more restrictive over the past several years. As some people explained to me, most parents in Darien want their kids to get good grades. And since many are quick to tell teachers when the work is too onerous and the grading too hard, especially in the honors or AP courses, the teachers only want the kids in the classes whom they know will do well, i.e., get grades of B or better. If the doors of the honors and AP courses are opened, the high school faculty and some school board members fear that parental complaints about work load and grades will lead teachers to ease up on the demands and dumb down the courses. Some parents whose children are in honors fear that they will suffer from less rigorous work and from class discussions that are at a lower intellectual level. "It’s O.K. to let kids in who want the challenge, but don’t meet the criteria, as long as we don’t hurt the kids who are already there," one mother of three cautioned me. Yet, she is also worried about college admissions. Selective colleges are stating that they want evidence that the student has challenged himself with honors and AP courses. Some parents say that grades count more. Do they? Or are we putting a significant number of talented students at a disadvantage by keeping them out of honors and AP courses when their peers in hundreds of high schools across the nation can and do take such classes? The Board of Education should do a systematic poll of selective colleges to find out the answer to this question. And they should consider setting a policy that at a minimum allows students who want to try accelerated, honors or AP to co-sign a waiver with their parents that states that they understand that the course is very difficult, high grades are not assured, that they are doing this against the advice of the faculty and will accept full responsibility for their actions. This gets the faculty off the hook and allows the student, like the one who was brave enough to write to this paper last week, to take the course he wants. New Trier High School in Illinois does this for motivated students. If you agree, or if you don’t, please call or write our school board and superintendent. If you are afraid of possible consequences, then ask them to protect your anonymity. We will only ensure that we are doing right by our children, if our voices are heard. (E-mail me at: steppingback@yahoo.com.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIDEBAR One thing that has become clear to me is that not everyone understands the levels of study in our middle and high schools. Perhaps the following explanation will help. Students who qualify can take a sprinkling of accelerated courses in grades six through nine. These classes require honors-level thinking and work and tend to lead to honors classes later. The first official honors course (400 level), with a .5 grade point added to the grade when calculating grade point average, is BSCS Biology in grade nine. Grades ten through twelve offer honors and AP classes in all academic subject areas. Students in AP courses (also 400 level) do college-level work and take the AP exam in the spring. A score of 3 or more, out of a possible 5, can give students course credit at more than 1300 colleges. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEPPING BACK Possible Solutions to Tracking Frustrations By Wyn L. Lydecker
"Don’t let this issue die. Keep writing about it." Like others in this lovely upscale town, my friend had called to express her aggravation with a school system that keeps smart kids out of top classes. She urged me to maintain the discussion that my previous two columns on the subject of tracking and Advanced Placement (AP) had started. The amount of pent-up frustration that these articles helped reveal has been amazing to me. Some students who are in mostly honors classes have adamantly expressed their desire to keep the status quo. But other students and parents believe that the current selection criteria for accelerated, honors and AP courses at Darien High School are too restrictive and rigid. The overarching question, however, is what to do about the situation. "What we really need to answer," a sitting school board member says, "is how can we raise the level of challenge for every student?" Whether the Board of Education and school administrators decide to raise the challenge for everyone in all levels of classes, preserve honors and AP for a select group, or allow those who want to try harder classes to have the opportunity regardless of past performance or standardized test scores, will depend upon many factors. But I believe the most critical one would be to examine the current philosophies, policies and practices that guide our school system. Are they right for this decade? We have an excellent opportunity to do this, as Darien High’s accreditation is up for its ten-year review. As part of the accreditation process, conducted by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), parents filled out a survey. It asks how strongly you agree with 45 statements about the school. Of those statements, three in particular jumped out at me:
Did DHS even have a "mission statement"? I searched for one and instead found a two-page statement of philosophy at the beginning of DHS catalog and student handbook. I read it, and nowhere does it say that the school will challenge the students or encourage them to learn to their fullest potential. Nor does it purport to invite parental input. Even the "Goals of the Darien Public Schools," contained in the school board’s policy manual, do not utter such concepts. In fact, under the top goal, "Motivation to Learn", which is also the number one state goal, the first line reads, "To develop a positive self-concept and positive attitude toward other people." Unfortunately, the high school’s and middle school’s restrictive policies and practices work against that goal. Instead of bolstering kids up and telling them to stretch themselves, the schools tell a significant portion of bright, diligent students that they are not smart enough or hard working enough for the best classes. A young person with a B+ average is told that he doesn’t have the capability to get a good grade in an honors class. Coincidentally, a kid with an A average and medium high test scores is also told that she lacks the innate ability to excel in a tougher course. The effect is to dampen motivation. Jay Mathews, a Washington Post education writer and author of the book "Class Struggle" and two Newsweek articles on this subject, says that bright children are likely to "turn off their academic engines" when denied honors classes. Research on gifted children backs up this claim. Many kids with high I.Q.s are known to coast with B’s in regular courses and then are kept out of honors. Yet, experts say that they would be served better in more intellectually stimulating courses. Perhaps that is why many parents of children in the gifted program told me that they support opening honors and AP classes to kids who want to try. One such mom moved her son to private school after he was denied honors algebra at DHS. At his new school there were no restrictions, and he wound up excelling in honors courses and scoring in the high 700s on the math SAT. Another boy was told by his DHS math teacher that he had no business taking AP calculus and that he would fail it. He was so incensed that he enrolled in calculus at Yale’s summer program and earned an A in the course. Such unfortunate incidents could be avoided in the future, if the school system, particularly the high school, changed its attitude. Such a revolution in thought could start with the drafting of a mission statement that says all students will be encouraged to achieve their highest potential. My friends whose children attend private schools tell me that their schools’ philosophies encourage kids to stretch themselves. These schools will always let a child try the harder class but allow him to drop back if need be. In a town known for its fine schools and its high achieving population, Darien should be doing the same thing, giving its kids multiple opportunities to prove their abilities and even to fail. Most successful people claim that trying and failing taught them more than their successes. I believe that at a minimum, we should allow parents whose children want to try high level courses, to sign a waiver stating that they know they are going against faculty advice and accept full responsibility for the consequences. But at the same time, we cannot forget that many parents and students are sincerely concerned that such action would significantly hurt the students who are in the honors and AP track now. They believe whole-heartedly that students with even slightly lower test scores or grades will drag down the level of work and teaching and literally damage the most qualified students. I find this attitude ironic because retired Assistant Superintendent Dr. Robert Laber always said that the average I.Q. in Darien is 20% higher than the national norm. Furthermore, according to Mathews, these students would be in AP courses, if they attended one of the hundreds of other top high schools that let students request honors and AP classes. After years of studying this issue, he claims that the schools without gate keeping practices have suffered no ill effects. Motivated students tend to rise to the occasion. And since the AP exams are national, they force the teachers to give college level work. In personal correspondence with me, Mathews expressed his strong belief that Darien is hurting too many of its smart students. These kids are missing invaluable preparation for tough college work. But more importantly, DHS is keeping them out of the running for highly selective colleges. Mathews says that his interviews with college recruiters plus his 20 years of watching the Harvard admissions process as an alumni interviewer have convinced him that colleges will accept the students who have taken AP courses over those who have not, every time. He says the highly selective colleges even prefer a B in AP to an A in a regular course. A college counselor I spoke with concurs. "You have to have AP to even be in the ballpark," she says. But what about the concern that the students already in honors/AP will be damaged by having less qualified kids in their classes? I think that there are several ways to address this. First, the school board could contact the high schools like Stevenson in Illinois and those in Fairfax County, Virginia that switched to more open admissions. Let’s learn from their experiences. We could also consider following a growing trend in the rest of the nation to teach algebra in eighth grade to most students. For late bloomers who suddenly become motivated in 11th grade and want to take honors or AP classes, we should find ways to support the transition. We should once again allow and encourage motivated teachers to offer lunch-time or after-school enrichment classes for regular students who want to move up. Many students took advantage of these programs in the past, but our former superintendent, Eileen Gress, put a stop to the efforts around the same time that she ushered in the new restrictions for admission to honors and AP. She claimed she was "raising standards" in response to the school board’s request to make the high school more challenging. I believe that the board of education and the school administration should revisit this idea of raising the level of challenge for all students. At the same time, we should seize the opportunity to discuss and explore all sides of the AP/honors admissions issue and set policies that will benefit the most students.
(E-mail me with your opinions at: steppingback@yahoo.com) |