Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:For curiosity, I checked the public school district that I went to the '80s and '90s in suburban Boston to see if it is offering honors for all. It is not. Here are the three levels offered - which means that honors really IS honors. So frustrated with MCPS.
Newton, MA offerings:
College Preparatory (CP)
Students working at the college preparatory level are progressing towards greater independence as they tackle content through inquiry, problem solving, critical thinking and reading and writing. In some courses, co-teaching might allow for more individualized attention as students develop these skills.
Advanced College Preparatory (ACP)
Students working at the Advanced College Preparatory level generally approach content with a solid degree of independence through inquiry, problem solving and critical thinking skills. The SAM option in ACP courses enables students who are still developing the skills necessary to succeed in an ACP class the opportunity to take an ACP class. The goal of this program is to allow students to Stretch intellectually, Aim for excellence and Make progress (SAM).
Honors (H)
At the Honors level, students not only approach course content independently, but use their inquiry, problem solving, and critical thinking skills to explore associated topics and themes beyond the scope of the Advanced
College Preparatory curriculum.
Newton MA public school system and MCPS are really very different. I just don't think you can compare them. There is no achievement gap to close in Newton, MA. In fact they bus in 400 poor kids from Boston just to have some diversity. It's pretty easy to see how 20 years later the demographic story of MCPS (and FCPS, a little behind us) has played out. MCPS in its current demographic incarnation will never be like a wealthy community that has independent school districts by town. It is interesting to look at some of their data side by side.
FARMS
MCPS: 39.8% Newton: 18%
ELL:
MCPS: 18% Newton: 6%
Special Ed services: * just based on my own relatives MA seems to have more [free] testing through the schools for learning differences
MCPS: 12.3% Newton: 17%
Newton also seems to have smaller schools period. They have 5,041 ES school students with 15 elementary schools. That is only 336 kids per elementary school. We have giant schools in comparison. MCPS has 72,300 kids in 136 elementary schools. That is 531 per school. You would think with larger schools we'd be able to offer more levels of classes, but that is not the way it panned out.
I do know that honors for all has been discussed at the highschool level for quite a while (well before COVID). My own experience with this is at BCC, but I know that some classes would have both honors level and regular level kids in the same classroom, but,
the levels of effort were not really that different. So teachers felt it was quite unfair that the kids who had the "honors" designation were getting the 5 point gpa boost. While the "regular" kids in the same classroom weren't. It also frequently played out that the "regular" kids were generally browner than the honors kids.
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