The Hanford Joint Union High School District will be making changes to course offerings in the 2013-2014 school year, Superintendent William Fishbough announced this week.
Specifically, these changes will affect AVID courses, Honors courses and AP courses.
The District will host an informational meeting about these changes for parents, students, staff and other interested community members at 5:30 p.m. December 3 at the District Office, 823 W. Lacey Boulevard.
“The purpose behind these changes is to allow our schools to offer all of our students improved educational opportunities,” Fishbough said.
These curriculum changes will create a more flexible “master schedule” – the logistical “road map” the district uses to plan when, where and how all courses are offered throughout the school day, Fishbough said, which will help balance course enrollment.
“Year after year of cuts to school funding at the state level have made it harder and harder for schools to offer all of the classes our students need to prepare them for college and careers,” he said. “We have more and more classes that are over-crowded, which is not a good learning environment. We need to look at ways to plan our class schedules to be able to place all students in the courses they want and need and to ensure that, when they are in those courses, they are getting the best education we can offer.”
Fishbough said district and school administrators looked at the ways other high schools have approached these problems, but that their main focus in responding to diminishing resources was to preserve the quality of curriculum.
“We need to balance our classes and get students into the courses they need,” he said, “but not at the expense of being able to give all of our students a well-rounded academic program.”
To that end, the District will be making changes in 4 areas in the coming school year:
AVID COURSES
AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) courses will no longer be offered.
AVID is a college-readiness course that focuses on a specific demographic of students. It’s primarily designed to serve students in the “academic middle” – students who are earning Bs and Cs and who have not made college a priority, but who have been identified as having the potential to stretch their academic abilities and goals.
Currently, only about 100 students per year, per school can take advantage of the AVID course, Fishbough said. Under the new model, the “best parts” of the program will be offered to all students.
“The AVID program offers several valuable strategies and practices,” Fishbough said. “So, while we will be eliminating the ‘AVID classes’, we will not be throwing the baby out with the bathwater – instead we’ll expand those strategies to reach out to even more students.”
Elements of the AVID curriculum will be embedded into the Freshman “Success 101” class (which was previously a required course, but which will now be offered as an elective) and other courses. Schools will also work on expanding communication with all students and families about college and career opportunities.
HONORS COURSES
Honor courses will no longer offer “weighted” credit, but the “Honors” designation and curriculum will remain unchanged.
Honors course are designed to offer students the opportunity to take higher-level curriculum. In the past, Honors courses offered the potential to earn additional course credits – and therefore a higher potential overall Grade Point Average (GPA) – than the district’s “standard” college-preparatory courses.
“Again, this is driven by our Master Schedule restraints,” Fishbough said. “Specific Honors courses offered and how many sections per day will be available will be driven by student interest and scheduling availability. Eliminating the extra credit for Honors courses levels the playing field: Students who choose different priorities for their class schedules will not be penalized in their overall GPA.”
AP COURSES
Class credits and course offerings for Advanced Placement (AP) courses will also change.
AP courses are designed to prepare students to take Advanced Placement tests offered by The College Board for the opportunity to earn college credit.
Fishbough said the District is committed to continuing to offer as many AP classes as possible, provided that there is a minimum of 25 students enrolled in the course, an AP qualified teacher available, and curriculum that is pre-approved by The College Board.
“I wish we could give every student every class they wish to take, but the fiscal reality is that we just can’t afford to run a class that only has a dozen students in it,” Fishbough said.
For AP class credit, only students who earn a proficient or advanced score on the HJUHSD district-wide final exam will earn “weighted” credit for the course (a .02 “bump” per semester over the baseline credit).
The District also highly recommends that all AP students take the corresponding College Board AP Test, but that will continue to be optional and decided by each student and their family.
“ADVANCED” COURSES
The “advanced” label will be removed from several courses.
The district offers several courses that were labeled as ‘advanced’ for a variety of reasons in the past. But those courses offer college-preparation level curriculum for specific grade levels – not the higher-level curriculum offered in AP and Honors courses.
“This is primarily a language clean-up,” Fishbough said. “Eliminating the ‘advanced’ title from courses that don’t offer higher-level curriculum will further simplify the overall Master Schedule process and allow us to schedule students into classes according to their needs.”
The exception will be the “English 1 Advanced” course, which does offer more advanced curriculum and therefore will retain the title.
LEARN MORE
Parents and students with questions or concerns are encouraged to attend the informational meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the District Office, 823 W. Lacey Boulevard.
Fishbough will share information about these changes and be available to answer general questions. Parents with more specific questions about their students’ classes and schedules will be able to make appointments with their principals to discuss those in detail.
Those who cannot attend Monday’s meeting are encouraged to contact their school principal or Fishbough with their questions or concerns.
“We want to make sure our parents and students, including our incoming freshmen for next year, understand our challenges and our goals and have the opportunity to share their concerns with us,” Fishbough said.
