Administration and Parents Discuss New Curriculum and District Collaboration

The addition of several AP, or advanced placement, classes for the 2011-2012 school year and what this means for courses which are currently known as “honors," and the possibility of collaborating with other districts, were all discussed during the board of education meeting Thursday night.

A parent stated that she was concerned about the doing away of honors courses and that although the addition of AP courses is a good thing, she felt that some students may struggle with the advanced courses.

Dr. Mark Porto, superintendent, explained that there is a misconception in regards to the doing away of the honors courses. He stated that this is something that is being done state and country-wide by the college board in order to drive the high school to college transition.

Honors courses had no set curriculum, Porto stated, and AP courses are college board approved. This is being done so that colleges can recognize what type of curriculum students actually studied while in high school. They don’t want to see “honors” on transcripts, he said.

Every school district has had to submit the syllabus for AP courses in order to be accepted as such level by the college board.

Lisa Hodulik, board member, explained that courses which were known as “honors” are now referred to as pre-AP.  Subjects that don’t have AP classes such as Algebra will still have honors courses. Porto explained that the school offers honors courses in Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2 which will be followed by pre-AP pre-calculus which leads to AP Calculus.

Porto stated that he is confident that the students in the school district are very capable. “We have to create opportunities where students can say ‘I can do this’,” he stated. “We have the potential to be number one in the state – it’s getting the students and teachers to realize it.”

Discussion also included the possibility of working with other school districts as the same parent stated that she heard at a Wood-Ridge Board of Education meeting some  indication that there may be collaboration with Heights.

Porto stated that such collaborations would not happen in the immediate future but it is something that would need to slowly build up. Many of the south Bergen districts may consider creating an academies model, he explained where students could go to another district for a certain course of study for part of the day which is not offered at their home district school.

Porto explained for example Lyndhurst could be used as the communications academy for which students could attend for such course study.

He said this would open the door to smaller school districts like Heights and Wood-Ridge to take advantage of courses offered at bigger schools.

Porto stated that if they were to implement an academies model it would be for seniors only and their school day would always end in their own district so they could be here for athletics and other afterschool extracurricular activities.