The second semester has rolled around, which means it is time for class registration. While Floyd Central students began signing up for next year’s classes in November, a decision was being made downtown that would affect many upperclassmen.
Historically, there were three options for English credits for juniors and seniors. They could take English 11 or 12, honors, or Advanced Placement (AP) Composition and Language or AP Literature. But the tables have turned, and the decision was made by FC’s building and New Albany Floyd County Schools Corporation (NAFCS) district-level administration to remove English 11 and 12 honors classes. It comes after counselors had already ended class registration for current sophomores and juniors.
This left students, teachers, and counselors having to quickly adapt to this sudden change.
“We e-mailed all of the juniors, and then if we needed to meet with them, we did. Or if the kids wanted to meet, we met with them, and we just wanted to get what their preference was. And then, once we knew, we made the change in course request,” said counselor Mark Clark.
Many students have been affected by this change, as the decision was announced after course requests had already been submitted by current juniors.
“I think it’s dumb, because I mean, you shouldn’t take away something that you’ve had every single year, and just changing it out of nowhere. They made an option for it at the beginning of the year, and they just took it away from us,” said junior Bo Richie, who is currently in English 11 Honors and planned to take English 12 Honors next year.
This may be irritating to many students, especially those who have spent most of their time in honors classes at FC.
“I chose [honors] because I’m going for academic honors and I’ve taken honors every single year in high school, so that’s why I did it,” said Richie.
Many English teachers have also expressed frustration regarding this change. Since many students who intended to take Honors English may be dropping down to general English, some teachers believe the class’s ability range may be significantly affected.
“As far as I know, that’s only going to create some issues for us in that a large majority of students in regular English aren’t even prepared for English 11 regular. And if I have students who should be in AP in regular English, it’s just going to create a larger disparity in access to information, because if I teach the higher level students, the lower level students will be left behind,” said English teacher Lindsay Peden.
A major difference between general English 12 and honors English 12 is the way the classes are formatted. Much of general English 12 is more about preparing these students for their careers, while honors is preparing its students for higher education. According to some teachers, there is a vast difference in rigor between honors and general English.
“The pacing is much faster in the honors class, and they have more independent reading outside of class time than regular English. We write different research papers, and they have different subjects for the papers,” said English teacher Leigh Prifogle.
In regards to why this decision was made, many factors played into it, and it was ultimately decided by FC’s administration. One of the main reasons is that New Albany High School has lacked honors for English 11 and 12 for several years.
“We’re always looking in ways to make sure that we’re consistent and we’re fair. Since we’re the same corporation, we’ve got a lot of the same parents, and we have students do transfer back and forth, and it’s a good policy in school corporation that the schools within that corporation are very much aligned, whether it is discipline policies, staffing and every kind of policy you could think of, trying to be aligned,” said principal Scott Hatton.
Furthermore, he addressed a concern many people share about the wide range of abilities in these general English classes.
“If we have quite a few students who are not prepared for regular English, or not prepared for AP Lit or AP Comp, we need to be looking at our curriculum and freshman, sophomore year to prepare them more. But also, we have AP research that we’re all offering for our sophomores this coming year that will help in this area, I believe, to help prepare students more,” said Hatton.
From the district’s perspective, they intend to phase out honors English 11 and 12 to replace it with AP Seminar and Research.
“I can share that the decision to discontinue the English 11/12 Honors courses was made in conjunction with the goals and priorities of the high school leadership team. With the AP Capstone program at Floyd Central High School, we now have a clearly defined pathway that serves as our primary honors-level experience for students. AP Capstone is designed to provide the depth, rigor, and skill development expected of advanced coursework, and we encourage students seeking that level of challenge to pursue that option,” said Superintendent Travis Madison in an e-mail.
Many teachers in the English Department are trying to adapt to this upcoming change, which, for some, means forfeiting certain activities they would normally do for their advanced classes.
“I’m going to have to give up some of the things I do in honors just because I can’t teach both of those together. There’s just no way,” said English teacher Stacy Clarke.
However, some teachers worry about adapting their general English classes and increasing their rigor.
“I think that there will have to be some changes made, but I think it is a disservice to the students that want to just be in 12th-grade regular English, to be in a class that’s more advanced than they really signed up to take,” said Prifogle.
There is a lot of faith in the English Department from the administration. While this decision may have been difficult for some, administrators believe in the department’s ability to overcome and support their students’ learning.
Yet some teachers say that they were not communicated with appropriately from the district.
“It was just announced. We weren’t asked our concerns. I actually sent an email to the directors of curriculum, so there’s two. We have two for the district that decided to do this. So I sent an email. One of them did not respond to me at all. The other one responded with one line and said, ‘We will be further discussing this and let you know,’ which I had a long email of, like all my concerns,” said Mrs. Clarke.
In light of some teachers’ concerns, Hatton now plans to increase communication between teachers and administrators.
“We do have an incredible English Department. I value their opinion, because they are experts in their field. They know what they’re talking about. Certain times when it’s more of a district alignment consideration at that point, as building principal, I went ahead and made this decision, and it’s on me, but of course, moving forward, what this looks like, I do want to have a lot of communication with our teachers, with our English teachers,” said Hatton.
This decision will require adaptation from many upper-level English teachers and the administration. For now, next year’s juniors and seniors will have the options for general English, AP Comp or AP Lit, journalism, or sports journalism as their English credits. However, there is hope that in the future, new English classes will become options for students to take.
