Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Embedded honors?

Our school district defers any sort of grouping of gifted students until high school when honors and AP courses are offered. Recently, they've eliminated actual honors sections in favor of an embedded honors model. Students who want an honors designation for a course do extra work and, if they get an A- or above in the class, will receive an "H" on their transcript.

I thought honors courses were supposed to cluster honors level students together so that they could have high caliber discussions and assignments as a group. This embedded honors thing seems like honors in isolation, which doesn't make much sense. Maybe it's just an extension of giving gifted kids extra work and calling it a gifted program. Also, why is a particular grade required?

Is this typical these days?

The school I work at has done the same thing with social studies and English. The idea is that the higher level kids will bring up the others and the teacher will no longer have the classes that do absolutely nothing and that more students will be motivated to do better because of the higher general standard of the class.
My colleagues love it so far. They say that it really has worked in terms of motivating the lower level kids while still allowing the higher kids to do higher level work that they need.
On the other side of the issue though, the science and math teachers have refused to make the switch on the grounds that honors science and math are actually different subjects most years, not simply different versions of the same subject. So far the administration has supported us on this.

Our school offers separate honors classes in most content area classes and in a few electives and specialty classes (art, music, business). There are a handful of electives that offer embedded honors. The honors student often has more reading and writing and their work is scored on a different rubric than the college prep students in the class.

As far as grades - they need to have an A or higher in the previous content area course to be edible for honors. I don't know about maintaining a certain grade to get an honors designation. I'd assume if they did the work, their grade would reflect their achievement in the honors track.

In our school honors courses are worth more to the GPA. For instance an A in honors is worth 5.3 points and an A in CP gets 4.8 points. I would imagine this weighting would apply.

This Embedded honors thing sounds just like gifted differentiation in the regular classroom for K-8th, of which I�m not a fan.
Exactly.
My son� s honors history is known as a GPA busting class (no extra weight given for H or AP courses at his school). Some eligible students decline enrollment due to the intensity. It order to maintain that level, it has to be reserved for only the most academically motivated and able, subject- interested students.

My DS also comments that his current English class moves slow and lacks depth due to full inclusion. The pace and lack of substantive discussion kills the enjoyment that he could otherwise gain from the assigned literature (honors English doesn�t start until next year at his school).

*Full inclusion at ds�s school includes students scoring at the 60th percentile or higher. I can�t imagine a scenario where the true range is represented in the same �honors level� course!

You have described the "embedded honors" system in my community perfectly. And coincidentally, at this very moment there is a raging battle over the very issues you raise. The flip side (not mine!) of the argument is that clustering would lead to racial segregation. My kids are only in 5th grade right now, so I'm watching from the sidelines. I hope the system is in a better place by the time they get to high school....