Early college coming to Goshen High School

Sep. 7—GOSHEN — Goshen High School Principal Cathy DeMeyer announced to the Goshen Community Schools Board of Trustees that the high school has plans to implement an early college program.

Students will be able to earn more than 15 transferable college credits with some students enrolling in their first year of college as a junior and evading almost all prerequisite classes, the board heard at its Tuesday meeting.

The Indiana Department of Education launched an Urban College Acceleration Network, through the Center for Excellence in Leadership and Learning (CELL) at the University of Indianapolis, and has partnered with many schools including Goshen High School, Concord High School, Fairfield High School, Northridge High School, Northwood High School as collaborators in the early stages. Jimtown High School is currently in the phases of pursuing the endorsement, while the Elkhart Area Career Center and Elkhart High School boast titles as the only schools in the county with the endorsement by CELL.

Approved as a partner school, GHS will have a mentor school already in the program to guide them in implementation as well as funding to support the program.

DeMeyer said that while any student can take dual credit or early college programming, the CELL targets students "that may not have realized they have college opportunities available to them." She said the program will target those getting free or reduced lunch, or are first-generation college, but are capable of college rigor.

Indiana is, on average, 10 percent below other states in students attending college. There has also been a significant decrease since 2010. In 2020, only 53% of high schoolers went on to college, compared to a national average of 63% according to the Indiana College Equity Report 2021. Goshen High School does not keep a record of students after graduation, DeMeyer said, but only about 20% of students at the school earn college credit before graduation, compared to a state average of over 60%.

"Our students deserve to have the same opportunities that their counterparts are getting in local schools," she said.

One significant challenge to the program is staffing. Around a dozen teachers currently boast a master's degree and can teach the courses, but the district is also planning to create pathways for teachers to gain degrees needed and become credentialed to teach early college programming as well.

DeMeyer hopes to develop a core curriculum that would allow early college participants to enter college directly as a junior eliminating the first two years of college and the debt that comes along with it. They're also looking at dual credits in the pathway programs already available at the high school.

For more information on CELL, visit cell.uindy.edu.

New Math Curriculum

Goshen Junior High teachers are working with the administration to adopt a new math curriculum that they hope will help students from all backgrounds. Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Tracey Noe met with the Goshen School Board of Trustees to address a program they liked and request continued trial of it.

Last spring all seventh and eighth-grade math teachers met with Noe to find the next math curriculum. They used the Indiana Department of Education's math textbook evaluation tool to look at three different math resources looking at rigor and balance, process standards, effective mathematical teaching practices, equity and other tools. The program teachers liked the best was Desmos.

Desmos is a predominantly online platform. Since the IREAD assessment already allows the Desmos calculator, the program mimics what students see on standardized testing, something Noe said was a major plus to the teachers.

It also allows them to use a variety of approaches to get to the right answer.

"With the students we have, those culturally different strategies become really important, that we honor where those are at, maybe their past education in whatever country they came from, are all incorporated into how they think and problem solve," Noe said. "That culturally responsive teaching becomes a key component to the success of those students from diverse backgrounds."

It also had a feedback platform that allows students to give anonymous feedback to each other with usernames of well-known mathematicians and computer science experts, Noe explained.

The program also encourages students to write about math. Curriculum and assessment provider Amplify acquired Desmos in May 2022. At the time, junior high teachers at the school were already using a free condensed version of Desmos. Along with the Desmos online platform, the acquisition by Amplify allows the district also receive hard-copy materials.

For now, teachers have been using a free trial version of the complete resource since springtime using notebooks to keep track of their work, but it ends at the end of October. Noe said she's seen the program in action and has been pleased with the interactions using the resource, despite the fact that teachers aren't actually trained in Desmos yet.

Teachers want to continue the trial as a pilot program through the end of the school year, but it will no longer be free. If fully adopted, teachers would be trained professionally.

—The board also approved for the posting of the next year's budget. It includes an Education Fund of $40,517,274, Operations Fund of $16,275,646, Operating Referendum of $4,658,816, Debt Service $10,278,394, Referendum Debt Exempt Capital of $5,435,000, and Rainy Day Fund of $1,000,000. A public hearing is set for 6 p.m. Sept. 27.

—More students passed the IREAD following summer remediation. Following summer school, a total of 75.8% of third-grade students in the district had passed. The result still puts them just below the state average, however, about 35% of second graders permitted to take the IREAD passed. Assistant Superintendent Alan Metcalfe explained that generally students who have to retake the IREAD in fourth grade pass it, and ones that don't have a good reason such as being an English Learner or having a developmental delay that gives them an IEP.

—The board recognized GCS staff who completed an English Learning Certification, including Angelica Chavez, Rachel Zentz, Aaron Gardner, Amy Fisher, Amy Kratzer, Angela Bjorkland, Colleen Weldy, Emily Shenk, Hannah Bachman, Josh Snyder, Kaylee Shepherd, Kristy Moberg, Megan Krug, Meghan Rheinheimer, Rebecca Gardner, Ruth Metcalfe and Sonya Imus.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.