Parents blast teaching model at LBHS

“I don’t feel that the honors-for-all program is challenging enough for me and many of my fellow students,” Lindsay Ricci, a ninth-grader at Long Beach High School, told the Board of Education at its meeting on June 7. “Please don’t think that because students didn’t come up here to speak that it is because we don’t care. We care about our education.”

Ricci was referring to the heterogeneous — sometimes referred to as honors-for-all — ninth-grade English Language Arts classes at the high school, which were instituted in 2009-10. Ricci was one of a dozen residents who blasted an academic approach that groups students of all abilities in each classroom — and that many parents and students have criticized for essentially lowering learning standards.

During a contentious meeting, residents told school officials that they had serious concerns not only about the existing heterogeneous classes, but also about the district’s decision to implement the model in ninth-grade social studies and 10th-grade ELA as well.

Residents characterized the heterogeneous model as a watered-down method of teaching that does not provide top students with high-level work.

Only two months ago, parents took school officials to task over the sixth-grade heterogeneous curriculum that was also introduced last year, but came under scrutiny in April when the district announced that it was planning to implement the model in seventh grade in 2011-12 while eliminating seventh-grade honors courses.

Following the outcry from parents, school officials said they would keep the sixth-grade model next year, but scrapped plans to introduce it in seventh grade.

Now, with plans for heterogeneous classrooms in ninth-grade social studies and 10th-grade English, residents contend that the district has failed to provide parents with data demonstrating the efficacy of the ninth-grade ELA model, and they argue that heterogeneous classes are aimed primarily at bolstering students’ test scores.

Ricci told the board that she had heard her teacher say that “higher grades” needed to be produced to make the teacher’s classroom results look better. She also said that teachers in her class and others have read the majority of the required reading to students in class, and that in at least one class, exam questions were given to students in advance so they knew which material they needed to study.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg asked Ricci whether her remarks were accurate, but otherwise declined to comment on them.

Dr. Vincent Butera, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said that though the heterogeneous program is not perfect, the district believes it will ultimately benefit students. “When we introduced it last year, one of the rationales for doing so was to put students on a path to be able to take the most rigorous courses available,” Butera said, “because we know that high-level courses in high school correlate with students not only being able to attend college, but to succeed in college.”

Last year, Butera said, the ninth-grade ELA curriculum would benefit students at all ability levels. Classrooms have be downsized to about 20 students, with two teachers conducting lessons, allowing for more individual attention.

Resident Fran Walsh, however, read a letter to the board written by parents, stating that the district should hold off on expanding the heterogeneous model in the high school. “We all agree with the philosophy of challenging all of the district’s students to their highest potential,” Walsh read. “However, this goal has not been met by the heterogeneous model implemented in the sixth grade this year, nor in ninth grade English.”

Some studies, including one by the National Middle School Association, have suggested that the effects of tracking — the dominant academic model in the district’s schools, in which advanced students and challenged students work in different classrooms — are particularly negative for poor and minority students, as well as those with limited English, because it fails to focus on their learning needs.

James Hodge, a chairman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, said he supports heterogeneous grouping, and commended the district for “diversifying.” “[It’s] about giving everybody a fair chance,” Hodge said. “Don’t give [anyone] a shot because they’re black or Spanish, but give them a shot because they [want to be] educated just like everyone else.”

Other residents argued that school officials need to properly assess the heterogeneous model before implementing it next year. “The silence is deafening on the data,” said Ari Pine, a former school board candidate. “The question that you have to ask is, Is anyone being directly benefited by the curriculum that you’re putting forward?”

In a report in February, the New York State Education Department recommended that the Long Beach district move forward with heterogeneous grouping. The department advised the district to “continue to revise curriculum and expand the [heterogeneous] program for grades 6‐10.”

However, the report also noted “frequent weaknesses” within classrooms — that “the vast majority of the questions were simple recall requests” that did not provoke thought among students, and that there was a lack of “individual student accountability.”

Resident Carol Scott suggested that parents form a task force to work with school officials to examine heterogeneous grouping and aid in curriculum development.

School board President Dennis Ryan agreed. “Our difficulty is we’re five representing a community of 40,000,” Ryan said, adding that a task force, and having those voices heard, is important.

Though Greenberg acknowledged that heterogeneous grouping remains a concern for parents, he said he believes that the “change is necessary for all students.”

“Why shouldn’t all youngsters benefit from enrichment?” Greenberg said. “If we continue to sort young people in middle school, they will not be prepared to succeed in honors AP and the [International Baccalaureate] program. And if we don’t challenge youngsters in ninth and 10th grade, they will not be prepared to succeed in IB and AP.”

Comments about this story? CEngelhardt@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.