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Mixing Skill
Levels Getting Mixed Reviews
T. Keung Hui, The News & Observer, November 30, 2005
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The days of the
brightest high school students taking their own classes could be
ending in the interest of helping slower students succeed.
Instead of having separate honors and non-honor courses,
Triangle high schools are increasingly combining classes to mix
students of different ability levels. Supporters say such
combined classes will help non-honors students learn more by
exposing them to more challenging material.
"We believe every student is capable of completing advanced work
when provided enough support," said Nicholas King, principal of
J.D. Clement Early College High School in Durham.
But some honors students worry that these combined classes are
watered down academically.
"If you want easy credit from an honors class, it's good," said
Lauren Hopton, 17, a senior at Southeast Raleigh High School.
"But if you want a challenge, it's not."
In most elementary and middle schools, classes routinely include
students of different ability levels. High schools have largely
resisted this trend because bright students voluntarily take
more advanced courses.
Now, some high schools are taking steps to diversify honors
classes.
"In the business world, you don't just work with people of the
same ability level," said Herman Norman, principal of East Wake
High School of Health Science in Wendell. "We're preparing them
to work in the real world."
In these combined courses, students who want honors credit that
can boost their grade-point averages by doing extra work and
projects. The non-honors, or "academic" students, learn much of
the same material without being required to do the extra work.
High schools are likeliest to combine honors and non-honors
students in social studies classes, because those students have
taken the same courses.
The New Schools Project, though, is encouraging combined classes
in other subjects. It argues that the only way to reverse low
graduation rates is to offer academically rigorous courses that
encourage all students to succeed.
"The goal should be for every child doing the most difficult
work to prepare them for different futures," said Tony Habit,
executive director of the New Schools Project, which is pushing
high schools to be redesigned.
Using state funding and an $11 million grant from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Schools Project plans to
develop 75 smaller high schools of no more than 400 students
each by 2008, mostly by dividing existing schools. One
consequence of these small schools is that they usually don't
have enough honors students for a separate class.
Locally, the New Schools Project has funded the J.D. Clement
Early College High School and the School of Health Science,
which opened in August on East Wake High's campus. Catherine
McCluskey, a School of Health Science teacher, admits she was
"very nervous" about teaching combined chemistry classes.The
higher-level students have to complete an additional project and
answer more questions on the exams.
"Things have worked out better than I expected," McCluskey said.
"The academic kids are rising to meet the standards. I'm not
boring the honors students."
King, the principal of J.D. Clement Early College High, said
he's seen similar results at his school, where all classes are
taught at an honors level. "It's a mistake to assume that kids
that haven't taken advanced courses before can't do them," he
said.
Katie Hobberchalk said she likes being in McCluskey's chemistry
class even though she's not one of the honors students.
"It shows I can do the work," said Hobberchalk, 16, a junior.
"It will really help me in the future."
Alberta Smith, a social studies teacher at East Wake High,
concedes that her U.S. history classes don't cover the material
as fast as they could if she had only honors students. But she
said she's not watering down the material.
"Overall, it's helped the academic students grow more," Smith
said. "Yet, I feel the honors students are appropriately
challenged."
Another benefit, Southeast Raleigh High Principal Beulah Wright
said, is that the usual honors students are put in leadership
positions as they help their classmates learn the harder
material.
"You learn more when you're teaching it yourself," Wright said.
But reaction from some honors students wasn't positive. They
said that classes are taught toward the lower-level students
with not enough being done to challenge the honors students.
"It felt like we got credit for doing the same work," said
Dorothy Parker, 18, a Southeast Raleigh High senior, of the
combined U.S. history class she had last year.
Hopton, the Southeast Raleigh student, said her U.S. history
class last year wasn't as freewheeling as her other pure honors
courses. Normally, she said, teachers in honors courses allow
students to act more independently. She said the presence of the
non-honors students meant the U.S. history teacher ran the class
more strictly.
Habit said it's going to take time to train teachers in how to
work in these combined classes.
"Teachers need to get the training in how to stretch every
student and not just some students," Habit said. "There's not a
high school in North Carolina that has the experience in the
faculty."
Not everyone is rushing to adopt this new model.
Anne Meredith, high school coordinator for Johnston County, said
it's "not on our radar screen" to combine classes except when
there aren't enough students to offer separate honors courses.
Stephanie Knott, a spokeswoman for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
school system, said there's no need to combine classes because
any student can sign up for an honors course.
"It becomes very complex to bring students of different
abilities in the same classroom," Knott said.
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