BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent
The Sequoia Union High School District board on Wednesday (April 23) will dive into two hot-button topics: the future of a required ethnic studies class and streamlining courses to place students of different abilities in the same class.
The item on course streamlining was added to the agenda at the request of the community, according to a report to the board. A group called SUHSD Students First wants the district to restore advanced standing/honors classes at the district’s high schools. The group is made up of parents, students, teachers and other community members, according to its website.
According to the group, 11 advanced standing classes have been eliminated at four district high schools: Carlmont, Menlo-Atherton, Sequoia and Woodside.
The advanced standing/honors classes provide an option for high school students between so-called grade-level college preparatory classes and college-level advanced placement (AP) classes. Without advanced standing courses, students are forced to choose between a class that may be too easy and one that’s too difficult, the Students First group argued.
“Without AS/Honors as a bridge, students are expected to leap from grade-level work to college-level rigor – a jump many cannot make without support,” the group said in a frequently-asked-questions page on its website. Many students can’t get help with their course work outside of school, such as through private tutoring, the group noted.
The idea behind streamlining is to merge classes so that incoming ninth-graders of different ability levels are in the same class. Doing so improves the learning experience by setting high expectations and creates “a greater sense of belonging in the school culture,” according to a district presentation.
In theory, teachers would work with students individually in the merged courses to give them the help they need. But in real life, teachers are stretched too thin to do that, according to SUHSD Students First.
Although parents are asking the district to bring back advanced standing courses next school year, the district doesn’t recommend that, saying the new school year is coming up too soon to make those changes.
Superintendent Crystal Leach is instead recommending that the board promise no further changes will be made to course offerings without board approval. One of the Students First group’s complaints is that the district hasn’t been transparent in its streamlining process.
Wednesday’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the district offices in Redwood City and via Zoom. Board member Rich Ginn will participate from Australia.
Another item on the board’s agenda on Wednesday is changes to the district’s ethnic studies class. The board voted in October 2020 to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement. At the time, 2,300 people had signed a petition asking the district to require students to take an ethnic studies class.
A year later, the state Board of Education approved a model curriculum for ethnic studies classes. The Sequoia Union district is now working to make their class consistent with guidelines from the state model. The district is also taking into account its experience with the class over the last five years.
“Ethnic studies has been a topic of great interest in our community and throughout the state,” a report to the board said. The report recommends revisiting whether ethnic studies should be a graduation requirement during a study session in the fall. That’s when the board reviews the full list of graduation requirements.
As now proposed, the ethnic studies class would include four units that would focus on a particular episode in U.S. history and how it connects to more recent events.
In the first unit, for example, students would learn about Christopher Columbus’ impact on Native Americans and also look at the student protests in East L.A. in the 1960s.
In the fourth unit, students would review strategies used by the United Farm Workers of America to create change and compare that to current equity movements.