Some of you asked for a response to the grouping query, so here goes.
Thanks to those who took the time to reply, especially those who have
been affected personally by similar situations.
George Anne Draper, librarian
Wynne High School, Wynne, AR
gdraper@wynne.k12.ar.us
GROUPING CONCERNS AT WHS AND OTHER PLACES
I have been one school for 39 years, first as an English teacher (24)
and then as the librarian(15) and have watched and participated in
changes that have not always improved the quality of education for our
students. When I was in the classroom, I taught Honors English, Regular
English and Basic English. It wasn't perfect, but it "worked" most of
the time when teachers and students really tried to make it work. Now
in our school we have AP or Pre-AP and College Bound ONLY. Today our
ninth grade English teacher has 4 classes of Pre-AP students, and she
and others have 7 classes of College Bound. There are NO basic classes.
This is a medium sized rural school whose population has stayed
virtually the same and that used to have one Honors (Pre-AP) class to 6
to 8 regular and basic classes. The ratio of AP to College Bound is much
greater than that today. What is happening? Is everybody in our
school Pre-AP and College Bound? There is no evidence that our students
are getting brighter and performing better. If your child were bright
but not really an AP student, would you want his/her education to grind
to a halt in a College Bound class with 13 students who aren't really
college bound? Is that the reason (along with social ones) that parents
are insisting that their children be in Pre-AP or AP? A teacher in our
school made the comment at the beginning of the year that he makes the
same accommodations for all students in his College Bound class. We
just had a class of 30 college bound students in the library researching
the 20's; there were two teachers team teaching, one an English teacher
and another a special ed teacher; the library clerk and I helped as
well. I am not complaining about helping; that is my job, but I used to
teach classes of 25 to 30 sophomores by myself, and most of the students
grasped the research process.
One of our teachers who initially supported dropping the basic English
classes and putting everyone together is now proposing going back to the
"old" method. She is very frustrated with how little our students know
and how poorly they perform. If you can answer a couple of questions
or comment about anything that truly works for you or your school, I
would appreciate it. I have loved being an educator and agonize daily
about the state of education.
1. What is the percentage of AP or Pre-AP students in your school?
2. Are the “college bound” students truly college level students?
3. Do you have meaningful discussion in your school about what is
taught at each grade level?
4. Are your students grouped?
5. Do you have team teaching to try to accommodate mainstreaming?
Any helpful comments will be appreciated.
Five replies have been included:
My daughter… graduated from high school in 2006. She is bright and
witty and a pleasure to be around. Not straight A's but not too many
B's. I think the problems started when she was in 4th grade. Her math
group skipped the 4th grade math text book. They went right to the fifth
grade book. When I questioned it, the principal said anything they
missed would be covered. I countered that I could see accelerating the
group thru the 4th grade book, to get to the fifth grade book quicker,
but I thought (and still think) it was a mistake to skip the entire
book.
THAT SAME YEAR (!!!!!) I had another discussion with the principal
about the language arts class she was in. Not leveled - everyone -
EVERYONE - just thrown in together. For my daughter it was boring and
tedious. When I questioned it, I was told it helps the slow kids to have
the brighter kids in with them. I asked how that helps MY CHILD. The
principal said he didn't have an answer for that. When I asked why they
grouped for math but not language arts, he had no good answer either.
Fast forward to high school. There was a big push for her and her
friends from Math to start AP classes. I was hesitant - these kids
haven't learned basic history - why throw them in a college level
class?? Found out later there was no middle of the road for the
"college bound but not Einstein" kids. It was AP or basic skills level.
The Text book was college level. 600 some pages. The tests were printed
from the text book company. It was a nightmare. We spent hours and hours
doing her homework. Seriously damaged her self esteem.
My daughter got into college because she aced her vocal audition. Her
GPA wasn't great. Her class standing wasn't great. Her SAT's were 1500
or so, even tho she took them three times. Like I said, average kid. Her
personality and cooperativeness were her assets.
So when she has an academic class, it is a struggle. Most of the
problem is her self confidence.
****************************************************************************************
In my former high school there were only 2 levels of senior English, AP
and regular. My children's school is like this as well. It's a really
bad idea because regular English includes college bound kids who just
don't want to take or can't cut AP English and all the rest of the kids
including those who are just squeaking by to graduate. My oldest child
who was a senior last year took AP English even though it was very
difficult for her because she couldn't bear the thought of being with
kids who were just waiting to graduate and wouldn't put any effort into
the class. These kids are often behavior problems and they drag down the
whole class.
In grades 10 and 11 in my former school there is AP only in grade 11
and 12, but the other levels are stanine groups which roughly equal to
A/B kids and all the rest in another group. There used to be 3 stanine
groups, but they consolidated because they didn't want the low kids to
be stigmatized. This school also started a full inclusion model which
put all sped kids in the lower English group. The effect on the class
was awful in my opinion. Those classes came in to the library to do
research and it was a joke. The teachers turned the whole class into a
sped class. One project they did compared Hamlet to the Lion King
(Disney), another was "Find three fun facts on ________ and make a
poster." I can't remember the exact topic but can you imagine HS level
kids finding "fun facts" and cutting out pictures as an English project!
This class was co-taught by a regular Eng teacher and a sped teacher.
I think the kids that wind up in levels too hard for them are there
because their parents want them to be. From my experience, it's usually
the AP classes that have too many kids and a lot of them are not really
AP material. I don't think many parents push their kids into college
bound classes if they don't belong there.
Your school sounds like it suffers from Lake Woebegone syndrome where
no one is average. I'm surprised to hear that based on your demographic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My school has 700 students in grades 8-12. It is somewhat rural - lots
of
farms - but also on a lake with million $ homes and a small 4-yr.
college.
Recently a teacher was organizing an ice cream social for the students
who
had made the honor roll and high honor roll. She had to tally to buy
the ice
cream and found that there were 490 students!!!
We also have overstocked honors and AP classes. Yesterday a committee
formed
to look at grading reported our faculty was guilty of many things that
contributed to the glut of "brainy" students - such as allowing test
retakes, lots of
opportunities for extra credit, buckling to parent demand for their
child's
honors class admittance, awarding of effort/attitude grades that were
inconsistent with actual achievement.
Like you, I've been at it awhile. Today, I worked with our 11R
(Regents)
students on their author analysis paper. It's evolved over 30 years
from the major
grade for that year (and a must to graduate), to a painful
tooth-pulling
exercise involving a lot of handholding. They were so unsuccessful in
their
attempt to obtain 20 working bibliography cards, I began putting sticky
notes with
their names in books along the shelves for them to find as a treasure
hunt. It
was like 5th grade!!
I think there is an increase of helicopter, indulgent parents. If the
Supt.'s
goal is to please parents, that is all it takes to reverse high
academic
standards. We've got both.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've noticed the same thing in our school, and we have (in small groups
of friends) talked about it. We have 750 in the HS, and have 5 AP
English classes. I don't think any of the teachers believe that there
are really 5 classes of AP English students, but the parents want AP
courses on their kids' transcripts. We group, but the general level (
level below college) is getting smaller, and college and honors are
getting bigger. Like you, I see little evidence that our students are
getting smarter - it seems to be driven by parental desire and
transcripts. I don't know what the solution is.
**********************************************************************
We are a small rural school (about 550). Currently we have 13 students
taking AP English out of a senior class of about 125. You must get
English department approval to take the class. We have one or two
college English classes each year and they are truly set up for getting
set for college. Since we currently require only 3 years of English,
these are truly for the college bound. All 9,10,11 classes are general.
Staff often teach at two levels and they are mandated to work closely
together since we are on a trimester schedule and a student could switch
teachers during the year. The current freshman will have to take 4
years, but I still see an English 12 and then a College English being
offered.
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