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NC Honors Courses Get Review
The perfect 4.0 that once meant straight A's in high school is now a perfect 5.0 and climbing.
A proliferation of honors-level courses in many North Carolina schools has helped push grade-point averages higher than ever for top students.
But it isn't clear how much more students in those advanced classes are learning, or how they compare with top students in other states.
Statistics compiled by the College Board -- from information that students report about themselves on the SAT -- suggest that North Carolina's students with the best report cards lag behind A-plus students in most other states where the SAT also is widely taken.
North Carolina is considering scaling back the number of honors-level courses, in which students get extra, or weighted, credit. A decision could come from the State Board of Education as soon as next week.
Schools can now offer dozens of advanced classes and award extra points, but the board may limit those classes to 18 core courses required for admission to University of North Carolina campuses. The board may eliminate the extra points altogether.
The board also could change the grading policy that governs weighted credit for Advanced Placement courses, where strong performance on national tests can also earn students college credit at many colleges and universities. Students in most North Carolina school systems now earn two extra points, regardless of whether they take the AP exam. The board may tie one or both points to a student's test participation.
The majority of a group of local school superintendents who were polled on the honors issue at a meeting last month said they support doing away with the extra points for honors courses.
Education policy-makers say the current grading system suffers from inequities and a lack of clear standards.
"We can't say with certainty that an honors course in one school has the same level of standards in another," said June Atkinson, director of instructional services for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Wake Superintendent Bill McNeal said rising grade averages in the county's schools have more to do with students taking more advanced courses that carry extra points.
"I do have concerns if the grades don't reflect what they know," he said. "But that doesn't appear to be true in Wake County."
McNeal said that he would support a state move to limit honors courses to the 18 required for UNC admissions as long as arts courses also are included.
By the numbers
Last year, North Carolina students with the best grades scored an average of 1205 on the SAT's 1600-point scale, compared with the national average of 1232 for students who reported their grade averages as A-plus.
The state's overall average last year on the exam stood at 1001; it was 1026 for the nation.
Yet more students in North Carolina report grade averages in the "A" range than in the nation as a whole and than in most other states with high percentages of SAT test-takers.
For students who say their grades reflect A-plus work, only three states where more than half the high school seniors take the SAT rank lower in average scores than North Carolina -- Florida, Texas and South Carolina.
North Carolina students with high classroom grades trail their peers in 14 states, including Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and Delaware. Grade inflation is a possible factor.
"It would suggest that [classroom] grades in North Carolina might be higher," said Wayne Camara, vice president of research for the College Board.
In Connecticut, for example, where the state's average SAT score is comparable to the nation's 1026, the average score among A-plus students is 1305 -- 100 points higher than students in North Carolina who report similar grades. Also, while 9 percent of North Carolina students who took the SAT last year said they were A-plus students, 2 percent of Connecticut test takers said they were.
The fact that more students in Connecticut take the SAT than students in North Carolina could account for part of the difference, but even in states with roughly the same SAT participation, smaller percentages of students say their averages are A or A-plus.
Just two other states with large proportions of students taking the SAT reported percentages of A-plus students close to North Carolina's -- Texas and Florida. Both have overall average results that trail the national average.
Below national average
North Carolina students taking Advanced Placement courses, generally the state's highest-achieving students, also tend to lag behind their peers nationally.
In North Carolina in 2003, 11 percent of students earned a 5, the highest grade, on the AP tests. Nationally, 13 percent did. Meanwhile, 18 percent of the state's students taking the exams scored a 1, the lowest score, compared with 15 percent nationally.
Gene Bottoms, a high school education expert with the Southern Regional Education Board, said schools in many states have been too eager to add honors classes.
"If we're going to have honors courses, they ought to be like AP courses," he said.
But for some in the university system, the extra points that students earn in honors classes may be of less importance than getting students to take tougher classes.
"The important thing is taking the work," said Bobby Kanoy, UNC associate vice president for academic and student affairs. "The more rigorous courses are going to help them be successful."
— Todd Silberman
Honors courses get review
News Observer
2004-01-02
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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