Parents battle educators over new curriculum
BYLINE: PEG WARNER Union Leader Correspondent
DATE: May 8, 2004
PUBLICATION: New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, NH)
EDITION: State
SECTION: Local
PAGE: B1
STRATHAM -- Over the objections of a great majority of parents in the room, a subcommittee of the
Exeter Region Cooperative School Board has endorsed controversial curriculum changes for the
Cooperative Middle School.
The changes, which the Curriculum and Philosophy subcommittee unanimously approved Thursday
night, were softened somewhat from the administration's original recommendations.
If the full board agrees, the current ability-based class assignments will be phased out, replaced by
mixed-ability classes. This would begin with incoming sixth-graders instead of being implemented in
all three CMS grades next fall.
Officials pledged to work on improving communication with parents, many of whom say they feel
excluded from the process.
The subcommittee's action came at the end of a three-hour meeting, the last hour of which saw a
parade of parents express reservations about proposed changes. Parents said school officials were
acting too hastily and should take time to fully study the issue.
Eric Nash, a teacher who said he did his master's thesis on the subject, said research has shown the
best class size for successful heterogeneous grouping is 12 or 13 -- far smaller than the 25 students
per class school officials hope to achieve.
"I just want you to hold off, listen to the discussion more," said Nash. "There is no need to rush into
this."
That sentiment was repeated throughout the meeting. Michelle Sullivan of Newfields said her concept
of "phasing in" would be to start mixed grouping on a smaller scale, with one subject, then another,
and so on -- not phasing it in with a whole incoming grade, as the administration recommends.
"I think it's too much too soon," she said.
Eighth-grader Tyler Hazekamp opposes the change, saying he has been in both types of classes and
found it to be more helpful to be grouped with students of like abilities.
Some mixed-grouping already takes place at CMS, said subcommittee Chairman Linda Henderson.
Science classes were regrouped with mixed abilities, she said, after a teacher reported having too few
stools for all 29 students in one class.
But Henderson, who frequently found herself at odds with parents during the meeting, apologized
parents were left out when that change was made.
She and the other subcommittee members, Roy Morrisette, Lucy Cushman and Ralph Adler, assured
parents they would closely oversee the new system. Henderson acknowledged the concerns
expressed that some children would not be sufficiently challenged, but said the program would be
closed monitored. She noted students would take an assessment test at the beginning and end of
each academic year -- or even more frequently -- to measure progress.
"We're not going to continue a program that we think is failing," Henderson said.
The current two-level system allows parents to override teacher recommendations for whether a child
should be placed in a higher or lower performing class.
As proposed, the new system would place students of varying abilities in most classes using more
objective criteria. Teachers would then use "differentiated instruction" techniques to teach the same
material to the different ability levels at the same time.
In the past month, the issue has angered a large group of parents who believe higher-performing
students will be neglected by teachers focused on lower-performing students. Opponents also
argued Thursday that lower-performing students would be more obvious in a mixed-ability class and
that could hurt their self-esteem.
Supporters argue mixed grouping is already working. They argued that, since parents can decide
where their children are placed, many students are ending up in classes where they don't belong and
teachers already must teach to different abilities to accommodate that -- and that the parent-override
option is resulting in many classes having more than 30 students. Mixed grouping would even out
class size, say supporters, and the school would maintain high expectations for all students.
Among recommendations the subcommittee endorsed Thursday were:
* Adopting a math curriculum called MathScape, but in a concession to parents, retaining the existing
pre-algebra in seventh grade and algebra in eighth, with admission to those two classes based on
"strict objective data," said CMS Principal Tom O'Malley.
Parents still questioned MathScape, saying it had been abandoned in other states because it didn't
work, but officials defended the choice, saying the school's math teachers had chosen it after testing
it along with another program and observing it in use at other schools.
Long-time CMS math teacher Diane Sawyer, who said she had some input into some parts of the
curriculum, said it has failed when teachers haven't been properly trained. She defended the
curriculum, saying MathScape presents principles in a way that relates to students' lives.
"They become more engaged as they find it relevant to them," she said.
* Retaining proficiency-based language courses in French, Latin and Spanish in both seventh and
eighth grade as is currently done instead of offering them only in eighth grade, as had been originally
proposed. Students not taking proficiency-based language classes can take what administrators call
an "exploratory" language program in eighth grade.
* Reshuffling lunch schedules in a way that would enable lengthening "core classes" from 45 minutes
to 57, adding 36 hours of instruction per year in each of those subjects. Arts programs would remain
on the existing 45-minute schedule.
Copyright 2004 Union Leader Corp.
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does not represent views or opinions of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board or SAU16 Administration.
This website and all of it's pages and links is a good faith attempt to provide the community with a
centralized location of background information about changes that have occurred at our schools,
and namely, CMS. It is not intended to attack anyone personally. If anyone sees anything
contained in this good faith representation to be factually incorrect or derogatory in any way,
please contact us immediately and we will review it and change it if this has accidentally occurred.
does not represent views or opinions of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board or SAU16 Administration.
This website and all of it's pages and links is a good faith attempt to provide the community with a
centralized location of background information about changes that have occurred at our schools,
and namely, CMS. It is not intended to attack anyone personally. If anyone sees anything
contained in this good faith representation to be factually incorrect or derogatory in any way,
please contact us immediately and we will review it and change it if this has accidentally occurred.