Kitsap Education

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It can be frustrating for me as a reporter to have to cut off the flow of information for a story because of space constraints or time. Last night after the North Kitsap School Board meeting was one of those times.

First, we only had so much space set aside in the paper for the story. (The paper version has about 5 inches less copy than the web version so I would much prefer folks to read the online story. ) Second, the discussion about this issue ended about 10 minutes AFTER my deadline of 9:30. Super-duper Sun Night Editor Jim Thomsen gave me extra time and I handed the story in at about 10:35. You can read what made it into the story here.

Here are some tidbits that did not make it:

Two parents, Linda Berry-Marist and Suzanne Christman, told the school board that their older children, who are now in college, took honors classes at NK schools and greatly benefitted from them. Honors classes, which were phased out three years ago, provided more challenging assignments and a deeper examinationn of subjects, they said. Both Linda and Suzanne now have younger children who are heading to high school in NK. They worry that those students won’t get the same education their older children enjoyed. Suzanne said plans for “honors designation” asterisks on transcripts are fine, but that she’s more concerned that her daughter won’t get the actual honors instruction she needs to then be successfully prepared for AP classes later in high school. Linda is worried that accelerating younger students into classes with older students won’t be a good mix.

When the recommendations were presented, Superintendent Rick Jones gave quite a long introduction.  He pointed out that the impetus for these changes goes back to 2002 when NK’s Secondary Guiding Principles were created by a district task force. The vision of those principles was to move away from tracking students into certain academic funnels (regular academic classes, honors classes, AP, career and technical ed etc) and toward a system that ”de-tracks” and sends all kids into a variety of classes. Jones said that philosophy was something that drew him to apply for the superintendent job in NK. He was hired in 2008. Jones then touched on the professional learning communities model, which he said has not been very well understood or very well implemented. Despite that, Jones said he and most staff support the PLCs and hope they can help improve teaching.  

A new plan for improving the education of the AGATE (or gifted) students is coming soon. The plan for high-achieving students is separate from the plan for AGATE kids.

I included quite a bit of what NK School Board member Kathleen Dassel had to say in my story. She brought a new perspective to the discussion around the plan for high-achieving students. Her ability as an attorney was pretty clear last night too. She asked pointed questions and then asked them again when she didn’t feel they had been properly answered. She will be an interesting board member to watch.

NK Assistant Superintendent Shawn Woodward shed a little more light on what he and other educators refer to as “differentiated instruction.” The technique “can seem like a nebulous thing,” he said. But as a teacher, differentiated instruction gives you a menu of ways and techniques you can use to teach the same topic. Not every child learns in the same way or at the same pace so differentiated instruction gives teachers ways to accommodate all students. This is at the  heart of the district’s strategy to teach all levels of learners in the same classroom and is part of how district leaders believe they can teach kids who might have formerly been in an honors curriculum in a regular classroom with other students who aren’t working at such high levels. Teachers should not be “teaching to the middle” if they are properly trained in differentiated instruction, he added.

NK Board President Tom Anderson and member Ed Strickland had a few comments at the meeting. Strickland, a former teacher, said PLCs are the best thing the school district has done in his six years on the board. Anderson said he supported the high-achieving recommendations, but also recognized that the emails he receives about the subject from parents run four to one in favor of a return to an honors curriculum.

NK parent Ron Turley, who has been a spokesman for the group that wants a return to an honors curriculum, was very disappointed last night by the recommendations. He echoed earlier comments that an honors designation does not mean a student is getting instruction at the level a true honors class would offer. However, he also said he believes NK’s attempt to increase its AP offerings is “definitely a positive.” He also “loves the concept” of professional learning communities. But promises of enrichment activities for high-achieving students during the time the teachers are in PLCs training have not been met.

Tags: North Kitsap

This entry was posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 9:48 am by marietta nelson and is filed under North Kitsap, teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.