Transcript Proficiency Credit Math and Science Credit via Pathways Beloit High

PROFICIENCY CREDIT
MATH AND SCIENCE CREDIT VIA PATHWAYS
BELOIT HIGH SCHOOL
Jeff Bates, Business Teacher/CTE Coordinator
and Daryl Moore, Principal
Beloit High School needed to develop
alternative math and science classes
because our students are becoming more
diverse. Some students are taking
College Algebra, Calculus, AP Calculus,
Statistics and Chemistry, but these
classes are not for every student.
Most of our students’ exit-level
math is Algebra II or Geometry, but
this is a high level of math for some
of our students.
Their exit-level science class was
Chemistry, which was also too high
for some.
We needed a math class and a science
class that had practical applications.
These classes would not be approved by
the Kansas Board of Regents, but would
count locally as satisfying one math and
one science credit.
The classes we needed to develop would
provide students with every day science,
financial and math applications.
The staffing problem we were facing is
that we did not have a math or science
teacher that could fit this class into his or
her schedule. With the financial climate in
education, there was no money for adding
staff.
We looked to our CTE curriculum areas,
since those are the programs that often
use application rather than theory to help
struggling students better understand
academic concepts.
For the math credit, our solution was to
have the Business teacher teach a
Personal Finance class and count it as a
math class.
Ironically, the Business Dept. was
already developing a Personal Finance
class at the urging of their Advisory
Board.
For the science credit, our solution was
to have the FACS teacher teach an Intro
to Human Development course and
count it as a science credit.
For the math credit, the business teachers
researched curriculum and discovered a
new (at that time) Financial Algebra
Curriculum by Cengage Learning that met
both the needs of our students and the
KSDE requirements.
Financial Algebra, Student Edition, 1st Edition
Robert K. Gerver - North Shore High School, Long
Island, New York
Richard J. Sgroi - Bedford Central School District,
Bedford, New York (Retired)
ISBN-10: 0538449675 ISBN-13: 9780538449670
576 Pages Hardcover
©2011
For the science credit, the FACS teacher
researched curriculum and found that
other high schools were using “Human
Development” by McGraw-Hill that met
both the needs of our students and the
KSDE requirements.
Human Development 9th edition
by Thomas Crandell, James Vander Zanden
US edition Features:
Media: Hardback, printed in Color
Language: English
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
ISBN-10: 0073370428
ISBN-13: 9780073370422
©2009
*** This is a college-level text, which was all that was available at the time. It is our
teacher’s understanding that a high school-level text is being developed due to the
increased amount of interest resulting from inclusion in various pathways. ***
The KSDE website provides guidance for
developing courses such as ours for
Proficiency Credit.
It an be found at:
http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1660
There are two ways to be able to offer math or
science credit through a CTE teacher:
1. Proficiency Credit Through Collaboration ( This is
outlined in more detail on the KSDE web-site)
2. Substitution for local level graduation only.
PROFICIENCY CREDIT THROUGH
COLLABORATION REQUIREMENTS:
1. A procedure that addresses how credit
through collaboration will be awarded and
which staff members will be collaborating.
2. The teacher awarding academic credit must
be a Highly Qualified, fully certified teacher
and have time in their schedule to
collaborate.
3. Collaborating instructors work together to
determine objectives and levels of
achievement.
4. Scheduled meetings must be held through the
school year to discuss student progress.
5. Collaborating teachers must complete a course
description, syllabus, and scope and sequence.
SUBSTITUTION:
1. The class must be listed in the Parent
Student Handbook as a class that will be
substituted for a math class for the purpose
of graduation only (not to fulfill the Regent’s
math requirement).
2. The teacher of the class must be Highly
Qualified in their area and at the appropriate
grade level.
ADVANTAGES OF COLLABORATION:
1. The Math Dept. knows what is being taught
and would be a good resource for the
person teaching the class.
2. The Math Dept. would have resources
which could be made available to students
in the class.
ADVANTAGES OF COLLABORATION:
3. May be listed as a math class on the
transcript.
4. Common Core standards can be easily
incorporated.
DISADVANTAGES OF
COLLABORATION:
1. Requires a time for the teachers to
collaborate which is difficult to schedule.
2. Makes course coding more complex.
3. A Math Dept. Instructor may be held
responsible for the test scores of the
students, even though the class was taught
by someone else.
ADVANTAGES OF SUBSTITUTION:
1. The process is simple and everything is
done in house.
2. Course coding is done on the Career and
Technical Education level.
DISADVANTAGES OF SUBSTITUTION:
1. You may be tied to a canned curriculum
unless you supplement with other resources.
2. Your curriculum is not directly linked with the
math dept., so you may be a separate piece of
the puzzle and not a part of the typical math
sequencing if efforts aren’t made to
collaborate.
ADVANTAGES OF AWARDING
PROFICIENCY CREDIT:
1. Greater flexibility of staff and schedule.
2. Courses that can be tailored to specific
students needs after high school.
3. Easily done from a policy and process stand
point.
ADVANTAGES OF AWARDING
PROFICIENCY CREDIT (CONT.):
4. Great number of curriculum options and
materials.
5. Opportunity to link to Career
Clusters/Pathways, and generate
additional CTE weighted Funding.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. The courses are not approved as part of
the Regent’s curriculum…..but that is often
not an issue for the students served by these
classes anyway.
LINKING WITH CAREER CLUSTERS
We aligned the Personal Finance class
with competencies found in the FAMILY
& COMMUNITY SERVICES PATHWAY.
“Consumer & Personal Finance B”
Technical level class #22220 1 credit
LINKING WITH CAREER CLUSTERS
We aligned the Human Growth and
Development class with competencies found in
the FAMILY & COMMUNITY SERVICES
PATHWAY, as well as the
TEACHING/TRAINING PATHWAY.
“Human Growth and Development B”
Technical level class #45014 1 credit
IT’S A SIMPLE PROCESS THAT HAS HELPED
MAKE OUR STUDENTS MORE SUCCESSFUL.
• Contact us for more information:
Jeff Bates
Business Teacher/CTE Coordinator
[email protected]
Daryl Moore
Principal
[email protected]
Beloit Junior-Senior High School
1711 N. Walnut
Beloit, KS 67420
785-738-3593