Middle Schools Could Trim List Of Required Courses
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ALBANY – Middle schools under a state policy announced yesterday could shed long-required courses such as technology and home-and-careers as early as the fall to overcome a nagging performance problem.
The changes, which will be the option of school districts, would free up as much as a quarter to a third of a middle school students’ schedule to concentrate on core subjects such as math and English, a middle school principal said.
The state Board of Regents has long been examining the best practices of the middle schools that are flourishing as their counterparts have lagged in performance. Barely half of middle school students met the state’s math and English standards a year ago. In 2003, just 45% of middle school students met the state’s English standard – 3 percentage points lower than in 1999.
Elementary and high school students, on the other hand, have shown steady improvement.
