By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

High school honors courses should be filled with the brightest minds possible. But when some teachers noticed a lack of a true representation of the district’s demographics in advanced courses, they set out to do something about it.

“The goal is to open doors to Advanced Placement courses further down the line to kids who never would have though of knocking on it,” said Eagle Ridge Junior High School Interim Principal Don Leake. “The classes are set up to give opportunities to under-represented populations in advanced course work.”

Last year District 191 was awarded a $369,850 grant from the Minnesota Department of Education to expand its pre-AP and honors courses in the district. This year, that money was put to good use.

At Eagle Ridge, there are two types of these courses, a REACH branch, which focuses on language arts, science and math courses, and SPARK, which is focuses on social studies.

SPARK courses have been in place at Eagle Ridge and were used as the model for REACH courses.

Placement in advanced or honors courses is often determined through standardized test scores. But for students in the SPARK and REACH courses, applications are submitted.

“These kids are right on the cusp of scoring, but never quite meet the threshold; so in order to give those kids more challenging work, these courses were created,” Leake said.

Joe Meyer teaches a REACH English course. “The students are under the umbrella of under-represented students – whether it’s cultural, or socioeconomic … those were the type of students targeted.”REACH students: Students in
advanced courses at Eagle Ridge
Junior High do research for an
upcoming presentation. Danielle
Anderson and Tyler Hill work on
computers.

Last year ninth-grader Nic Ehlers was in an honors block course, so he was used to the higher demands and heightened thinking levels required in the advanced classes.

“I like a challenge and this is more challenging that a regular class,” Ehlers said.

Yiyi Ye was in regular courses last year as an eighth-grader, but said she felt out of place.

“Last year in regular classes I got the ideas and concepts really quickly, so I was always waiting around for others to get it,” she said. “Now, it’s more challenging.”

Meyer said the classes offer a good opportunity for students to be surrounded by true peers. “They can be in a class with like minds and are motivated and bright; and, well, like school,” Meyer said.

Both Ehlers and Ye are in Meyer’s English REACH course. Students just finished reading “The Da Vinci Code” as a class and are preparing presentations.

Neither Ehlers nor Ye had read the book prior to enrolling in the class.

“I tried to read it before,” Ye said. “But when I came here and saw that we would be reading it, I thought it would be cool.”

For some students in the REACH course, Meyer said it was their first exposure to higher-level thinking concepts.

“Our goal is to give them this experience,” he said. “And hope they rise to the occasion and take honors courses in high school.”

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com