Schools

Board of Education Proposes Changes to High School Curriculum

The changes will partly be made based on enrollment and participation.

Some changes could be coming to the class lineup at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.

Board of Education Vice President Nancy Bauer told her colleagues Thursday night that the curriculum committee recently did a thorough review of the classes offered and concluded that four areas needed revision.

One change will come to the ninth grade math curriculum. Currently, most students take algebra  in middle school and then move on to geometry in 9th grade. But after discussions with principal Dr. David Heisey and Math Supervisor Ralph Pantozzi, they decided it's best to create a new ninth grade course: Math 9.

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Math 9, Bauer said, will incorporate lessons from both concentrations.

"It'll continue algebra as well as geometry," she said. "The algebra's infused so it's not lost in the ninth grade."

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In higher level courses, changes may be coming to some of the AP classes offered.

Bauer said the curriculum committee did a review of the AP Art Studio course offered and determined it might be best to drop the AP and offer it as accelerated. The issue, she said, is the number of students in the course who are electing not to take the AP exam at the end.

"It doesn't make the district look good in rankings," she said.

AP Language Arts classes were also examined, with the help of Language Arts Supervisor Jocelyn Dumaresq. Dumaresq has been doing a survey of students to determine how many of them plan to take the AP test, and many responded positively that they were. If that changes, it could lead to some of the courses being dropped or reconfigured, but for now the curriculum committee decided to leave them alone.

Cooperative Education courses, including Work Experience 11 and 12, will be dropped from the high school program altogether.

"The budget and low enrollment are to blame," Bauer said.

Finally, in the accounting course, a change will be made in how it's taught. The course leader proposed allowing the students to manage their own rock band as a case study that allows them to make decisions and figure out how to make them most successful. Previously, the course's case studies were smaller and focused more on right or wrong answers.

"I'm very pleased with this," Superintendent Margaret Hayes said. "Mr. Pantozzi has executed a math program that's as successful as possible for each student. As far as cooperative education, I'm sorry to see that go, but that course was so underserved that we can't continue to support it. And, as that goes, we make room for others to take its place."

Hayes recommended for the board to adopt the changes proposed by the curriculum committee. They will be voted upon at the Board of Education's next meeting on Dec. 17.


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