From the PG:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11045/1125265-298.stm
The article seems to say that only CAS students have been eligible for AP courses- but haven't AP and IB courses long been open to any student who wants to try them?
The article also reports a change to CAS:
"Students who are not identified as gifted can be admitted to the CAS or AP courses if they meet certain requirements, including a 3.0 grade point average and 90 percent attendance.
They also would have to have a track record of performance in the particular subject area. In certain situations, principal or teacher recommendations would be considered."
- So instead of eliminating CAS, the plan seems to be to open it to students with a 3.0 GPA.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11045/1125265-298.stm#ixzz1DxDgijEY
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6 comments:
Many have long thought that CAS classes should be open to any student who can do the work. The question is, in the current climate will they be limited to students who can do the work- or will teachers feel that a student not being able to do the work will be taken as a sign of poor teaching and as a result reduce the requirements?
Why? Because some of us have watched the standards fall while the rhetoric about high standards is pumped up higher and higher.
As long as teachers can grade on work done and the quality of that work, I'm all for it.
What I'd really love to see is a behavioral guarantee -- that any child, with a gifted label or not, can be removed from a high level class if they are impairing the learning of others in the room. Perhaps a three incidents and out policy. Then I don't care who you put in that room -- you could get rid of the GPA requirements and everything else.
I believe the article is saying that this only going to be the new policy at three schools, though?
I believe the article is saying that CAS classes are now open to non-labeled students. Anyone could take AP classes, though they usually required some GPA standard and maybe a teacher willing to say they thought you could do pretty well. (Of course, if you had a parent who demanded it, I'm sure you got in, but we're not talking about kids with those kinds of parents!)
Have each of the three schools testing the CAS/AP waters done a parent meeting or mailings on this? The Ed. Com meeting summary on the district website mentioned a packet that went to students, all students or only the ones at one of the three pilot schools?
Maybe the parent hotline should go round the clock to answer questions.
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