Proposed instructional changes for students in ninth and 10th grades next year at Annapolis High will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday night in the school’s auditorium from 6 to 7 p.m.
Starting in the fall, the school will offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) for all students in ninth and 10th grades. Note that students who wish to continue the MYP and pursue the IB Diploma in 11thgrade applied to the program as eighth graders this past fall.
According to a bulletin posted on the school’s website, the plans for instructional changes include “scheduling school wide heterogeneous grouping for all of our ninth grade students … [to provide] students with opportunities to experience success at higher levels of rigor, thereby advancing academic achievement.”
The move will essentially place students in English, science and history classes together—regardless of ability—instead of grouping students at similar learning levels in the same class.
“By eliminating the ‘tracking’ of the past, classes better will reflect the student population as a whole, improving our school climate and sense of unity. Students will no longer feel excluded and set apart as being ‘not good enough’ or ‘just standard,’” according to the school’s website.
Editor's note: This article has been updated from a previous version to reflect the change of meeting place to the auditorium.
Our county doesn't spend enough money per pupil as it is (compared to Montgomery and Howard Counties) so how are we going to be able to afford the magical teachers and the comprehensive support system that would be required to make this idea succeed? This is not what I signed up for when we applied for IB at AHS.
2. I have heard that instead of the 9th graders taking government, they will all be scheduled for US History, and do Government in 10th grade. The prior plan was for IB diploma candidates to take Government in 9th to get the graduation requirement out of the way, and then AP World history in 10th before 2 years of "history of the Americas" in 11th and 12th. Since they are all studying US history in 8th grade, this means 5 years of Western Hemisphere mostly US history for the Magnet Program Kids. Not very International! Let the magnet kids at least keep the Gov't->AP History program, don't force them to do US History again next year!!