KnoxNews reports that Farragut folks are concerned because they’re afraid that too many students will be zoned out of their overcrowded school and into the new Hardin Valley High School.
Farragut High administrators fear that electives like the chorus, as well as honors and Advanced Placement classes and sections, may disappear should many students be zoned to the new Hardin Valley High School.
“When you cut too low of sections and (teachers) can’t teach other things, you start looking at cutting positions,” said Farragut High Principal Michael Reynolds. “The course selections have taken 20 years to grow, and for some teachers, that’s their entire career invested in this. If we cut courses, it’ll be hard to grow them back.”
Jacket, I think, has often made the point that smaller high schools (just a few hundred students) are better. A smaller student body may make for more personalized instruction, but it does definitely cut into the course offerings.
Still, it seems that being around 1,500 students — even 1,400 — would yield a workable number to keep the AP curriculum. After all, Farragut is a fairly homogeneous community: mostly upper-income, mostly white, mostly English speaking… if Oak Ridge (with a more diverse student population) can maintain a broad range of AP classes with a student population of 1,542, I would think that Farragut could as well.
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From this morning’s paper, it’s evident that the big-city mayors are still leaning on the Governor to hurry up and do something about education funding. I concur that we need to do something, but unfortunately, the four mayors seem to be pushing for a solution that would help their cities at the expense of others.
I had to smile at the Gov.’s response though:
The governor said he has told the mayors to “just cool your jets a little bit, we’re going to tackle this issue.”
So long as he tackles it fairly, and devises a solution that hurts NO ONE. In a state that’s at 90% of the nation’s per-capita income but only spends 76% of the national average per pupil on education… well, we have our priorities out of order.
This powerpoint from Matt Murray at UT’s Center for Business and Economic Research is worth the read. (Right-click the link and select “save link as.”)
Since you rang NM, thought I’d answer.
Too many students leaving Farragut will not be a problem for the school in my opinion. It will relieve overcrowding, a problem abated. Further, because of this the school will be more manageable from a safety, traffic, and overall security perspective. The teacher/student ratio may actually decrease for a while giving credence to my assertion of better one on one interaction. Finally, an overcrowded school could “stifle” community growth and if Farragut is not overcrowded, the housing market may increase.
It does not necessarily have to mean a “cut into the course offerings.” Here is why from the link below.
http://www.tennvalleycorridor.org/news/digest_detail.html?digest_date=2005-06-17
“Connected with Education
State eyes local model for expanded online school curriculum
Chattanooga Times Free Press, Beverly A. Carroll
June 13, 2005
Hamilton County’s online school started with three classes three years ago and now offers more than 1,000 courses, school officials said.”
Senator Kilby just this week announced that virtual classrooms would be explored thoroughly in the legislature over the next few years.
Think about it for a minute: Smaller schools, offering the course offerings of a larger high school. Connectivity in this manner would greatly enhance the curriculums for all schools.
It is about time we started using this technique. RSCC uses it in distance learning, UT and other universities use this technique. It has proven to be viable and cost effective after start up.
In Knox Co. where honors math classes are held at every school it is not a problem. However in a small rural, an advanced math class at one school may not be offered at the others. With this concept, it can be offered at all, w/o the costs of transportation, or building a “consolidated” high school allowing each community to maintain a “neighborhood school”. A good thing in my opinion. Anytime a community can maintain its identity, keep its schools and churches, then that community will at least be a “safer” haven for its residents.
Agreed completely, Jacket. Actually, the new ORHS facility is being equipped for at least a few rooms to be able to broadcast the classes, for just the purpose you indicated: students in more remote areas could participate in one or more “elite” classes (AP Calculus II, for example) where few schools have enough students to justify a course offering.
Maybe we could have some of our students participate in something we don’t have as well — I think Farragut offers either Russian or Japanese as a foreign language option.
It would be neat to have Russian or Japanese taught as a foreign language by somebody that actually speaks/teaches the language eminating from the country of origin. Somebody in Japan actually teaching Japanese. The possibilities are endless with this technology.
I would not go so far as allowing it to be home study though. I think that having a certified teacher in the class room for assistance, or at least an assistant, is imperative at the high school level for success.
Oh, and if a school doesn’t have the name of the community it serves, that scholl is not a community school IMHO. Privates, bah.
Man NM, I guess if I’m gonna post something on this thing you might need to add an edit function that is locatable. Or you could tell me how to do it. 😉