The Manhasset School District is considering changes to its accelerated math and science AP intensive program, including moving the math program start from sixth to seventh grade and making the science program independent.
“We acknowledge that the program works for some students, we absolutely acknowledge that,” Superintendent Gaurav Passi said. “The difficulty that we have is because the program has students skip content, the selection process is challenging.”
The district’s accelerated math program currently identifies students to begin the advanced course in sixth grade. The science AP intensive program begins in seventh grade.
The two programs are currently done in tandem, with only students in the accelerated math program referred to the science AP intensive program.
In 2020, the district implemented the program in sixth grade after previously implementing it in fifth grade.
Administrators said moving the math program to seventh grade would help the district better identify students fit for the accelerated program and would be more compatible with the transition to secondary school.
The concerns administrators had with the current program were a student focus on speed rather than a deeper understanding of the subject as well as fairness in the selection of students for the program.
The prior change to move the program to sixth grade did improve the district’s attrition rate by reducing it from 50% to 9% of students leaving the program, yet 45% of students still perform below expectations.
Grade five math scores also increased by 10% after the change.
Variables impacting students in the program currently include transitioning to middle school, balancing greater academics and extracurriculars, emotional readiness and managing advanced learning pressures.
By moving the start of the accelerate math program to seventh grade, administrators said this would enrich the sixth grade math content and provide greater flexibility in identifying students for the program while still offering an accelerated pathway feasible through high school elective courses.
“It’s important for us to ensure that students are ready to skip that content and we have not found a reliable method to be able to do that – to be able to identify students in a reasonable manner,” Passi said. “What we’ve seen is the difficulty that comes from over-identifying students, is that the students end up having trouble when they get to the seventh grade. And we’ve seen difficulty with not identifying students who may be successful in the program.”
The district is also recommending making the science program separate from the accelerated math program. Currently students are only referred to the science AP intensive program if they are also in the accelerated math program.
District data suggested, though, that students not in the double accelerated math program would still have success in the science AP intensive program.
With the change, students would be identified for the science program via their science course performance.
The change would also permit students to join the advanced science track later than seventh grade.
No action was taken by the board, and another presentation on the topic will be given to the community at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 28 at the Shelter Rock Auditorium.
In other news, the Board of Education voted to change its graduation requirements to permit students to be granted an exception for world language requirements.
The school district currently requires students to fulfill three credits of world language courses to graduate, while the state only requires one credit.
The policy change would permit students with “an extenuating circumstance” to be granted an exception to the three-credit requirement if all other options have been explored.
Board of Education President Steven Panzik argued that the district should just reduce the requirement to one credit to aid the students who are negatively affected by this requirement.
Trustee Nadia Giannopoulos said this policy change was drafted with other administrators and was believed to be a good solution to address the issue at hand. Trustee Maria Pescatore added that graduation requirement changes can still be made to address any problems if they persist.
The policy change was adopted 3-2, with Panzik and Vice President Ted Post voting against it.
