Dear Parents and Community Members,

At a recent Board of Education meeting, a parent inquired as to why we had discontinued our honors program, information she had heard at a student soccer game. Though I am sure conversation and information we receive on the soccer field is usually reliable, in this case it was not. When parents hear a rumor, they should contact their child’s building principal, the department supervisor, or the Superintendent’s office to check on its validity. At no time have we ever considered discontinuing our honors program or more precisely, our upper level program. Recently, our middle school and high school upper level programs have been expanded, and we expanded the upper level program into our elementary schools. Our goal is, and has always been, to give as many students as possible access to upper level course work.

The names of our upper level programs are as follows:

• Elementary school level: Challenging Expectations Program;
• Middle school level: Enriched Program;
• High school level: Honors Program, SUPA, Advanced Placement Program and College in the Classroom.

Two years ago we opened the upper level program to more students at the middle school. We also added specific upper level classes in our elementary schools. We did this for several reasons. First, the upper level program at the high school was dying on the vine. Year after year, fewer students were choosing to take our most rigorous curriculum and we had to stop offering many college level and Advanced Placement courses. High school teachers became very discouraged by the preparation our students were receiving to handle the demands of college course work.

When we began to analyze the data and research the problem, we discovered that the structure of the feeder program for our upper level course work and the way the curriculum was being delivered needed revamping. The middle school was only producing one class of upper level students in each subject area, with the number of students benefiting from this program at approximately 27 in 7th grade and 25 in 8th grade. To compound our concern, this small group was not representative of our student body. When we reviewed the data, there was only one Hispanic and one African-American child in the program.

As we recognize that the world is changing, we need to understand that what was once viewed as good college preparatory education has also changed. The skills once needed to succeed in higher-level course work needed to change. With all of this in mind, we saw the need to open the program to more students at the elementary school and middle school levels, and we needed to review how the curriculum was being delivered.

We are very proud to report that not only have more students challenged this rigorous course work successfully, we can also show that this is one of the main reasons why we are now seeing much higher scores on our New York State assessment.

I have carefully listened to the concerns of parents who feel that their children have somehow been let down by this change that occurred two years ago. Even after numerous explanations, it’s becoming clear that the only way to address their demands is to return to an upper level program that only serves a very small number of our students. That is not an option. The issue at hand, as I see it, is access. We do not agree that any student who has gained access to our upper level program should be excluded from participating in it, and we will not exclude students because some parents deem that they are not appropriate for this level of course work. That is a decision a particular child’s parent and professional educators must make.

We all agree that our upper level course work needs to be rigorous and should challenge students to grow. We should not lower our standards, and I emphasize, that we have not. We also agree that students need to be ready to succeed when taking this more challenging course work. In addition, teachers have never been asked to lower their standards and have received significant training in this area.

In order to continue to share accurate information about our upper level programs and to address the rumors that are circulating with incorrect information, we will be offering two more public opportunities for parents to learn about and discuss this matter.

There will be a Firehouse Chat at the Rock Hill Fire Department on Thursday, October 25, at 7 p.m. Our upper level program and the reorganization of Rutherford and Cooke Elementary Schools will be the main topics of discussion. The Board of Education will also be giving a presentation about upper level course work at its November 1, meeting at the Rutherford Elementary School starting at 7:30 p.m.

We are ready to listen and answer any questions you may have concerning these very important issues. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.

Sincerely,
Dr. Patrick Michel
Superintendent of Schools

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