WCS Examines Curriculum Changes
During Monday evening’s Warsaw Community Schools regular board meeting, WCS Chief Academic Officer David Hoffert presented members of the board and the public with a complete listing of proposed courses to be added, deleted and revised during the 2014-2015 school year.
According to Hoffert, these changes will occur at the high school and Warsaw Area Career Center levels with some changes also happening at the middle school level. A total of 33 new courses have been proposed with 23 classes being revised and 11 being removed due to lack of student interest or support from the Indiana Department of Education.
“These courses are coming back to the work session in December for board approval after we’ve had a little more in-depth study. This is just our Readers Digest version tonight,” explained Hoffert.
Hoffert said a total of 15 new classes have been proposed at the high school level with five current classes being proposed for revision during the coming school year. Noteworthy classes that have received support from the public as well as the WCS Curriculum Council are courses such as dual credit pre-calculus/trigonometry which will allow students to garner valuable college credits for reduced costs at the high school level.
“This class already exists, but it has never existed in the dual credit format,” stated Hoffert. “This gives students an opportunity who are not going into a math heavy focus to gain those credits and take them into their college careers.”
Another addition to the high school course load was that to the newly founded physics department. According to Hoffert, the school corporation recently hired two staff members who will be implementing AP courses that will honor calculus and algebra based physics courses. Hoffert noted that the physics staff is excited about creating a new college pathway for WCHS students to embark upon and are utilizing techniques such as co-teaching classes.
“This is probably the update that got the most fanfare. We were able to recruit someone locally as well as someone from the University of Michigan,” said Hoffert. “It’s my own personal opinion, but these individuals are on fire. Warsaw traditionally has offered physics and honors AP physics, but we’ve never really gone beyond that point. I’m proud to say WCS will have a first class physics department through the new suggestions put in place.”
Language courses are also seeing a boost in the coming school year and not simply at the high school level. Hoffert said due to a suggestion from the orthopedic industry, the school corporation would be adding German to its language offerings. Hoffert explained the orthopedic industry has a strong German clientele and the language could prove useful to students who choose to work in orthopedics.
Hoffert also noted a staff member would have to be added for this position as there is currently no staff member equipped to instruct the course. In addition to German, Mandarin will see an additional level added for students and Spanish will soon be offered at the introductory level in WCS middle schools allowing students to acquire AP credit at higher levels.
The Warsaw Area Career Center will see a total of 12 new courses, 14 revised courses and 8 deleted courses in the coming school year as it continues its pursuit toward visionary classes. Noteworthy additions at the Career Center will include a new videography and film production course and a girls only introduction to engineering course which is geared toward bringing more interest in female students to STEM education.
One of the most notable additions at the Career Center will be the furthering and creation of new partnership that will allow students to garner licensing and advanced placement in their futures. Hoffert announced students will now be offered access to a flight aviation course, where students can gain their pilot’s license, as well as aerospace engineering. Both courses will be made possible through a new partnership with the Warsaw Municipal Airport. In addition, a partnership with Grace College will allow students to receive up to 6 credit hours and a direct pipeline into Grace College’s education program after enrolling in a cadet teaching program at WCS.
Though the middle schools saw smaller changes this year, Hoffert noted that next year would be a big year for both Edgewood and Lakeview Middle Schools. According to Hoffert, both middle schools will be looking at a complete overhaul next year.
“As more and more college courses move into the high school level we will see more high school level courses move into the middle school,” stated Hoffert.
“If Joella Smith (Edgewood principal) and John Lippe (Lakeview principal) were here they would tell you wait until you see what we have coming next year. As the college world has moved down into the high school the high school world has moved down into the middle school. The traditional way of setting up a master schedule does not look the same.”