Honors courses return to Barrington High School after outcry from parents

BARRINGTON — Barrington parents finally got their honors courses back.

Principal Joseph Hurley announced at Thursday’s School Committee meeting that he was bringing back honors English as well as “honors with distinction” in social studies.

“I’m beyond thrilled,” said one parent, Erica Twohig. “My oldest is 13. We can take a deep breath and relax. I moved here for the schools. Now we don’t have to think about moving.”

“It’s such a relief that parents were heard,” said Julie Sanfilippo, who has a seventh-grader and a third-grader in the school system. “We want to make sure that our kids can succeed at whatever they are good at.”

First, the district did away with honors classes.

Then, when parents rebelled, it instituted an honors designation, sort of an "honors light."

Then, in mid-March, the district announced it was doing away with the designation just days before students signed up for next year’s courses.

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Faced with intense backlash, Hurley conducted parent and student surveys this spring. The results were not surprising: 72% of families and 68% of students wanted a separate honors class.

“This is still evolving,” Hurley said Thursday. “We will continue to evaluate what’s working and what’s not.”

What the honors classes plan looks like

The latest plan looks like this: ninth-graders can take honors English and honors with distinction (offered in the college prep class),10th-graders can enroll in honors and eleventh-graders can take AP English or honors with distinction.

In social studies, 10th-graders can enroll in college-prep class that gives students the chance to earn "honors with distinction;" in American studies, they can take honors with distinction, and in 11th grade, they can enroll in AP social studies and economics.

The district has also eliminated a controversial “cut score” that students had to reach. Students currently have to score 88% on an in-class assessment to earn an honors designation.

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Students’ grades will now depend on their performance on all class assignments.

Barrington added an honors designation last year as part of a larger effort to offer rigorous material to students of varying abilities. To further that goal, all students except the lowest-performing were grouped into one English level and one social studies level.

Students did, however, have an option to earn an honors designation in English by tackling an independent project.

“I understand why the district came to this decision and feel it’s the best compromise (by) including feedback from parents and students in creating this new direction,” School Committee Chairwoman Gina Bae said Monday. “I hope that the district continues to engage collaboratively with our educational experts, our teachers, in further developing this program, and I sincerely hope our community can move forward in a more productive manner."

Not everyone was completely satisfied, however.

School Committee member Patrick McCrann questioned why the district hasn’t provided any data on why honors with distinction is necessary.

“If we make a decision tonight, we are not basing it on data,” he told the committee. "We have no clear goals. Perhaps there are better ways.”

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Rather than take a vote on the new honors classes, the committee approved them “by consensus” because the meeting agenda did not say a vote would be taken.

The last-minute changes have sent the high school scrambling to revise the curriculum and get the new information out to students.

A letter explaining the new courses has been emailed to parents. On June 3, a final plan will be shared to students and families, and on June 10, students entering grades 9 and 10 will be able to select their English and social studies courses for the fall.

Linda Borg covers education for the Journal.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Barrington High School reinstates honors classes