Dear Editor,
Three years ago, Culver City Unified School District, (CCUSD) did away with honors programs in English at the middle school, as well as honors English in 9th and 10th grade at the high school in the name of equity. Since then many students and parents have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of rigor they are now seeing. Further, the data show a decline in academic performance as well as a decline in diversity in AP classes.
Compared to neighboring high schools, such as Santa Monica HS, Venice HS and others, Culver City HS is not competitive in terms of the number of UC validated honors courses at the high school level. And unfortunately, some parents in Culver City send their children to private schools, permit into another district, or even move in order to get what they feel will be a better education for their children after elementary school. Instead of removing honors courses, the high school should be adding honors offerings and expanding honors programs at the middle school in order to restore academic prestige to CCUSD.
At this point in time parents and community members would like the school board to revisit the matter of honors English. To demonstrate community interest in the this issue, we put together a petition asking school board to put the topic on the agenda for a future meeting. In just two weeks we gathered over 350 signatures. Our goal is at least 500 signatures. To sign the petition, the link is below.
/www.change.org/p/reinstate-honors-programs-in-ccusd
Carolyn B. Libuser
President, Save CCUSD
