Dear Parents and Guardians,
At Edsel Ford, our mission is “to educate all students to high academic standards.” Over the past few years, we have made several instructional shifts in order to better align with that mission, including the use of common formative assessments and scoring rubrics based upon essential standards. One new shift is the mode by which students may obtain an Honors designation for the second semester of the 9th grade course (LA2). This opportunity will better prepare them for the 10th grade Honors course as well as the AP courses offered in 11th and 12th grade.
Our data over time indicated that many more students reached and exceeded proficiency in core content areas than were placed initially into Honors Level courses. Those students not placed in Honors historically chose not to challenge themselves with rigorous coursework, Advanced Placement, and Dual Enrollment once they reached the upper grade levels.
As a building, we believe that we should have the highest expectation for student achievement for all of our students. Altering the way in which we provide Honors rigor in 9th grade allows us to continue supporting those who previously succeeded while guaranteeing access to a rich curriculum and fostering confidence in those previously excluded. Therefore, students in Freshman Language Arts 2 have the opportunity to earn an Honors designation on their transcript after demonstrating mastery of a majority of the content standards for their grade level by the end of the semester as well as completing a Capstone Project devised by the 9th grade instructors. Mastery is demonstrated at the end of each semester by consistently earning a rubric score of level 4 (mastery) rating on class assessments. These standard-based rubrics were shared with students at the start of the course and are used throughout each semester to offer feedback and coaching for growth.
In addition to demonstrating mastery of the course’s content, students must demonstrate consistent academic integrity to earn an Honors designation. Therefore, any incident of plagiarism will disqualify a student from earning an “H” on his or her transcript for the course during the given semester.
We appreciate your support as we work to achieve high levels of success for each of our students.
Sincerely,
Edsel Ford Administration