II. Guests/Presentations
A. FHS Program of Study Update
Paul Peri, Bill Klements
FHS doc to be added later, not posted yet to the 'packet folder'
AP 2-D design course, more design focused
Illustration and Murals, conscious decision to not run Art II
Multi-Cultural Art, responding to needs and wants of students
Life in Literature, for second half of senior year
Health/PE courses, in calendar but not necessarily run due to staffing availability
Math, element of stats also building upon wants and needs
Economics - open honors course
Latin 5 - taught with Latin 4
adding AP level course also
Q - how do you determine a course when quantity may be small?
A - carefully, student, need and ability but also based upon enrollment, if not meeting minimum needs, it won't run
B. Homework Update
Dr Edwards
inconsistent homework practices across the district never mind within a building
policy revision completed, recognizing the value of family and whole child
developed study group to help implement "homework guidelines"
to get to consistency of practices, still have meet student needs
consistency of expectation set
monitoring and revising as needed
survey results had good representation, 349 responses
when homework is done vs assigned; i.e. middle school has a period available
what is homework vs. prep for the next day of class?
addressing inconsistencies
Parent Ed night on homework scheduled for 3/18 (snow date 3/25) 6:30 PM -8:00 PM at FHS Media Center
did get request from elementary parents for no homework, under consideration
survey again in April (last for this year)
Pfeffer disagrees with trend towards no homework, "I find it absurd"
There is a place for homework, family life and support structures for homework have changed over the changes, esp. more recently
trying to find the balance to prepare for the life skills needed to be successful in the world
some AP class loads may require multiple hours of homework which can affect the required number of hours of sleep
Keenan - is there really a need for homework?
research for young children show need for developing study skills and reading time
MCAS scores have been stable, in many cases students weren't doing homework
there is rampant sharing of homework, if it is being assigned it needs to be personalized and executed; you can't share an essay, needs to be personalized, meaningful and relevant
look for CNN article on homework for young kids just came to one of the SchComm members as he was coming to the meeting
parents should be encouraged to talk with the teacher first, check out what should be happening vs what they see and start there
parent raising issue with 3-4 hours of home work for 7th grade
in middle schools should be able to calibrate across the teams
the principal is the next step
