ON DISSOLVING HONORS CLASSES

Main letter

High school education in Brookline is about to get worse, unless the School Board steps in. The folks running the high school want to dissolve 9th grade honors English into the standard course, which they’ll rebrand as EN1100 Responding to Literature Humanities. They say this will “expand access to our most rigorous content.” They think that by mixing the stronger English students—and their would-be honors teachers—with weaker students, they’ll see more kids taking honors classes in grades 10-12. They don’t say how this will affect the stronger English students, but the tradeoff is plain: more care for the weaker students, less for the stronger.

This line of thinking is unproven, but it’s not new. The most studied example of such “de-tracking” is the San Francisco’s Unified School District’s choice in 2015 to stop letting any 8th graders take algebra, instead pushing it to 9th grade for everyone. At the time the superintendent assured parents that the courses are “much more rigorous” than the traditional algebra course. Then, nearly a decade later in March 2023, a Stanford study (discussion here, here, here) showed that AP math enrollment at first fell by 15%, with Asian/Pacific-Islander students hit the hardest. Rates recovered only when the district rolled out “acceleration options” like combining Algebra II and Pre-calculus. All the while, racial gaps didn’t budge. San Francisco is deciding on a new path soon.

Math isn’t English and San Francisco isn’t Brookline, but their struggles ought to remind us that:

It is very doubtful whether there can be such evident profit in changing an accepted law, of whatever sort it be, as there is harm in disturbing it;

We must have extraordinary proof before doing away with any scheme that has been with us for so long. To do otherwise is to betray the trust of the many citizens who chose to make Brookline their home on the strength of the public schools. As I write I’ve seen no such proof.

Obviously the folks running the schools are smart and mean well, so why are they de-tracking? I can’t know all their reasons, but much like in San Francisco, race plays a big part; they want to see the racial makeup of the “top” students match the school as a whole. Today Black and Hispanic students make up 3.3% and 7% of 9th grade honors classes, respectively. In standard classrooms the numbers are 17.1% and 24.3%. Balancing those numbers is a fine goal, and lavishing more attention on weaker students should do the trick, but it ought to be a secondary goal—to put a racial goal on top is to lose the plot.

In the spirit of frankness, I understand that we’re talking about taking from high-scoring students and giving to low-scoring students, a division that correlates, albeit imperfectly, to taking from Asian and White students to give to Hispanic and Black.

Is that good?

Is it just?

It could be. Justice is when people get what they’re owed, and maybe our schools have shortchanged the low-scoring kids. If that’s true, we must right that wrong at once. On the other hand, maybe it’s the high-scoring kids we’ve been neglecting. To know which is true we need to know what, exactly, the public schools of Brookline owe the kids they teach.

Public schools, foremost, should work to bring all their pupils up to a standard. An average school should bring every child that is willing and able up to that standard. For a school district that aims for average, dissolving honors classes is then a good tactic since it aims at helping the kids who are struggling.

But Brookline doesn’t aim at average, we aim to be great. Great schools bring their pupils up to a standard, of course, but they also help students push themselves to excel. No great school can stay great while closing the road to excellence, and neither can Brookline.

As long as we lack definitive evidence that these changes will get us closer to the public school want, we’d be wise to keep our core classes as they are. I’m open to hearing, in plain words, how I’m mistaken and how the proposed changes benefit everyone. Until then, I hold that we must not throw out the proven for the sake of the trendy.

Appendix

Brookline news interview w/ School Committee vice chair Andy Liu

Below iis my interpretation, more succinct version at brookline.news. (archive.org)

Brookline.News: Lots of parents were surprised by the unleveled ninth grade class offering. How did this happen.

Andy Liu: The school committee said we could do the pilot, but they staff thought that meant if the pilot was a “success” they could go ahead and make it the only option.

Brookline.News: When did the School Committee realize there was this confusion about what the January 2023 vote meant?

Liu: Just recently. I didn’t know the idea was to make it the only option.

Brookline.News: How did this happen?

Liu: It’s not a “new course” since we piloted it, so it snuck under the radar. Oops.

Brookline.News: What have you heard from parents about the change?

Liu: It’s been mixed.

Brookline.News: What’s your sense of why folks are so passionate about this issue?

Liu: I’m uncomfortable saying, but I think they’re all doing it in good faith.

Brookline.News: The School Committee asked for data on the pilot, especially on race. What good is that if you don’t yet know what courses the students who are in the pilot this year will take next year?

Liu: “If” race is a factor then we couldn’t have that data. We want to talk with the school committee more about it.

Brookline.News: What communication do you think citizens should expect from the School Committee as the district continues with redesigning ninth grade courses?

Liu: I don’t know. It’s not our responsibility or the School Committee’s responsibility.

Brookline.News: Whose responsibility is that?

Liu: It’s complicated. It’s a gray area in terms of the law.