School Board approves courses

January 05, 2005|by JULIE E. GREENE

Creative writing, creative songwriting, introduction to statistics and a string lab were among the new high school courses the Washington County Board of Education approved Tuesday night for next school year.

Whether the new courses would be implemented at all the high schools would depend upon enrollment and staffing, Boyd Michael III, executive director for secondary education, said Monday.

The new courses are: creative writing; an accelerated English tutorial; extended local, state and national government; honors local, state and national government; two-credit AP government and politics; two-credit AP world history; two-credit AP U.S. history; extended geometry; introduction to statistics; extended biology; creative songwriting; rhythm lab; and string lab.

The three extended courses would be 90-minute classes held during the entire school year, Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Patricia Abernethy said. The length of the course allows teachers to spend extra time on a particular issue if students need it, she said.

The extended courses are meant to help students prepare to pass assessment tests needed to graduate, School Board officials said.

According to a memo provided by Michael, courses that will be eliminated are: literacy prep, computer programming: visual basic, band front and six ESOL courses such as ESOL English and ESOL American culture.

The ESOL, English for Speakers of Other Languages, courses were noncredit courses that may or may not have been offered at schools, depending on enrollment, Gloria Maria L. Grimsley, the School Board's world and classical language/ELL supervisor, said Monday.

Instead, those students will take the accelerated English tutorial program, School Board officials said.

Also, Grimsley said, the name of the program has changed from ESOL to English Language Learning Program or ELL.

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