School Board Agrees to Study Honors Choices

A parent group is pressuring Fairfax County Public Schools to re-examine its policies on offering high-level courses. FCPS officials believe students are better served by pushing them to take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses instead of offering the honors curricula the group wants reinstituted.

The Fairfax County School Board agreed to have a worksession to address the school system's current philosophy on honors courses in high schools at a forum before Thursday's meeting.

The issue presented by board member Sandra Evans (Mason District) concerns FCPS' current practice of not offering honors courses when an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exists for a subject, leaving students with a choice between general education and college-level courses.

Evans explained: It’s a matter of making sure that all students have the level of instruction that’s best for them. Parents are concerned that not having an honors level means their student chooses between being overwhelmed by taking too many AP courses, which are college-level and have a very heavy workload, or taking standard level courses that may not challenge them enough. Can standard level courses suit the needs of everyone from students who require intensive remediation to those capable of advancing beyond the regular curriculum? The Board needs this discussion on whether a two-tier or three-tier system is better for our students.
 
Fairgrade, a parent advocacy coalition, prompted by complaints in December from parents at West Potomac High School, began advocating for five honors classes they say FCPS has eliminated.

But FCPS disputes both the number of honors classes Fairgrade says have been eliminated and the effectiveness of a three-tiered system.

Peter Noonan, assistant superintendent for instruction, said two courses — not five — have been eliminated in the curricular analysis in the last six years because comparable AP or IB courses exist: English Honors 11 and World History Honors 2.

School Board Chairman Kathy Smith (Sully) said because research shows a key to greater academic achievement in high school is a rigorous curriculum, teachers, administrators and staff are encouraging more students to take AP and IB courses, particularly minority students.

Students do have the option to take honors classes in the areas where no AP or IB courses are offered: World History and Geography 1, English 9, English 10, Biology 1, Chemistry 1, Geosystems, Physics 1, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Precalculus with Trigonometry.

Since FCPS eliminated honors courses, enrollment and success in AP courses has increased, Smith said. From 2008 to 2010, the number of students participating in AP increased from 14,220 in 2008 to 15,270 in 2010, and the percentage of students earning AP exam scores of 3 or higher, the score typically needed to earn college credit, improved from 72 percent in 2008 to 74 percent in 2010.

Students taking AP courses in the two subject areas where Fairgrade seeks more honors classes, English and World History, have fared relatively well compared to students taking AP courses in other subject areas. In 2010, 80 percent of students taking English Language and Composition and 81 percent of students taking AP World History scored a 3 or better on their AP exam. By contrast, only 70 percent of AP students overall in 2010 scored a 3 or better on their exam. [See AP exam results in the box at the top right of the screen.]

Smith said data show enrollment in at least one AP course has increased for all ethnic groups, with an overall increase of 4 percent.

"Greatest gains were made by underrepresented minority students, with Hispanic student AP enrollment increasing by 13 percent and black student AP enrollment increasing by 10 percent," she said.

School board member Patty Reed (Providence District), who was not on the board when honors classes began to be phased out and worked with Fairgrade as a high school coordinator before being elected to the school board, supported holding the worksession.

“It’s been raised by members of our community and it’s timely because the school board is talking about the achievement gap,” she said. “We want to explore the history, to understand the decision-making process.”

No date has been set for the school board worksession on this matter, Smith said.

Fort Hunt Local Editor Naomi Nix contributed to this report.