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Freshmen honors classes cut next year

Beginning next year, freshmen and sophomores will no longer have the option to take advanced classes such as Honors English and Honors Science. This does not include this year’s freshmen who will be the last to be offered sophomore Honors classes.

While this is mainly due to continuing budget constraints, Chris Smith, English teacher and IB Coordinator, says there are benefits to this as well: one being reduced class sizes by a small amount.

“The kids who have the lowest skills–when they’re in a class of forty kids–are not developing their skills anymore,” Smith said.

The English department and administration are working together to identify three sections of about 25 kids, each who will take a ninth grade English class based on improving skills. The rest of the students will be taking the standard course, focusing on rigorous language arts objectives.

Smith states that though there will not be an Honors class, the regular class will be challenging enough for students.

“Students will already be challenged by the regular English class that is aligned with the core standards,” Smith said.

Another advantage to the change is that students are not having to make the choice of whether or not they want to IB English as an upperclassmen when they are an underclassmen.

“As an IB school, we really want all kids getting prepared to be able to take those classes. We felt like if kids got separated too early [honors and not honors]. It was forcing kids to make a decision too young,” Smith said.

Most teachers in the English department have either taught IB English classes or are familiar with the IB program and also taught freshman or sophomore English classes. This will help prepare students for the IB program.

 The science program will be similarly changing its courses.

 “It’s not so much taking out honors [classes] as it is honors [classes] for more [students],” science teacher Kathy Childress said.

All students will take the same course as far as material, but the classes will be structured differently.

“We’re just going to call it Physical Science. The lower-skilled kids will also take Physical Science, but we’re gonna try to make those classes a lot smaller and really try to help those kids with their reading and writing skills because they need those to graduate,” Childress said.

Though this change will have its perks, there are still some concerns coming from the eighth graders who are aware of the IB program and are interested in participating.

Brooke Smith, an eighth grader at Dexter McCarty Middle School, will be attending school here next year and wonders if she will have the same skills as those who were able to take honors classes.

Brooke says it may even cause her to think twice about signing up for IB classes.

“I’m worried I won’t have the skills to take IB classes if I can’t take honors classes my freshman and sophomore years,” Brooke said.

Eighth graders who are already taking honors classes at their middle schools may feel that they are not being challenged as much as they previously were.

“I know a lot of my classmates feel strongly about it because they are in advanced classes now, and in high school without honors classes, they may feel they aren’t being challenged as much,” Brooke said.

Juniors who are taking IB classes now feel that taking honors classes helped them attain the skills needed to keep up in their classes.

“Sophomore year I had to learn how to keep up with my reading schedule compared to when we would just read together in class my freshman year,” junior Raena Cabine said.

Cabine took regular classes her freshman year and honors classes her sophomore year.

“Even though my honors class wasn’t as entertaining as my regular class freshman year, I learned more than I would have in a regular non-honors class,” Cabine said.

Though some are concerned about students’ ability to adapt to IB courses, students will still receive some new benefits with the change, and with the state’s Common Core graduation requirements in English, all students shall be held accountable for advanced skills.

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