Save Our Challenge 101

·      The Challenge Program is a self-select honors program in which students elect to work at a faster pace and are challenged with enriched and more in-depth material.

·        The District is considering the removal of Challenge as part of the 2017 Grade Reconfiguration

·         Elementary Students 5^th grade and younger will be affected by this decision.

Why do we need the self-select Challenge program?

·         Choice:

o   Any motivated student can check the box to opt-in to one or more Challenge classes

o   Students can choose Challenge in their best subjects, Gen Ed in others

o   Any student can opt-out of Challenge and choose any or all Gen Ed classes

·         Equity:

o   Students can take Challenge classes in their home school, no need to be driven across the district

o   No testing required, no need to have parents fill out forms and transport to testing on a Saturday

o   Students make the choice to take one or more Challenge or Gen Ed classes

·         Peers:

o   Jr. High and Middle School girls often hide their abilities if not surrounded by like-minded peers

o   Students grouped with like-minded peers are more likely to be comfortable taking academic risks.

Who chooses Challenge classes?

•  Any motivated student who wants to work at a faster pace and learn more in-depth material
• Students who qualified for the district’s test-in AAP program, but choose to stay in their home school for services or are unable to find transportation to a hub or AAP school
•  Students who qualified for HiCap in only one subject area and are being served in their home school
•  Unidentified HiCap kids who either didn’t take the district’s tests or didn’t do well on the tests

My child isn’t interested in Challenge, why should I care about this issue?

·         The district’s plan of heterogeneous classrooms would use Challenge curriculum for all

·         Students who are not interested in Challenge would not be able to opt-out of it

·         Classrooms with at least 5 different levels of ability would be hard for teachers to manage and differentiate for all levels of learners.

What will the district replace Challenge classes with if they remove it?

• The district is investigating the heterogeneous classroom model with challenge curriculum for all, where students of all ability levels would be distributed throughout middle school classrooms. Teachers would be required to differentiate instruction and homework for every child in their classroom.
• To implement the heterogeneous model, the district would have to invest in the purchase of new curriculum, professional development, cross-disciplinary collaboration time, and extra help in every classroom.

I want to Save our Challenge. What can I do to help?

• Contact the School Board (sbdistrict1@nsd.org, sbdistrict2@nsd.org, sbdistrict3@nsd.org, sbdistrict4@nsd.org, sbdistrict5@nsd.org)
•  Attend school board meetings – the next meetings will be at 7pm on Oct 27^th and 4pm on Nov 10^th.
•  Sign the Save Our Challenge petition at https://www.change.org/p/northshore-school-district-save-our-challenge  or email saveourchallenge@gmail.com to get involved.