State School Officials Outline Proposed

High School Reforms

By Martha Coville

Connecticut’s students, who once led the nation in reading and math performance, are falling behind. Increasingly, Connecticut high school graduates report that their education has not prepared them to enter the work force. Those who enroll in the state university and community college system need remedial coursework more frequently than in the past. And the achievement gap between Connecticut’s suburban and urban students has spiked up to among the highest in the country.

In short, said State Commissioner of Education Mark McQuillian and Deputy Commissioner George Coleman, Connecticut’s secondary schools need to be reformed.

“Teachers say students aren’t engaged,” Dr McQuillian observed. “Classes aren’t challenging. There is often a question as to why students are there in the first place.”

Dr McQuillian and Mr Coleman presented the state Board of Education’s proposed high school reform initiative at Newtown High School on February 14. The proposed changes should affect students graduating in 2015.

Mr Coleman, a Newtown resident, presented the breakdown of the proposed reform on a projection screen over the stage in the NHS auditorium to about 100 people. He identified “rigor” as one of the “building blocks” of the reform and said the state wants to increase the number of credits required for graduation from 20 to 24.

More specifically, Mr Coleman said, the state board has created a rigorous core curriculum. It will ask students to take more classes with in certain subject areas, like science and foreign languages, and to take specific classes within others, like math.

Further, upon completing the core curriculum classes, students will have to pass an “End of Course Exam” written by the state.

The end of course examinations will replace the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), and satisfy the No Child Left Behind mandates.

But the new curriculum does allow for a certain flexibility. Students will be allowed four electives, which will not be followed by exams.

Specific Requirements

The new core curriculum includes four English and language arts classes. The three math classes required are algebra I, geometry, and algebra II. In science, students must take biology, a chemistry class with a laboratory requirement, and a second full year laboratory class in any physical or life science. Two years of a foreign language must also be taken.

Additionally, the new curriculum mandates three years of history classes, to include a year of US history, a semester of civics and a semester-long elective. To prepare students for an increasingly globalized economy, Mr Coleman said the state also wants students to take a yearlong “international studies” course, which, he said could teach “how to operate in a foreign country,” or which might focus on geography.

Within the health and wellness portion of the core curriculum, students will have to take a year and a half of physical education, and half a year of a nutrition, health, and wellness class.

Students will be allowed to take art, music, and career and technical education classes as electives. They might also choose to pursue more advanced language classes, if they wanted to.

The final requirement of the revised curriculum is a senior demonstration, completed over the course of senior year. Students will have wide latitude as to the subject of the demonstration. The senior demonstration, Mr Coleman said, will require students to say, “This is what I know, and this is what I can do. This is evidence of how I’ve integrated my knowledge.”

Dr McQuillian promised that the new requirements will be accompanied by a completely revamped support system. “We can’t just raise the requirements just to have students drop out,” he said. The new curriculum will allow students the option of graduating within three years, or after five, if they struggle with more difficult classes. It will also expand summer school and after-school programs.

Mr Coleman added that municipalities, like the San Jose Unified School District and the City of Chicago School District, which have previously increased their graduation requirements have seen their drop out rates fall.

Students considering dropping out often say it is because they “aren’t learning anything” or because “school is boring.”

Until recently, Frank LaBanca taught science at NHS. He is now head of the science department at Oxford High School. He told Dr McQuillian and Mr Coleman that he was glad to see that the new curriculum would include more “hands-on learning.” “The goal,” Mr Coleman said, “is to make students independent learners.”

Mr LaBanca agreed. “Authentic learning is learning in context,” he said. “The paradigm is students are capable and should be producers of information, not just consumers.” In particular, he was supportive of the senior project. With technology, for example, he said, “Taking the technology and finding the information and determining its authenticity, I think that’s only half. Students need to produce information themselves that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom.”

The Connecticut legislature has granted the state Department of Education $100,000 to conduct a cost analysis of the proposed reforms. The board will present its findings to the legislature next fall.