Higher-level education discussed at community conversation

POULSBO — With an average of 20 children per classroom, would an instructor be able to teach the same curriculum while catering to students on a regular track and those striving for an honors designation at the same time? That question was asked repeatedly Tuesday as residents sat down for coffee and conversation with North Kitsap School District’s secondary principals Kathy Prasch and Christy Cole.

POULSBO — With an average of 20 children per classroom, would an instructor be able to teach the same curriculum while catering to students on a regular track and those striving for an honors designation at the same time?

That question was asked repeatedly Tuesday as residents sat down for coffee and conversation with North Kitsap School District’s secondary principals Kathy Prasch and Christy Cole.

“Honors classes in high school mean very, very little to colleges,” said Prasch, North Kitsap High School principal. “What we are proposing is that we move to the (Advanced Placement) model.”

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“We want every student to have the opportunity to challenge themselves … be it honors or AP classes,” said Cole, principal of Kingston High School.

Though class offerings have yet to be finalized, both schools are planning to add a slate of AP classes to their respective master schedules. Honors sections of a certain subject — a step between the norm and AP — would be embedded into the regular class.

Curriculum would be the same for everyone, but students striving for honors designation would be held to a higher standard by the teacher, and ideally themselves, Cole said.

“Embedding, I’m very concerned about,” said parent Tommy VanCleave who has two kids in the NKSD Agate program for honor students. “It’s a rare teacher who can meet all students’ needs in one class. My biggest fear socially, is that (the honors students) will withdraw themselves.”

Prasch, a former English teacher, said she believes it is possible because she has seen it happen.

“It’s going to take a lot of teacher training,” she said. That is scheduled to take place this summer. NKHS and KHS will enlist in an in-house, five-day AP training professional development seminar during the summer. Some teachers will also attend further training in Bellevue.

“The difference about an honors class, curriculum aside, those kids need each other,” said NKSD parent and teacher Debbie Jo Rock. “To be sprinkled out among the classes, you won’t have the synergy there that is when they are together.”

Cole quickly pointed out that synergy is possible in any classroom, and embedding honors into the regular class will make the opportunity available to as many students as possible.

She also said, with a hazy definition, honors classes haven’t been strikingly different from regular classes in the past.

“Traditionally, what’s made an honors class different is the novels they read,” Cole said.

“If they are in a class where the teacher is motivated and the kids are motivated, that’s the honors,” ninth-grade parent Steven Hostetter said.

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