It seems that a recent proposal to dissolve a third level of social studies at DHS has caused a bit of a controversy.

In a letter to the community on the DHS_GA message board (posted in full after the jump), principal Lauri McKain-Fernandez explains that the intent behind this initiative is to mitigate the extent that students are grouped by academic ability (as this is usually detrimental to poorer performing students). She also gives examples of condensing the math program and applying for AP classes as examples that have been recently taken to disperse the student population more evenly in the past year or so.

The parents meeting discussing this issue will be held on Wednesday, May 7th from 7p-8:30p in the DHS Media Center.

If you plan to attend the meeting, make sure you read Principal McKain-Fenandez’s note first (after the jump). It’s definitely a bit more complicated than “eliminating the honors program”.

Dear DHS Community,

I am writing to provide more background information about the May 7th meeting notice which invited you to come chat with me about some course changes for next year, and the possibility of changes in the future. Due to the emails I am receiving, I understand there is some confusion about what is meant by the “redesign of academic classes in the future, making them more heterogeneous.” I want to share a few ways we have made changes in this respect over the past couple of years to help explain how this is done and what is accomplished.

For many years, we have had as many as 5 math levels entering in 9th grade: Basic Math, PreAlgebra, Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2. Basic Math and PreAlgebra are not considered “high school level math” and count as elective units, rather than math units toward the diploma. This year, after talking to colleagues at other high schools in the state, we decided to enroll all students in high school level math, to include Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Students who had indicators that they might struggle in Algebra 1, were also enrolled in a support math class for one period a day. This made the Algebra 1 class much more heterogeneously mixed than it had been in the past. Though we do not have final grades, we are currently pleased with the progress students are making in these classes.

In AP classes, we have also made some interesting changes. This year, students were asked to “apply” to AP classes. We had an AP information session that was packed with students and families. The application considered multiple criteria, such as past test scores, current academic achievement, teacher recommendation and a written response to a content-appropriate question. Many students were encouraged to apply. The response was incredible and showed a great desire for AP classes. In the past, teachers recommended students or a parent called to request AP classes. Having an open registration process which marketed the courses as attainable allowed students who may have not been on a teacher’s radar to really think about their course choices and apply. Based on the data, it appears we will have more sections of many AP classes than we have in the past. This will cause a more heterogeneous mix of students in our AP program.

I choose these two examples because the assumption out there is that DHS is doing away with “honors” classes. Though I believe that we need to do everything we can to not label and sort students, I also know there is a wide variety of ways to ensure all students meet or exceed grade level expectations. I did a poor job of communicating the intent to dissolve a third level in social studies classes for next year. Therefore, I wanted to have a chat session with the parent community to explain the rationale: When there are roughly 8 classes of a content class (like US History) and 4 of them are AP, to decide who of the other half of students are in advanced or not when the curriculum is the same seems like excessive sorting with no real advantage. Many people viewed this as meaning we will do away with advanced across the board, in effect dumbing down our curriculum. From my angle, the intent is to accomplish the best academic settings we can, that are as representative of our community as possible, that ensure that all students reach or exceed standards. We have found that grouping by academic ability is sometimes counter to this intent, and we are committed to developing ways to lessen that as we work to strengthen our academic program. A first step, as you see from the math example above, is the creation of a strong support model for students. This is an area we hope to make great strides in in the next couple of years.

If you would like to come chat with me about this, I would love to have you. I have received emails asking for handouts and research. It is likely I will not have much of that for you as I am preparing to end the year (and plan for next). However, I will take all the requests and commit to responding, perhaps in the form of a blog or webpage, with links for future reference. As a parent in the community, and someone who is finishing her ninth year at DHS, I am hopeful I have assured the community that my intent is to always strengthen our academic program and offerings. I believe we have a great high school, but being here day to day shows me there is much room for improvement. I am also realistic and know that change cannot happen without careful consideration of many factors, including weighing input from stakeholders. I look forward to our discussion next week. If you are not able to attend, Andrea has come up with some fancy way to tape me for all eternity! A parting gift, of sorts.
Best,
Lauri

Lauri McKain-Fernandez
Principal, Decatur High School
Decatur, GA