Reply to Wilson honors for all - how has it worked?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you want your students peers to be on the same level or higher, then send your kid to Banneker or Walls.

A comprehensive DCPS high school is different. You have choices. [/quote]

Says who, you?  Why should we let you lay down the law on comprehensive DCPS high schools failing to challenge the brightest and hardworking kids?  This DC resident of several decades says total BS.  Wilson can serve all its students well.  Honors classes for all in 9th grade aren't helping. What's "different" is the PC rot that infects our public school system to a degree not seen elsewhere.  
[/quote]

It's not helpful to define policy choices that you don't agree with as "PC rot."  The fact is that there have been lots of well documented issues with how tiered classes have been implemented in a lot of places, and experts in the field have developed a variety of responses to that, including differentiation and mandatory college-prep curriculum.    In other words, the people that you perceive as bowing to some kind of PC political agenda are, in fact, likely trying to design policy based on research.  The problem is that it's apparently research from 20-30 years ago, and it seems a lot has been learned since then.

A PP on this thread posted what seemed like some very compelling more recent research indicating that Chicago's attempt to implement something similar to "honors for all" did not, in fact, improve outcomes.  And, s/he posted additional recent research suggesting that tiered classes can be implemented in an equitable way that improves outcomes for all students, especially poor and minority students.   I think it's a lot more productive to discuss educational policy in those terms -- what does the research tell us best practices are and how can they be implemented at Wilson?  I think approaching administrators with your concerns and with research in hand will get a lot farther than questioning their motives on an Internet forum or assuming nefarious political motives.[/quote]

Education research is 95% CRAP.  The “studies” my kid’s head of school cites are total bollocks.  Just because we call education studies “research” doesn’t mean it is at all close to top medical (high quality experimental) or econ (high quality observational) studies.  
 
So... “What does the research tell us about best practices?”  Very little, based on the primary research studies I’ve read in the field.

That said — I totally agree with you about the question/decision at hand.  Tiered classes are the way to go.  Honors for all is most likely to produce a bunch of mediocrity.  But I wouldn’t make ironclad decisions based on the “research”.  Relying on expert teachers’ opinions are likely to be much more informative than academics in this field.

(I’m a practicing economist with a PhD from Harvard*.  )
*I hate to name- drop and argue from authority but this is a reasonable shorthand for saying I know what I’m talking about when it comes to analyzing research studies and research data.  Without pasting a thesis or research paper here I’m not sure how else to establish that.[/quote]

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