Posted on 10/20/2008 9:37:45 AM PDT by prolifefirst
A wide variety of concerns and perspectives marked a sometimes disorganized and rancorous PTSA forum about mixed-level classes, scheduled in the wake of a surprise change to the senior English program which eliminated the honors-only level.
Over 150 people attended the forum, "Mixed-Level and Honors-Only Classes at ETHS: The Past, The Present and The Future" on Oct. 6.
Superintendent Eric Witherspoon provided a backdrop to the discussion through a review of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, the District's recent positive performance against those requirements and the comprehensive restructuring that has taken place through the System of Supports initiative and the reorganization of AVID, STAE and Project Excel.
In the context of the current celebration of ETHS's 125th anniversary, Dr. Witherspoon said, "In our 125-year history one of the things that would have to concern all of us is that if you measure it by standardized tests, students of color have not enjoyed the same success overall that the white kids have enjoyed at this school."
Administrators have taken steps recently to expand mixed-level classes to provide more opportunity for minority students to be exposed to honors-level work. They credit this effort and the more comprehensive support programs with the substantial improvements in standardized test scores for minority students this past year.
Although mixed-level classes, in some form or another, have been around "for decades" at ETHS, Dr. Witherspoon acknowledged that past efforts had been inadequate to meet the goal of improving the performance of lower achievers and at the same time provide sufficient challenge for higher achievers.
"If you measure it by standardized tests, students of color have not enjoyed the same success overall that the white kids have enjoyed at this school." -- District 202 Superintendent Dr. Eric Witherspoon
"In past years straight honors did move at a faster pace," Dr. Witherspoon said in response to questions from the audience about the difference between honors in an honors-only classes and honors in mixed-level classes. "One of the things that we're trying to do now is to have honors be honors - we're trying very hard to have the same curriculum. That was not always the case."
"I'd like to know why you have honors at all, then," asked one parent, who did not identify herself. "Unless you want to have an elitist school, why are you separating out honors?"
"You are asking the pertinent question," replied Dr. Witherspoon. "Because we didn't want to move too rapidly and make sure we got it right. But it does beg that question. That's what we're trying to do this year is to get this thing right, so that we can demonstrate that there is no difference between the straight honors and the mixed honors."
The same parent replied, "I've had children for ten years straight in the high school. The rigor of a mixed-level class doesn't come close to an honors class."
"You haven't gotten it right for that many years," she continued. "It seems half-baked, although I very much appreciate all the support you're doing. The teachers don't seem to be prepared to teach the mixed-level. Why would it be any different?"
Dr. Laura Cooper, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, attempted to provide further insight into changes being made to the mixed-level structures.
"We are redesigning the curriculum for Freshman Humanities so that there is one curriculum straight honors or mixed-level," she said.
Jennifer Fisher, History Department chair, echoed Dr. Cooper's remarks.
"I've been at this high school for 31 years," she said "and for the first time in [all those] years in Freshman Humanities, we are working on common assessments, common assignments and a common semester exam. We are doing really difficult work - I promise you that the history and English teachers are really committed to this."
Dr. Witherspoon conceded that mixed-level classes had not met expectations for rigor in past years, but said he was confident that the new approach would improve both challenge and performance. He also acknowledged that the process of making all senior English classes mixed-level, a cause of frustration and lack of trust for many at the meeting, had not conformed to the procedures he favored for such change and that it would not happen that way again.
Although the forum promised that administrators would present research on mixed-level classes and although the terms "research" and "studies" were used frequently in the defense of the expansion of mixed classes, little concrete information was provided. When such information was provided, its value was questioned.
"We are working with a national expert named Jessica Hockett [University of Virginia]," said Ms. Fisher, "and for the first time, teachers are being trained. We are being trained on something called differentiation of instruction which means we assess where kids are, what they need and how we can move them."
PTSA co-president Deborah Graham challenged the immediate value of the approach.
"In Freshman Humanities, we are working on common assessments, common assignments and a common semester exam. We are doing really difficult work - I promise you that the history and English teachers are really committed to this." -- Jennifer Fisher, History Department chair
"I served on the D65 enrichment committee, which spent months working on the issue of differentiation and how to implement it effectively, because it hasn't been working to date in D65," said Ms. Graham. "Jessica Hockett spoke to us and one of my big concerns that if you start from ground zero and you begin to implement a differentiation model it can take up to five years for results to begin to be felt. So what's going to happen to all of our kids during these next five, and especially when the teachers who are teaching these classes [have received only] two days of training this summer which isn't that much."
"For all the years I've lived in this community, I've had to listen to a community talk about students of color in a deficit model." - District 202 School Board President Martha Burns Other parents expressed similar concerns.
"I haven't heard anything about the honors kids raising their test scores," queried one parent. "How's it going to help our kids?"
Another remarked, "To make the argument that this is going to be of great benefit to the higher-achieving students is not a common-sense argument."
A different point of view was voiced by another parent. "We know there are kids that are not meeting standards and we have to put the resources there. You only have a limited amount of resources and you have to put the resources in the kids that are not meeting the standards."
District 202 Board President Martha Burns challenged the idea that "high achieving white students" had nothing to gain by being in a mixed-level class. "Kids of color bring capital to the classroom. For [all the] years that I've lived in this community, I've had to listen to a community talk about students of color in a deficit model." But then she struck a more positive note. "If we can't do it here [in Evanston], we can't do it anywhere. If the classrooms aren't working, we want to know about it."
A show of hands of the people left at the end of the two-and-a-half hour meeting indicated that many still had not been satisfied by the information presented. Ms. Graham suggested that the topic be continued at the next PTSA meeting, scheduled for Nov. 6.
Amazing. Obvioulsly the remaining parents that care at the high school will pull their kids out and property values will go down.
Dr. Witherspoon said, “In our 125-year history one of the things that would have to concern all of us is that if you measure it by standardized tests, students of color have not enjoyed the same success overall that the white kids have enjoyed at this school.”
It really shows when nearly 100% of the BLACKS VOTE FOR THE OBOMINATION!
BLACKS have the SAME BOOKS.
BLACKS have the SAME ACCESS for HELP and STILL
BLACKS CHOOSE TO FAIL!
“just keep lowering the standards...”
“Administrators have taken steps recently to expand mixed-level classes to provide more opportunity for minority students to be exposed to honors-level work.”
It makes NO SENSE AT ALL
EXCEPT
to DEPRIVE WHITES from GETTING AHEAD.
They want to DUMB DOWN WHITES to the PACE of those that are DUMB and STUPID.
This is the kind of kill the goose and get the last egg now approach that we’ll get more of on a national level if the liberal sunami materializes.
Another remarked, “To make the argument that this is going to be of great benefit to the higher-achieving students is not a common-sense argument.”
THANK YOU!
And therein lies the problem with government, in a nutshell: keep throwing resources where they are almost guaranteed to do very little good, just so some socialist can feel good about himself. Meanwhile, good students, who may actually one day return something worthwhile to society, are neglected.
Evanston is near the centr of Obama country.
You cannot spend 20 minutes in the town without hearing Obama propaganda.
We’ve been dealing with this at my 11 year old 6th grade twin daughters’ private school.
One of my twins is gifted and bright in every area.
My other twin is special needs. She is gifted in math, but she is slow at reading and she is not great at writing.
They are both get bombarded with lots of homework. My gifted daughter is really having trouble keeping up.
I don’t mind that my gifted daughter is given lots of homework. She’ll eventually be able to figure out how to handle everything, and it’s good for her to learn how to work hard because so far everything has been easy for her.
However, my special needs daughter doesn’t need the pressure. She performs at grade level (in everything but math), but not above. I don’t want her to be overwhelmed by homework. It’s not even really going to help her. Reading out loud to me is about the main thing that would help her, and she doesn’t have time to do that. She also needs to have a life. She’s wants to play sports, and that’s a very good thing for her.
In elementary school, the private school had a program for dyslexic students and that’s why we picked the school. Now, in middle school they have just abandoned the dyslexic students.
What really irritates me is that my daughter just can’t keep up with the amount of work that is given. She’s not fast enough. The homework grades are not great because she can’t complete the work. However, she still is managing to pull As on tests. What’s more important: finishing homework or doing well on tests? I thought the purpose of homework was to prepare them for tests.
I’m beginning to wonder if we need to put my daughter back in public school. However, there are so many other issues in public school (misbehaving kids, too large, etc).
I hate forcing all kids to perform at the same level. Some kids just can’t.
Oh by all means, let’s go ahead and tether the brightest, most motivated students to the slowest and least motivated, and see how that works out, especially for math and the hard sciences!! Yes, let’s ensure mediocrity rules the day, and no one achieves any more than anyone else — dragging down the whole. That is what this entire argument is about.
The only way they can drag the dumb/stupid ones along is to work in groups. Scatter the smart ones that will do ALL the work at a slowed down pace and lift the dumb/stupid ones UP through that. In educrat circles it is known as comparative learning. INDIVIDUAL responsibility and grades cannot work in their ridiculous scenario.
As the government schools continue to wrestle with the political correctness of lowest common denominator, parents who love their children need to make other arrangements. What caring parent would send her child to a school like this one?
Be thankful that your school at least has the courage to give bad grades.
My high-school-drop-out friend has been taking courses at the “best” community college in the entire Chicago Metro Area (Oakton in DesPlains and Skokie), and every student gets an “A” no matter how much work and how stupid/ignorant they are, most especially if they are black.
My friends hard won “A’s” are rendered meaningless.
Misguided ones with Obama yard signs.
I spent two years at ETHS (almost 40 years ago). I cannot imagine how the place can function with “blended” classes.
At ETHS, the difference between higher level students (e.g., those taking advanced honors courses) and lower level students (e.g., many of whom are functionally illiterate) is more extreme than many can imagine.
Even the far lefties will protest if they think their kids will be at a disadvantage in getting into a top university. With property taxes so high, the private school alternative is only practical for a small minority of families.
If the School Superintendent continues on this path, there will be an exodus of upper middle class (Black and White) families to adjoining suburbs.
At my son’s private high school, they have honors classes. An A in the honors class is worth 5 points, and an A in the regular class is worth 4 points. The honors classes require much more work then the regular classes.
I like that system so much better. In that system, my gifted daughter could sign up for honors classes and be rewarded for her hard work. My special needs daughter would just sign up for the regular class. She would probably get an A or B in the regular class, and she wouldn’t feel like a dummy. She’d be doing grade level work, but not above grade level work. I’m okay with that.
I think those are the ones who think their children will get smarter by sitting next to smart kids.
My son is pretty bright and very dilligent and hard-working. He is working his butt off in a middle school that caters to his type. He gets great grades, but we try to tell him not to stress over it too much as even without straight “A”s he is getting a great education.
I wish that my two younger twin daughters would be able to handle it, but I don’t think so. The fall-back is they can take AP classes in middle school so that will help.
I had friends that were super-smart in high school that just weren’t pushed and engaged hard enough. Of course they were the ones that got in trouble!
FYI...while Evanston is on the North Shore, it does NOT resemble the other nothern suburbs (I grew up there but went to private school a few burbs away)
There are some pretty funky and scary parts of Evanston. I don’t think my brother used the school bathroom at ETHS more than a handful of times in his 4 years there because of the gang and race related issues and tensions.
Don’t get me wrong, it can be a great school to get an education, but they grapple with poverty, disinterested parents and crime...they are a mini-Chicago public school
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