Norfolk reconsiders mandatory honors classes

NORFOLK

School officials are debating changes to a controversial program that places all high school freshmen in honors-level courses.

Since 2007, honors world history has been mandatory for every ninth-grader entering any of the city's five public high schools. They also take honors science classes.

Administrators say the honors curriculum prepares students for Advanced Placement courses and other higher-level work in high school, as well as helping them succeed in college and other post-secondary programs.

It also ensures that minority students have access to teachers and materials on that level, they say. In the past, the city has mirrored a national trend in which such students were under represented in AP courses.

Now, some School Board members and parents are asking whether the practice sets up some students for failure while watering down instruction for others.

"We have junior varsity and varsity sports," parent Candace Mason told the board. "Why do we insist on one level of academics?"

The board is discussing the approach and could make changes as soon as this fall.

Norfolk's "Honors for All" initiative began in 2005 as part of an effort to improve the high schools. The AP classes give students a taste of college academics and enable those who score well on an AP exam to earn college credits.

To prepare students for at least one AP class in high school, officials introduced a requirement for all first-time freshmen to take honors world history. Ninth-graders also were steered to an honors science course, generally either biology or Earth science.

Those subjects were chosen because many Advanced Placement courses are in the areas of science, history and social science.

"In order to have more students in AP, you have to build the pipeline to AP," said Christine Harris, Norfolk's chief academic officer.

Traditionally, mostly top students have enrolled in Advanced Placement courses. But some researchers now say low-achieving students perform better in college if they take an AP class in high school - no matter how they fare in the course.

For Norfolk students who need extra help in honors courses, after-school and Saturday study sessions are offered, along with other assistance, Harris said.

Ninth-graders who struggle in reading take a reading course along with the honors classes. In the 2007-08 school year, about 45 percent of the eighth-graders tested below their grade level in reading, division numbers show.

Administrators say the "Honors for All" initiative is beginning to work.

Between 2004 and 2008, enrollment of first-time freshmen in advanced social studies courses more than tripled, and last year, the percentage of ninth-grade honors world history students earning A's and B's edged upward.

The number of students in Advanced Placement courses also surged, particularly African American students. Norfolk students took more AP exams, and more of the tests received scores of 3 or higher - the scores for which colleges and universities tend to offer credit.

But the proportion of tests receiving scores of at least 3 fell each year, to about 40 percent in spring 2008 compared with 57 percent nationally.

Board member Stephen Tonelson, an education professor at Old Dominion University, began to ask questions when he noticed that students who had failed several courses were being placed in honors classes.

He said he worried that by offering one option to all students, the division was failing to meet individual learning needs.

"I'm just not sure that the mere fact that everyone takes an AP class means that we're maximizing everyone's potential," Tonelson said.

Some parents felt their children were being shortchanged.

George Nottingham said the honors world history course was "an easy A" when his daughter took it at Maury High School two years ago.

"It was targeting the middle section of the class," he said. "It's holding back the students who have the ability and drive to do more."

Rising sophomore Asia Rojas said she was accustomed to honors classes in middle school. She and her friends breezed through the honors world history course at Granby High School last year.

But other students said the freshman honors class was eye-opening. It helped Tiffani Gardner realize that she could move on to an AP class as a sophomore. "When you get that A or you get that B, you know you can do anything beyond that honors class," said Tiffani, a rising Granby junior. "It gives you that confidence."

Norfolk teachers say they see students who initially resisted the more difficult classes eventually get used to them with extra help, and that world history classes tend to have a more diverse mix of students under "Honors for All."

However, creating different lessons for students on several levels in one class can be difficult and time-consuming, even for more skillful and experienced instructors.

A School Board meeting drew public speakers on both sides of the issue, as well as pointed comments from board members and Superintendent Stephen C. Jones.

The board was asked to submit questions for further discussion at meetings this month.

" We just want to do what is right for kids, " Harris said.