Bad idea to insult parents' intelligence; talk reality, not policy

There's one truth about parents. They tend to focus on their own kids to the exclusion of almost anything else. That's why I've always thought it unwise for schools to spout policy too often to parents.

For example, a letter from Community School District 300 in response to a parent's Freedom of Information Request regarding Advanced Placement courses says one thing. Definitively.

"Per the 2008 D300 Course Selection Guide, all D300 students are offered the same courses."

But, of course, parents know policy is affected by realities like demand, funding, qualified teachers and commitment. And despite the certitude in the letter, District 300 Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Tom Hay knows it, too.

"Offering a course and actually running a course are two distinct things," he said.

Districts generally offer courses, but drop them when demand isn't high enough to justify them. The question then becomes whether a district is willing to run the classes with smaller class sizes, whether it has teachers available to teach them and whether it has the financial wherewithal to address either of the first two without drawing fire from other parents demanding other things. Talk about those things, don't spout policy.

Despite the letter, there's obvious disparity in the AP course offerings at the district's three high schools.

The district's Infinite Campus shows Jacobs High offers AP physics, a number of AP arts classes and 14 different AP seminars while Dundee-Crown High has no AP physics, no AP arts and has only seven AP seminars. Hampshire High has no AP physics, American government, environmental science or chemistry and has but one AP seminar. DCHS and Jacobs both offer AP American government, environmental science and chemistry classes. All offer AP English and history classes, among others.

The issue of AP accessibility is heating up with some parents in District 300 because the district is redoing its boundaries in anticipation of a new Hampshire High School. Hampshire has traditionally had fewer AP classes because it has started with a smaller student pool, about a quarter of the enrollment of Jacobs and DCHS. And DCHS has a much higher minority and low-income population than either Jacobs and Hampshire. Many of those students are not prepared to succeed in college level courses and therefore demand is lower.

Hay says the opening of the new Hampshire High will increase its student population enough that problems of scale should improve AP course availability. He also said a better financial picture makes it more possible to run a course with a smaller enrollment than the district could have considered before. And after a year-long "vetting" of the AVID program designed to help more minority, low-income and first generation-to-college students be ready for AP course work, the district is about ready to implement it. Beyond that, the district has made improving AP selections and college readiness a focus in recent years.

None of that, of course, will matter to a parent whose kid still can't get AP physics or AP chemistry next year at the school to which they're assigned.

That's why it might be wise if the district stopped spouting policy that doesn't reflect reality in its letters and spend a little more time explaining the very real efforts it is making to turn policy to reality. Far more productive than insulting the intelligence of parents who know which classes actually exist and which don't.