Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/20/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — East Longmeadow High School students will have three new courses to choose from in 2023-24. The School Committee approved Principal Frank Paige’s request for two social studies and a science class to be added to the course catalog for the upcoming school year.
Human Geography would become the first Advanced Placement course open to ninth grade students. According to the College Board, which regulates Advanced Placement courses, Human Geography is the study of “how humans have understood, used, and changed the surface of Earth.” The course will count toward the three social studies courses required for graduation. If preferred, ninth grade students will still be able to take World History or Honors World History.
The second new course will require a two-year implementation. Currently, students take U.S. History 1 in 10th grade, U.S. History 2 in 11th grade and a third social studies class at some point in their high school career. Paige explained that the U.S. History classes would be merged into a single full-year course that would be taken when students are sophomores. Paige said making the U.S. History class a year-long course will ensure all material is covered. In junior year, they will then take the Civics and Government class.
Paige said this change is partly because students are required to do a “complex” and involved” civic engagement project in which the choose an area of interest that “engages them as citizens.” Topics have included encouraging specific classes to be taught at the high school, the installation of sidewalks and traffic patterns at the rotary. At the end of the project, students act to move their issue forward, such as going before the School Committee or Town Council. Superintendent Gordon Smith said one student gathered information on voting and distributed it at the high school to engage students who may be eligible to vote.
The civic engagement project was a “clunky fit” in U.S. History 1 but can be easily integrated into the Civics and Government course,” Paige said. He also noted that doing the project in junior year, rather than as a sophomore, allows students to engage in the community more easily as they will be more confident, and many will have obtained a driver’s license by then.
The new science class will be Physical Science, a survey course in physics, chemistry and other inanimate sciences. Although it is open to juniors and seniors, it will be predominantly offered to sophomores as an introduction to sciences they may wish to take in later years. The class will count toward the science credits required to graduate.
Contest winner
Assistant Superintendent for Business Pamela Blair told the School Committee that Mountain View School had won ninth place in the country among elementary schools its size in a reading contest from Learning Ally, a literacy program. The school won a $100 American Express gift card, which the librarian will use to buy books for the library.