Skyline High Parents Say Class Still Too Hard

SAMMAMISH PLATEAU

About 400 people showed up at Skyline High School last night to debate a question that has rocked the Issaquah-district school for months: How hard should high school be?

They were there to hear about proposed changes to the school's controversial humanities program, a two-hour English/social-studies course that students must take for three years. The program's teachers have been criticized, mostly by parents, for giving too much homework and grading too harshly.

Several changes were unveiled last night, among them monitoring the amount of homework so that it averages 90 minutes a night, and revising low grades if they were found to have been given unfairly. For the most part, parents liked the suggestions but said they may come too late to save their children from low grade averages that damage morale and college admissions. Many walked out when officials refused to take audience questions.

When Skyline opened two years ago, Principal Judith Peterson set a goal of making it one of the country's best public high schools. But some parents complain that it is too rigorous, especially in comparison with the district's other schools.

"Why do these kids at this level have to pay the price for what they didn't learn in middle school?" a woman said to loud applause. A man demanded notes on transcripts telling college recruiters why Skyline grades were so low.

The district's secondary-education director, Simeon Greenstein, said "the degree of distrust is more than I've ever seen in a school setting."

Block classes like Skyline's are commonplace, given momentum by state education-reform standards that are attempting to get students to integrate subjects and develop analytical skills. But few schools' courses are as tough as Skyline's.

Last semester, more than half the students in nonhonors classes received C grades or worse in humanities. And one-fourth of parents surveyed said children spend more than two hours nightly on humanities homework, though students who were surveyed gave lower estimates.

Skyline is also stingier with high grades than many suburban schools. The norm is to give A's to one-fourth of students and B's to another half, according to Jay Matthews, author of the book "Class Struggle" about elite public schools.

Officials called the changes the start of a bright future for Skyline. "I think it speaks very highly of this community that so many parents are involved in their children's education," said parent John Hankerson, co-chairman of the school's site council, which helped to design the improvements.

But many parents shared the feelings of Bonnie Hess, who told Superintendent Janet Barry afterward, "It's coming too late for the kids whose dreams are going to be destroyed."

Her daughter, Brittany, made B's as a freshman at neighboring Issaquah High, but at Skyline she's taking home D's in humanities. "I want to go to college, but my GPA is only a 2.7," said Brittany, now a junior. In middle school, she was allowed to "write like I talked " - and she wound up unprepared for formal papers at Skyline.

Barry said the district can't rewrite the 1997-98 grades, but she's considering ways to replace them, such as a summer class or community-college courses.

Several parents questioned the 90-minute homework standard, which would extrapolate to 22 hours per week for all subjects. Principal Judy Peterson said other courses aren't as time consuming as humanities.

Despite the uproar, some students and parents have been pleased with the class all along. Humanities "is meant to challenge and stretch a student beyond their comfort level," said senior Brianne Belur.

An earlier, less-contentious forum Feb. 3 attracted 200 people. More fine-tuning and more meetings are likely, but not scheduled yet.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631. E-mail: mlin-new@seatimes.com.