All G-level courses at Hinsdale Central High School will be replaced by regular-level classes over the next few years — a move that required a lot of unpacking at the recent board meeting.
The process, according to Assistant Superintendent for Academics, Chris Covino, will likely take three years. And a confusing facet of the issue is that Hinsdale South High School no longer has G-level courses, so it’s just Central phasing out the below grade level classes, which include G-level courses in only math and science.
“One of the reasons to do this is curricular alignment throughout the district, but that’s not the driving issue, the driving issue is we want every student to be in an on-grade level class,” Covino said.
Covino explained over the phone that the current freshman class at Hinsdale Central are in a course called Algebra 1, Part 1, and some students are either in Biology or Earth Science-G.
The students who are in those courses, Covino said, will move to the next one in the G-level series and it’ll take about three years for there to be no more G-level. Each year the courses will be replaced by a different intervention, he added.
Over the past few years, the school has slowly chipped away at the G-level track. In 2019, the science department proposed an aligned curriculum proposal that included the elimination of G-level courses and in 2020, the math program proposed something similar with the addition of an aligned curriculum that established a “Quantitative Reasoning Course” to replace Algebra 1-G and ensure students are enrolled in on grade level courses by the end of their freshman year.
At the board meeting Sept. 30, schools officials said they would continue to review and evaluate “paired” intervention courses to best meet the needs of individual students with identified deficits. In other words, an on-grade level class paired with an added hour of extra-learning.
Historically, a G-level curriculum in math is designed to prepare students for the next G-level course in the sequence as opposed to a regular level course. The new-for-Hinsdale Central model, students starting out in G-level classes will be on track for regular and AP-level courses due in part to the extra hour of class time.
“The actual philosophy is that no one should be in a low-level class. Everyone should be challenged,” Covino said in response to how this may affect students who prefer a slower pace curriculum. “We are not concerned about it because those students will still receive a far more intense intervention by having another hour of math in their day until they are able to do it on their own. In the past, G-level was a constant track — you never ever left a below grade level track. Now you have an intervention for one year to backfill information you don’t have, provide confidence, give support, so by year two, you don’t need it anymore — that’s the goal.”
The board meeting included a presentation on the efficacy of G-level course in District 86 and outlined the school’s plan to create pathways for students to move ahead.
Covino added that there are a handful of parents strongly opposed to eliminating G-level courses, and who worry about their child not having enough support.
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“But the thing that alleviates that concern is when you explain that they’re going to have an extra hour with a smaller class with a certified teacher working on their skills . . . that helps a little bit,” he said. “Their secondary concern is “you’re taking away an elective period from my child,” and we just have to be honest about that — yes we are.”
At the board meeting, Hinsdale Central Principal Bill Walsh responded to those concerns, saying, “there are extracurricular activities for those types of electives that a student can do their freshman year while they are catching up, because the only reason they’re in there is because they haven’t quite mastered the material that most of their peers have at that point in time.”
Covino added, “and when you weigh, “do you want your child to know math or have an art class,” most in an honest moment will say, ‘I want my kid to be able to do math.'”