Matthew DeFour

But for West High School teachers and students the “dual pathways” label sounded like the tracking model the school abandoned 15 years ago that created a lot of “low-level, non-rigorous classes with a lot of segregation by socio-economic status, which is pretty much racially,” science department chairman Steve Pike said.
“If they had this document beforehand” Pike said of the document unveiled Friday, “it would have at least shown that there’s a lot of questions and a lot of work that needed to be done.”
West teachers aren’t the only ones with concerns.
Peggy Ellerkamp, a librarian at LaFollette High School, said teachers there wonder how students in regular classes will be able to move into advanced classes, especially if regular courses become “more like a one-room schoolhouse” with embedded honors, regular, special education and English language learner students.
“I have a lot of questions about a lot of the details,” Ellerkamp said. “I’m very pleased that there’s more time for this to be worked through.”
Jessica Hotz, a social studies teacher at East High School, is concerned that gearing classes to the Advanced Placement test could result in a “dumbing down of the curriculum.” One proposed change in social studies would cram U.S. history into one year instead of the two years that East offers now, Hotz said.

Many links:

• “Stand Up Against the MMSD High School Reform”
• Madison school district to consider alternatives to traditional public schools
• Advanced Placement, Gifted Education & A Hometown Debate
• On the Gifted & Talented Complaint Against the Madison School District
• Madison School District 2010-2011 Enrollment Report, Including Outbound Open Enrollment (3.11%)
• Complaint Filed Against Madison Schools
• English 10
• District Small Learning Community Grant – Examining the Data From Earlier Grants, pt. 2
• Madison United for Academic Excellence has a number of posts on this matter, as does greatmadisonschools.org