The Manhasset School District Board of Education on Thursday opened public discussion about the possibility of revamping its science program at the secondary level, a move that would increase the rigor of the curriculum while greatly decreasing the necessity for students to take the state’s 8th grade assessment, officials said.
Theresa Curry, the district’s coordinator for science, health and technology, outlined the differences between the current program and the proposed revamping with a 20-minute video presentation accompanied by Powerpoint slides.
Curry also presented a survey to be posted online that would gauge the community’s understanding of the new program and its acceptance of the new courses as the board of education determines whether to pass a resolution implementing the new curriculum.
“As far as being ready to jump into this, [Manhasset students] are more than ready,” Curry said. “They’re coming to us and their abilities in science are astounding, and our [elementary school] teachers do an amazing job of balancing the issues as far as ELA and math but science is not getting pushed aside, whereas many school districts it’s happening.”
For the new program to take effect for the 2014-15 school year, the board would have to approve the new curriculum by the end of November, school officials said.
“Our focal point is really to try and gather this kind of discussion as we’ve had in the last hour so that we’re preparing people for [when we say], yes, we’re making a change, it’s a well thought-out change and it doesn’t have to bring apprehension, particularly for the parents of sixth graders on the transitioning to seventh grade,” Manhasset Superintendent of Schools Charles Cardillo said.
Cardillo said the district may have to increase some costs in the next few years to smooth the district’s transition into the new program, and trustees agreed that feedback about the proposed changes from parents, students and staff is taken into consideration throughout the board’s discussions leading up to a resolution.
“One of the criticisms of our country is that we are spending less time on math and science, and thus what we’re getting is fewer high-powered students going into math and science in their post-high school years,” Cardillo said. “You see article after article talking about the implications of that on the country. We’re not going to have an impact on the country with this, but in our community it can provide our students for more opportunity for more rigor along the way, and we’re seeing that our sixth grade students are really ready to take that jump.”
The science program currently offers two pathways – one for Regents-level students and another for more accelerated learners. Students on each track take life science as seventh graders, but more accelerated students take earth science in eighth grade, which regents students do not take until their freshman year of high school.
Accelerated 9th grade students currently take the honors-level living environment course, followed by chemistry in 10th grade and the B-level advanced placement physics course in 11th grade. In 12th grade, accelerated students get their choice of an advanced placement science course.
Regents students take physical science in 8th grade and then take earth science, living environment, chemistry and physics through their four years of high school.
Though two pathways would also be offered under the new science program initiative, the program would split 7th graders into physical science courses and double-accelerated earth science courses.
From there, physical science students moving into 8th grade would be split into Regents and honors-level living environment courses. Students in the honors course would take either double-accelerated earth science or honors earth science in 9th grade, while regents students would move on to Regents-level earth science.
Regents-level earth science students would move on to environmental science, a chemistry elective course, or regents-level chemistry as 10th graders. Honors-level earth science students would move on to either Regents or honors-level chemistry in 10th grade.
Those who took environmental science as 10th graders would move on to take the chemistry elective, while those who took the chemistry elective would move on to take environmental science in 11th grade.
Students who took regents-level chemistry as 10th graders would have the option of taking either regents-level physics or the advanced placement earth science course.
On the accelerated track, 7th grade students would take the double accelerated earth science course and move on to the studying a course called the living environment and advanced placement earth science – also referred to as LEAPES – and take advanced placement courses in biology and chemistry in 9th and 10th grades.
The two tracks have the opportunity to converge in 11th grade, as students who took either honors-level or advanced placement chemistry have the opportunity to take advanced placement physics 1.
Students who take the honors-level chemistry course would also have the opportunity to take advanced placement-level courses in chemistry, earth science or biology as 11th graders.
Students who take the chemistry elective or environmental science course would move on to the district’s forensics course.
Students who take Regents-level physics would have the option of taking advanced placement courses in earth science, biology or physics 1. Conversely, those who took advanced placement earth science could move into Regents-level physics or advanced placement courses in biology or physics 1.
Those who take advanced placement chemistry as 11th graders could move on to either advanced placement-level courses in biology or physics 1, and students who took advanced placement biology would move on to advanced placement physics 1 as well.
But students who take the advanced placement-level physics 1 course on the more accelerated pathway would have the option of taking either advanced-placement physics 2 or advanced placement physics C as seniors.
Curry said the map of the new course program would be available on the district’s Web site and that students would not be required to follow the map as it has been written.
“The new initiative does not take away from anything we’re doing,” Curry said. “It just adds so much more on the opportunity side.”
Curry said the new science program would require the addition of a .6 full-time equivalent teacher, but added that the district has in recent years hired science teachers that have multiple areas of certification, enabling them to teach across the full curriculum.
According to Curry’s presentation document, the new program would raise the academic expectations of students beginning in 7th grade while also allowing them the room to take more meaningful science courses throughout their high school careers.
But Curry said the new program would also virtually eliminate the necessity for the majority of Manhasset students to take the state Education Department’s 8th grade science assessment.
The new program would also increase the number of students who could take multiple advanced placement science courses and subsequent exams, and increase the number of students earning diplomas with advanced Regents designation, according to Curry’s presentation.
“There’s so much for us to gain that it would be a crime not to do this,” Curry said.
Prior to the presentation, the board of education held a student recognition ceremony for its National Merit semifinalists: Ryan Fleishman, Caitlin Gleason, Bryan Herbert, Baldwin Mei, Matthew Schaeffer, Kevin Tong, Arthur Wang and Stephanie Ying.
The board also honored its National Hispanic Scholars, Amelia Conner, Riley Garcia and Robert Godfried, and introduced its new student liaison, John Furlong.
