Manchester school board to debate course catalog, as de-leveling policies spark debate

Nov. 28—City school board members will discuss the proposed high school course catalog for the 2023-24 school year tonight, a topic that sparked debate last week over deleveling policies.

The Manchester Board of School Committee Teaching and Learning Committee voted 3-2 last week to recommend the catalog to the full board for approval, after hearing from students and administrators speaking both for and against doing away with leveling.

Manchester School District Chief Equity Officer Tina Philibotte said she understands some of the concerns raised, but said statistics show minority students are given lower expectations more often than White students.

"I think any teacher worth their salt understands differentiated learning," Philibotte said.

Leveling — when students are separated into different classrooms based on past performance — has proven a controversial topic in recent years. The school board voted in 2010 to introduce leveling to the middle schools, in part as a way to give high-achieving students more opportunities to excel.

City school administrators raised concerns about the fairness and logistics of leveling in the middle schools from the outset.

The topic resurfaced in the spring of 2014, when the district was faulted by the federal Office for Civil Rights for consistent disparities between White and minority students in the district due to the small percentage of minority students enrolling in advanced classes. In 2010-11, just nine of the almost 600 Hispanic or Latino students in the district took an AP course.

A preliminary proposal to try a deleveling pilot program at one of the middle schools was mothballed after meeting resistance from parents and several school board members.

Several national education groups have publicly called for an end to leveling. The country's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, labeled the practice discriminatory, while the National Association of Secondary School Principals refers to it as an obsolete practice.

Manchester school board members voted to do away with leveling at city schools in 2019, and as of fall 2021, middle schools no longer offered low-, medium- or high-level options for courses.

Nolan Adams, a Manchester student, spoke out against deleveling at last week's Teaching and Learning Committee meeting.

"My classmates and I are strongly against this," said Adams. "The leveling system works. Grouping us all in together would be counterintuitive. If you were to de-level it would negatively impact students."

James McKim, president of the Manchester branch of the NAACP, said he supports the policy.

We recognize that there are challenges with this current program, but there are advantages as well," McKim said. "The program does not take away learning opportunities from anyone...the same standards of learning still apply. The program makes improvements to access for students of color."

"This is really about our students having a standard that they need to live up to...all of our students," said West High Principal Richard Dichard.

Philibotte said she would like to see the program go "a little further."

"I think the program is a step in the right direction."

Teaching and Learning Committee members voted 3-2 to send the catalog to the full board for discussion and approval. In favor were Karen Soule, Julie Turner and Peter Argeropoulos. Opposed were Ken Tassey and Ben Dion.

The school board will meet Monday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.