All Greendale High students doing some honors work
One of the longest-standing debates in education focuses on tracking kids.
On the one hand, students who are doing particularly well in school should be — in fact, deserve to be — challenged. Often, they get the more advanced classes, the honors classes, the Advanced Placement classes and, frequently, the best teachers. Isn’t it just a fact that some kids are better students than others?
On the other hand, what about everybody else? Doesn’t every kid deserve the best opportunities, teachers and all that comes with being in the academic upper brackets? Don’t a lot of them have the potential to succeed? Wouldn’t many rise to the challenge, especially if they received more support and the best teachers? And look at the facts about who gets left behind — too often, it is Black and brown kids and lower income kids. You want to open the door to success for them? Then open the door.
I suspect the idea of raising the bar for more students is getting less attention due to the impacts of the pandemic. It may seem better to tread more gently with kids when it comes to academics and prioritize restoring normalcy.
But Greendale High School, where they are aiming to do more than restore normalcy, is showing success in increasing the number of students doing honors-level work. Last year, there was a push to raise the bar in social studies. This year, it’s science courses. Next year, it will be ninth grade language arts.
The term used in Greendale is “leveling up.” That means, for example, having all students being taught chemistry with content that was previously offered in honors classes.
The results so far? Kim Amidzich, superintendent of the district, said the number of students succeeding in getting honors marks on their transcripts is up. All students are getting challenging academic work that research has shown prepares them better for college or other opportunities beyond high school.
“We thought we could do better than we were,” Amidzich said.
It’s not been simple. “Leveling up” has meant working on not only curriculum, but on developing fresh approaches to some aspects of teaching. It has meant reassuring a significant number of honors students, and their parents, who thought the change would water down what was being taught. It has meant reassuring other students that they can succeed at this. And making sure that teachers were on board.
Amidzich and Maggy Olson, director of equity and instruction for the district, said that they told all involved that, in
fact, the material being taught would have more depth and that a wider range of students would bring additional and good ideas to classrooms. They said they were raising the floor, but they were also raising the ceiling.
Amidzich said that previously the high school offered two or three sections of honors chemistry involving about 75 students. Other students took general chemistry or physical science. This year, 300 students took chemistry, with content that previously had been labeled honors-level. She said 114 earned full honors and just about everyone gave genuine effort. She called 114, compared to 75, “a significant increase,” and said that there was benefit to all 300 having access to the more demanding content.
Wesley Gilbert, a Greendale junior who has taken honors classes, has been part of a "leveled up" physics class. “I really enjoy it,” he said. “I think I'm learning the same sort of material I would learn in a normal (honors) class ... But when you're in honors, you're in the honors bubble, with the same kids in most classes.” This way, Gilbert works with students he usually didn't talk to. “Popping that honors bubble” has been good, he said.
Paris Wooden, a senior, also liked the idea of breaking “the honors bubble.” In the real world, she said, people aren't separated by whether they are taking honors classes.
So what does the term “leveling up” mean to you? “I just think that means meeting your goals and exceeding them,” Wooden said.
Julie Hahm, a science teacher, said teachers supported the change. She said teachers have been “very deliberate with our language.” They refer to the material being taught as honors-level, not the students themselves. “Now, they're all in the same class,” she said.
As for students who didn't take honors classes previously, Courtney Ehlert, also a science teacher, said, “We're not leaving kids behind.” Based on this year's experience, she said, “We've had lots of students who have tried and said, 'Oh, that wasn't so bad.' We've seen a lot of increased confidence.”
Hahm said, “We're very aware of all the different students and learning styles and how fast students move in the classrooms” She said the change has challenged teachers. “Students who are struggling, we have supports for them,” she said.
Hahm said she viewed the impact of COVID as a reason “leveling up” is a good idea. The last couple of years have been tough on students and teachers, but the impacts made clearer to her the inequities many people face. This is a a step toward responding to inequities.
Ehlert said, “Yes, we're challenging them more than ever, but we're also giving them a safe space to do that.” She said she tells her students, “All of you guys are honors students.” It requires looking at all students like they can do it and encouraging them to show that, she said.
So if leaders of other schools would ask you what this could mean to them, what would you say? Olson said, “I would say, raise your standards. Kids can meet them . ... Access for all is really important.”
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@ marquette.edu.