By Kristina Schnack Kotlus
Schools and Events Writer
Sitting in my preschooler’s parent-teacher conference, I was reminded that all things in education are connected. Attitudes, preferences, home life, they all contribute to achievement. As I reflected on last week’s education news, I was reminded that all policy changes tend to be connected, too.
If you have a child in public school, you’ve probably heard the about Individualized Education Plans, or IEP, either a friend’s child or your own. These help format the public school system to meet the needs of students who are non-traditional learners.
Whether its speech therapy, in-class aides, or gifted education, our schools do a great job of assisting parents make education into a custom fit from a one-size fits all system, especially in the elementary grades.
This dynamic system of customizing education for children to ensure the best possible outcome is disappearing, it seems, at the more advanced levels of public school. A Hylton High School graduate myself, when I attended Prince William County Public Schools subject areas were divided into various levels.
English options for high school juniors, for example, included English 11, Humanities English 11, and Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature. History offered similar options, and math classes were also offered at all levels. These educational options allowed parents, teachers, and students to customize an education plan for each individual that best met their academic abilities and future goals.
Fast forward ten years to the present day, and the same high school offers only English 11 or AP English courses due to a change in school board policy that eliminated the middle track of classes just after I graduated.
Fairfax County is following a similar path, opting to reduce and eliminate the options for their students, resulting, according to the Washington Post, in an increase in the number of students opting to take less challenging courses.
Fairfax County Public Schools in passing their budget this week also opted to eliminate the fees students have to pay to take AP or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes. The allure of these classes is, in part, that they are considered to be college-level classes. For example AP classes, which are regulated by the College Board, can be accepted for college credit at many schools here in the United States and over 40 countries abroad based on final test scores.
What’s wrong, however, with high school students who are ready for slightly more advanced, but not yet college level work?
The answer appeared, for me anyway, with the announcement of the results of the Washington Post’s 2011 Challenge Index. This list ranks high schools based on a formula derived from the number of AP and IB tests given divided by the number of graduating seniors.
Test results are not a factor, and neither is success of those students in college. That means that if a school can lure more students into taking these classes, for example by eliminating an advanced high school level track and paying for the test, even if a student knows they won’t pass, they can increase their national ranking.
Going back to individualized education plans: They’re great because they allow teachers and students to focus: Students can focus on work that is appropriate for them and teachers can get closer to a point where they can meet the needs of a similarly-skilled class. The level divisions in high schools used to afford students and parents a similar level of customized education and teachers the luxury of teaching students at a similar skill level.
In taking away honors and humanities classes, I hope that schools feel their increased standing on a list is worth the cost to students who could be forced into a class that teaches them they aren’t “ready” for college-level material, or on the other side, into a class that doesn’t challenge them or reflect they are “college track” students.
The value of my high school education wasn’t that my school was ranked a certain number, and it was that I was properly prepared for the next step in my life based on the classes I was able to take.
This can mean different things for the student going into practical nursing and the student going to Harvard to study philosophy, but our schools can offer them both options that meet their needs, and I hope they feel that they should.
