Hillsdale High School Site Council
October 16, 2006 MInutes

What is the school policy and process around passporting students out of core house classes? How is the policy/process different for Special Ed students?

Passporting:

1. Do we have philosophical disagreements, or are they process issues?

There are no philosophical disagreements about passporting, whether in the general or special ed classes. We agree that students should be scheduled into house classes in all but the most extraordinary situations, and that the decisions about students’ placements should be collaborative, involving the teacher, advisor, counselor, administrator, and core team. Special Ed teachers absolutely understand that student placement is not made based on preference or the perception of the teacher’s program. We also believe that any concerns that exist about the quality of a placement need to first be addressed through modifications and the development of the teacher’s capacity to address the needs of all students.
            We do recognize the tension between personalization (as in meeting the unique needs of each student) and creating structures that support all students well, which are sometimes rigid in nature. When this tension requires choices about passporting and student placement, the process outlined below will be used to make decisions:

2. What is the understood process for passporting a student and what criteria is used?

 

Hillsdale students are assigned to core academic classes in their respective SLC house. Students will not be passported out of house classes except in extremely rare cases.
Students will not be passported because of:

• Parent request
• Personality
• Teacher style or reputation
• Size of class, except where violations of the contract are involved

In order for a student to be passported, the following criteria must be met:

• The move is necessary to meet the student’s academic needs
• No other reasonable option is available
• Teachers, advisor, counselor, and core team must agree to the move

Considerations for passporting Special Education students:

• Special Ed policy is to keep the RSP teacher and student in the same house
• Special Ed teacher will participate as part of the team in deciding scheduling issues
• Dual scheduled students might create extenuating circumstances where passporting is necessary

American Ex: Look at the different American Ex proposals for 06-07. How should the teachers proceed?

What is a school-wide assignment? What criteria do we use to decide if an assignment is completed in all houses?
There is no agreed upon definition of a required school-wide assignment. Senior Ex is the model of such an assignment, and American Ex seems to be the closest other example. Discussion included the idea that school wide assignments be those that are exhibitions of knowledge and skill that are tied to ESLRS, have common standards and rubrics, and are part of a graduation portfolio. This issue is tied up with the larger issue of schoolwide portfolios and how we will ask students to demonstrate knowledge in areas outside of Sr. Ex (science exhibition for example). The role of benchmarks, and a clearer definition of benchmarks is important.

American Exhibition:

American Ex was originally designed as a preparation for sr ex. It has changed almost every year and has become a mini-sr ex in many ways. There are still frustrations around how it develops skills that are necessary for sr. ex and the de facto reality is that each house and teacher has done the ex differently for the last couple of years, with some houses closer than others.

For 06-07, Marrakech and Florence are changing the timeline and approach to AmEx, with students going back to previously studied material twice during the year to write two 2-3 page persuasive essays that require additional research on some previous content. The work will start in November, after the first four units are complete. The same rubrics and standards are used to assess the student work. The intent of this approach is to give students a chance to hone their writing and research skills on material that is already familiar and to give students two shorter opportunities to improve the writing process, instead of one longer one. The rigor is intended to be the same.

One other reality is that the caseloads in the 11th grade are large and the teachers do not have the same supports as Sr Ex teachers have to complete the grading and instruction. Eleventh grade teachers also have four preps and do not see a way to complete the old-style Am Ex assignment given the teaching load.

One significant difficulty is in mixed classes and advisories with students in different English/US History classes. The students are expected to follow the lead of the house teacher from their house. There will be times when students in the same advisory may face different expectations around AmEx and teachers and advisors will need to minimize the impact. When AmEx, or SrEx is being worked in class, all students will have appropriate assignments to complete, even if the AmEx process is different.

SLC Council approved the junior teachers’ continued work on Am Ex. The Kyoto version will be different than the Marrakech and Florence versions, especially in the first semester process. The SLC Council expressed interest in seeing how the different versions led to better practices and see it as a healthy way to try out different curriculum and instruction, as long as this is not a final demonstration of knowledge and skill, as in the case of Sr Ex. Standards and criteria should remain the same in the different versions.

Three agreements that came out of the meeting:

1. All junior teachers will meet during this semester to align calendars as much as possible for next semester
2. SLC Council will look at the assignments and rubrics for equity during a December meeting
3. SLC Council will look at samples of student work at the end of the year for equity