Reply to WSJ - To Increase Equity, School Districts Eliminate Honors Classes

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Reply to "WSJ - To Increase Equity, School Districts Eliminate Honors Classes"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't know that it was isolated or secret. At Kennedy, the Honors for All movement was spearheaded by Michael Williams, the social studies lead, and he was widely applauded and recognized for it. He was even named MCPS Teacher of the year for it.

I'm not sure if the current iteration of Honors for All matches Williams' intent, but it was definitely an approach that was endorsed by the previous superintendent.

This article details from 2019 some of the issues and the context: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/honors-classes-for-all-leave-some-parents-asking-is-it-really-honors/2019/08/03/f3adef36-a1a6-11e9-b8c8-75dae2607e60_story.html

[QUOTE]Michael V. Williams, a social studies teacher and department head at John F. Kennedy High School, [b]pushed to eliminate regular classes in U.S. history, U.S. government and modern world history at his school, enrolling more students in honors[/b].

Before, the regular and honors courses had been virtually the same in many ways, he said.

“It was so unjust to me that a kid could take the same exact class with the same curriculum and same [county-created] tests and not receive the same credit,” he said.

Williams said too many black and Hispanic students were steered to regular courses in county schools over the years while white and Asian students were assigned to honors versions. The disparity stood out while he taught at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, where he co-founded the Minority Scholars Program, partly to foster greater access to more rigorous courses.

“We were essentially tracking students, and it was affecting black and brown students disproportionately,” he said. “We were seeing segregation, for lack of a better word.”[/QUOTE][/quote]

It sounds like he picked the worst possible way to solve this dilemma. I suppose the honors and regular classes were identical (at Kenney), but it might be worth exploring increasing the rigor of those honors classes instead of dumbing everything down to the least common denominator. I believe these classes should be open to all students but it really should be a choice whether to take the harder class. They shouldn't harm high-achieving students in an effort to make low-achievers feel better.[/quote]

The fact that the county is dumb enough to go along with this obviously flawed scheme does not bode well. It seems like there's a huge disconnect here. These equity schemes will never work out. [/quote]

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