Acknowledgements Regarding Course Placement Change Requests
STUDENTS LOOKING TO REQUEST PLACEMENT CHANGE(S) TO ACCELERATE THEIR STUDIES
If a student (with parent approval) decides that they wish to enroll in a class against the placement recommendation of the school’s data review team and accelerate their studies by taking an advanced, accelerated or honors course in which they have not been placed, it is important that the student, as well as their parent(s)/guardian(s), acknowledge their understanding and acceptance of the following:
- As a result of the student’s past academic performance in related classes, or lack of attainment of benchmark scores on standardized assessments, it is recognized that the student may not have the complete skill and/or knowledge base to experience immediate success in the course they are requesting to move to.
- The student may have to undertake efforts independently outside of class to in order to be successful. This may or may not include seeking after school help, working with a tutor, engaging online resources to develop their skills, or pursuing other means to obtain support in order to master course content material.
- The student’s letter grade may be impacted as they work towards content mastery over the course of the semester. Students embarking upon new, and in most cases more complex content material, may indeed struggle and finish the semester with a letter grade for the course lower than what they may have been accustomed to/earned in the past.
STUDENTS LOOKING TO REQUEST PLACEMENT CHANGE(S) TO DECELERATE THEIR STUDIES
If a student (with parent approval) decides that they wish to enroll in a class against the placement recommendation of the school’s data review team and decelerate their studies by opting out of an advanced, honors or accelerated course, it is important that the student, as well as their parent(s)/guardian(s), acknowledge their understanding and acceptance of the following:
- Students who elect to decelerate their studies, despite the fact that their past academic history and standardized test scores indicate that they appear prepared for accelerated coursework, may end up not being able to take future advanced courses in a particular department as a result of the sequencing of classes in that department. For example, a student who chooses to decelerate their studies in mathematics may not have the opportunity to pursue Advanced Placement courses in math during their junior and/or senior year.
- In addition, students that choose to decelerate their studies will likely not cover the same course content in terms of complexity or volume that they otherwise would have had they remained in an accelerated course. As a result, the student may very well need to seek out additional resources to be as prepared for standardized college entrance assessments, such as the SAT, as they otherwise would have had they remained in the accelerated course into which they were placed.