Teachers complain changes were made without their feedback
Morgan Hill – Come August, eighth-graders and high school freshmen will be forced to study algebra and biology, respectively.
The new educational requirements align with California state standards. District officials want to improve the teaching of English, math and science at the secondary level.
“We felt these three areas needed attention,” Morgan Hill Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Michael Johnson said. “We felt they ought to be aligned to state standards immediately.”
Before, students were placed in a variety of math and science classes, but now the two subjects will be mandatory.
In English, proposed changes center on the new Houghton Mifflin curriculum, a state-adopted K-5 language arts program, and the McDougal Littel reading series, a sixth-through-ninth-grade language arts program.
The changes mean physical science will be dropped as a choice for ninth graders, making biology mandatory for all freshmen. Students not ready for biology will take a special support class being designed this summer. Physical science is an eighth-grade standard.
Math will see similar changes, with pre-algebra eliminated as an eighth-grade option. Students having difficulties will be offered a second tutorial period of math to help bring them up to speed.
“This is just the start, not where we plan on ending up,” Superintendent Alan Nishino told trustees during the May 23 school board meeting. “This is not unique to Morgan Hill. Districts throughout the state are going through the process now.”
Several Live Oak High School teachers have told trustees during the past few months they wanted to be a part of the curriculum discussions.
A handful of Live Oak High students attended a board meeting in April to share their views on the changes with trustees. The students complained it was wrong to push all students to take those classes, prepared or not.
“As a board, curriculum underscores your philosophy in terms of what students need to be prepared for and how you prepare them for that; and secondly as an expression of what you think students are capable of,” Johnson said.
“If you have high expectations from students and you give them the proper support, they can achieve,” Nishino said.
Nishino said Johnson has already met with principals, department chairpersons and teacher representatives to discuss the changes.
