GlenEllynite
| at least 5-6 people spoke against this change, including 3 students (there were at least 10 parents there against this, who did not speak.) the board, as always, had no response (this is always true of the public participation part of the board meetings so none was expected.)
it turns out the "final decision" has not been made. classes are not actually finalized until April 30. another problem: parents of oldest children had no idea what was going on, and were surprised to see only AP as the honors option for sophomores in social studies.
this class (contemp. world hist. honors) is still on the schedule. if you don't feel your kid is ready for AP next year, (AND you want them to receive the outstanding instruction and course content this class offers) think about signing them up for only contemp. history honors. if enough parents do this they'll have to pay attention. also, note that since the board has now (as of this april) forbidden any dropping of courses, if you sign your kid up for AP and they're not ready you'll t be allowed to drop/change levels only if you convince the dept. head that the kid absolutely can't cut the mustard, and that, i'm guesing, is a daunting task. when they said no dropping classes they mean no dropping. (i think this no drop policy has been instituted district wide to maximize class size (ie, reducing the number of classes that end up with, say, 10- 12 kids after a bunch of kids drop a course), and theoretically save money on teacher hires.)
an AP option is available to current sophomores (and has been for a few years.) yet, there are currently about 180 kids (more than a THIRD OF THE SOPHOMORE CLASS) enrolled in contemp hist. honors. one of the kids last night noted that AP US history often does not finish all the AP material before they have to take the AP test in the spring. kids who took this class (contemp. hist. honors) are at an advantage over kids who took AP eur.history, since they actually KNOW what's happened in the world (and America's role in it) since l945.
the only reason i can figure to get rid of this outstanding class is to increase AP NUMBERS, not to strengthen curriculum. oh wait...this DOES strengthen curriculum for that top 5 % who might be ready for AP as sophomores (at west that translates to about the top 25 students.) as for that other top 25% (the top third of glenbard west students historically have a "B" average or better) tough luck. so, your choice is now AP or regular Social Studies for your sophomore. (they could take Contemp. world history HONORS, but only if they have room for an additional elective. hard to do with the gym requirement..)as well, if they're not in honors as a sophomore, and then take US AP as juniors, i suspect they really won't be very well prepared.
this decision to change the status quo is apparently not coming from the district (although getting a straight answer is difficult), but from the NEW asst. principal of instruction at west (who, according to linkedin came here from barlett.) (we also have a NEW asst. superintendent of instruction who came here from plainfield) so, if you're not in favor of this call/write the asst. principal of instruction at west, and the principal at west (and contact the asst. superintendent for instruction AND the Superintendent while you're at it.)
dinsdale: i envy you being done with all this. |
