Q. What is "Enrichment"?
A. Enrichment is an advanced placement program being piloted in the 2003-2004 school year.
Q. Why haven't I heard about it?
A. Only parents whose children qualify were notified. I find this unacceptable as a parent for several reasons. First of all, there should be transparency in all curriculum and policy decisions. The Board of Education and school administration have a duty to keep parents informed. Secondly, mistakes are made in which children who are eligible for enrichment aren't notified. Thirdly, even students who are not eligible for enrichment are affected by the program (read on).
Q. In what grades is Enrichment offered?
A. English (language arts) enrichment is offered in 1st and 2nd grade. Math and English enrichment are offered in grades 3 and higher (up to?). There is no enrichment program in Kindergarten.
Q. I still don't get it. What exactly is an Enriched program or classroom? What is my kid getting or missing?
A. An Enriched classroom is one in which designated students are grouped together to receive certain group-related instruction. For example, English-enrichment students might work on a group project. Allegedly, all students in non-enriched classes get differentiated instruction, but there might not be other advanced kids in their class. On the other hand, children who were not designated for enrichment, per se, but are in an enrichment-designated class can participate in the enriched activities if they show the capability.
Q. I still don't get it. What is the class arrangement? Are all classes designated for both Math and English enrichment, or neither?
A. In Kindergarten, there are no designated classes. In 1st and 2nd grade, classes are either designated for English enrichment or no formal enrichment. In grades 3 and later, some classes are Math-enriched only, some are English-enriched only, and some are both Math and English enriched. If your child is, say, Math enriched, he or she may also have English-enrichment opporunties if the class is so designated.
Q. This all sounds terribly unfair.
A. Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just trying to publicize the information and encourage the administration to be transparent. Fact is, everything is stilll in flux and seems to depend heavily on the teacher. I've met with Mr Gebhart, my daughter's third-grade teacher and a non-designated classroom because I was concerned about the lack of enrichment. After speaking with Mr. Gebhart, I came away convinced that he would be extremely rigorous, and he has been. So I'd rather have a great teacher like Mr. Gebhart challenging the kids than simply rely on an enrichment curriculum without regard to the teacher teaching it.
Q. What are the standards for eligibility?
A. My understanding is that it varies by grade. English enrichment eligibility depends on how well the students read,write, and spell. The standards are very high, with somewhere around 5% of students qualifying. I am calling on the administration to publish the standards. Allegedly the math standard is 100% on proficiency tests, so your 98th percentile student might not qualify.
Q. When are parents notified?
A. August. I'm calling for the administration to make a more public announcement, perhaps including a summary of the number of enrichment-eligible students, which classes are designated, etc.
Q. When are kids evaluated?
A. Another good question. It seems to be at the end of the previous school year (around May). This may seem unfair to those who learned a lot over the summer, but the assumption is that you have to test kids at some point in advance. I'm calling on the administration to disclose the time and nature of the evaluations, the children's scores, etc.
Q. What are the standards in Math? In English?
A. They haven't been published. See above.
Q. How do you find out your kids' scores?
A. I called the school administration and they looked it up for me. I'm also encouraging the school to disclose scores of each child to their parents.
Q. To whom is the decision appealable?
A. There is an Enrichment cCmmittee that reviews individual cases, but they don't appear to be very flexible.
Q. Why are some kids who are not enrichment-ready and in enrichment-designated
classes, whereas borderline kids may be shut out?
A. Those just seem to be the breaks. See questions above.
Q. What if my kid isn't in the program this year? Can he be in it next year?
A. I assume evaulations are performed every year and that enrichment-ready kids will be eligible the following year based on their tests.
Q. Do teachers have input to make recommendations?
A. The state guidelines say "yes" but teachers and the administration say "no" in my experience. The administration has not been forthcoming in this area. They seem to consider it too objective and controversial to rely on teachers' recommendations and teachers seem scared to speak out. In my experience, they relied only on test scores in the first year of the program. I don't know if that will change.
Q. Why weren't the details made public?
A. Good question. Let's pressure the administration to make details public. I think they're afraid that every parent will think their kid should be in the enriched class. This is simply not true. I felt strongly that my daughter should be in English enrichment (her scores qualifed her) but at the same time I knew that she wasn't qualified for Math enrichment (she is an A minus student, not an A+ student in Math). Misinformation or lack of information is a sure recipe for disaster. We're all reasonable people. If we're told the standards, we should agree as a community to abide by them and give the administration reasonable leeway in implementation. But secrecy is not a solution.
Q. Any other caveats?
A. Yes, if you are asked whether your child would like to "loop" (i.e., stay with the same class/teacher next year, in which the teacher goes with the students to the next grade) be sure to find out of the class is enrichment-designated. Otherwise, your enrichment-eligible child may not be in an enrichment-designated class.