By Mitch Evans
At a busy School Committee Meeting on January 30, Principal Heather Galante and Assistant Principal Kate Boynton presented revisions to the Bedford High School Program of Studies for 2018-19.
The Foreign Language Department will become known as the World Language Department; it is felt that this reflects more culturally proficient language. In order to better reflect the full breadth of performing arts courses available, the Music and Theater Arts Department will be renamed the Performing Arts Department.
However, the main changes to next year’s offerings occur in the English Department. Assistant Principal Boynton explained that “BHS students have many opportunities to take Advanced Placement courses in the math and science disciplines, however, they do not currently have many options in the humanities courses.” As a result, AP Literature will now be offered in junior year which allows students a full year of AP before applying to schools in their senior year.
Another change is the ‘unlevelling’ of English courses in senior year. After piloting two heterogeneous courses for two years, the high school has found that there has been an increase of more than double the number of students enrolling in these new courses. Additionally, when surveyed, 91.9% of students in their senior year said that they would prefer a more diverse selection of course offerings, rather than multiple levels of fewer courses. As a result, next year’s senior students will be able to select from five ‘unlevelled’ English courses; British Literature, Global Voices, Creativity and Culture, African American Literature, and Asian American Literature.
And finally, English IV: Literature and Composition will also now be offered as a College Preparatory option. This will be available to those students who have moved from an Introductory and/or Co-Teaching model as underclassmen and may still need individualized instruction and attention to particular reading and writing skills.
All changes were approved by the School Committee.
Also:
- The schools’ 2018/19 district calendar was approved
- The Bedford Energy Task Force presented their new policy document
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