‘Please work with us’: Students rally to keep Advanced Placement and honors courses at Rigby High School
By David Pace
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RIGBY (eastidahonews.com) — Waving signs emblazoned with “Education is not one size fits all,” “Saving money, not our education,” and “You work for us, so please work with us,” more than 70 students protested at the Jefferson School District 251 office Wednesday afternoon against administrators’ decision to cut all Advanced Placement, honors and advanced courses at Rigby High School.
“We’re being informed. We’re trying to have a productive conversation, and they’re refusing to have a productive conversation with us,” said junior Shane Hall. “They say that we want to provide each student with a high-quality education, and they’re taking away the high-quality aspect of that.”
The district will no longer be offering AP Biology, AP English, Honors Algebra II, or the advanced English courses in ninth and 10th grade, according to a previous email from the district’s Director of Secondary Education Sherry Simmons.
“AP! AP! AP! AP!” the students chanted over and over again, along with “Go get Chad!” referring to District Superintendent Chad Martin.
No administrators interacted with the students during the protest, and EastIdahoNews.com was informed that they were all in meetings.
In an email to EastIdahoNews.com, Martin said Jefferson School District is continuing to provide a premium educational experience and is simply aligning its classes with the preferences of most of its students.
“Rigby High School has one of the widest array of course offerings in the state,” Martin said. “We have the largest dual-language immersion program in the state of Idaho. We have more students graduating with associate’s degrees than other high schools and are just opening a new $5 million Career Technical Education building next week.”
The students’ Change.org petition “We need AP!! College isn’t free” now has reached 516 signatures.
District explains changes Martin said the decision to eliminate the courses was data-driven and not primarily a budgetary move.
“The data shows our students perform much better in dual-enrollment college courses than they do in AP courses,” Martin wrote. “Our students’ success in passing the AP test at a level that would award college credit is well below 50%. However, students’ success in taking dual-enrollment courses is very high.
“Last year we had 2,659 dual-enrollment courses taken. In English, for example, our students earned 259 college credits through dual-enrollment courses, while we had only 28 students qualify for college credit through taking the AP test,” he continued. “The data shows that our limited resources are better used for dual-enrollment courses, and that is where the demand is from our students.”
The district will now offer dual-enrollment courses to juniors and seniors — “allowing students to simultaneously earn college credit and high school credit,” Simmons, the director of secondary education, wrote in her previous email.
Martin has provided a letter signed by Rigby High School Principal Bryan Lords explaining the rationale behind the change in direction. The letter was sent out to district parents on Feb. 14.
“We have now determined that the best way to ensure all students receive a consistent and comprehensive curriculum is to guarantee that every student first receives core instruction,” Lords wrote. “For those students who seek advanced material, we will provide additional opportunities to explore the standards more deeply.”
Protest signs galore But students responded that taking advanced courses has empowered their education and helped them progress faster than remaining in a standard class.
“I’ve been an advanced student for about five years now, and I don’t think that it’s fair to those advanced students who are coming up to not … have the same opportunity as all of us,” said 10th-grader Kynslee Parker. “It’s not fair to students who may be more advanced to have to be forced down to a lower level just to fit the district standards. … It’s a way different environment, from an advanced class to a regular class.”
Starting next year, teachers will be expected to prepare both a normal standard curriculum and an advanced curriculum in their normal English classes for their students.
“It’s really just giving us more busy work and not challenging us,” said 10th-grader Emily Van Walraven. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you write an extra paragraph. You write an extra essay.’ It’s not only affecting us and the upper grades in the high school, it’s affecting all of those middle-schoolers who are going to come into the high school, and they were in advanced.”
Other students waved signs declaring, “Turn the page, don’t close the book,” “Change isn’t always progress” and “Don’t chance it, advance it!”
Rigby parent Samantha Wescott said she hopes the district will respond to the students and hold a public meeting to discuss the concerns.
“We are just hoping to really be able to have a meeting with the district, community, teachers, parents, and the hope is to get them to at least walk back some of the decisions — if not everything,” Wescott said. “But we’re just encouraging all the kids that are coming to be peaceful … and we just really want to have their voices heard.”
She would like to see the district restore advanced English for the freshmen and sophomores.
“I feel like that’s a good compromise. They’re not spending any money for that,” Wescott said. “They will just need to change the little bit of the curriculum where they’re saying there are some gaps.”
However, for now, the district is emphasizing dual-enrollment as a better precollege solution for its students.
“This shift will provide a smoother pathway for students who wish to pursue an associate’s degree or who simply want to earn more college credits while in high school,” Lords wrote in the letter to Rigby parents.
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